No sympathy for dead teen tagger

A 50-year-old man charged with the murder of a teenage tagger in Manukau should be allowed to "get away with it", Christchurch City councillor Barry Corbett says.

Bruce William Emery has been charged over the fatal stabbing of 15-year-old Pihema Clifford Cameron in Manurewa on Saturday night. The stabbing allegedly happened during an argument that began when Pihema was about to tag a fence.

"If I was on the jury, I would let him get away with it, but that is just me," Corbett said.

The comments have been criticised by city youth workers.

Corbett made the comments during a council debate over whether to introduce bylaws to tackle graffiti, vandalism and substance abuse.

After the meeting, he said he did not know the full facts of the case, but he stood by his remarks.

"Everyone is feeling sorry for the kid and his family, but if the kid was not tagging, he would still be alive."

Project Legit manager Miriama McDonald said the comments were "silly and emotional".

Project Legit deals with problem taggers by educating them about street art and is funded by the council.

"Comments like that are extremely inflammatory, just hype the matter up, and are about one or two steps away from a lynch mob," McDonald said.

"Is that what we want? I do not think it is very responsible at all. It is disappointing, especially from a councillor."

Youth and cultural development manager Anni Watkin said the comments were concerning.

"My opinion is that under those circumstances no-one has the right to take someone else's life. It is easy to make a statement, as Barry did, without thinking it through.

"I would be really concerned if someone got off a murder charge because someone tagged property."

During the council debate on a review of the public places bylaw, Cr Bob Shearing said new measures to deal with anti-social behaviour, such as tagging, littering and vandalism, were needed.

Council staff said such behaviour was already covered by the Summary Offences Act, which was enforced by police.

There was no record of prosecutions by the council for graffiti and vandalism offences. Enforcing substance-abuse rules would "put council staff in danger", they said.

Shearing was adamant new bylaws were required.

"We need to send some kind of message on graffiti. In the current climate, for us to be recorded saying we are dropping graffiti from our bylaw, I just cannot see how we can take it out. I am going to fight like hell to keep it there," he said.

A decision was deferred until next month to give staff the opportunity to place more emphasis on graffiti without duplicating current laws.

 

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