SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Odd Future – LA rap group banned by Immigration NZ, deemed ‘a threat’ to NZ

by Leave a Comment

The Los Angeles – based rap group Odd Future has been refused entry to New Zealand because it is “a potential threat to public order and the public interest”.

“Odd Future has been deemed to be a potential threat to public order and the public interest for several reasons, including incidents at past performances in which they have incited violence,” Immigration NZ said today.

A TV One News Report tonight states that the Human Rights Commissioner has backed the decision to ban the group (referred to in a Wikipedia entry as an “American hip hop collective”).

Stop Demand Foundation, a registered New Zealand charity, which is a lobby group against sexual violence, has been trying for some time to get Odd Future banned from this weekend’s Rapture 2014 hip-hop festival at Western Springs Stadium in Auckland, at which Eminem will be the main act, because of the group’s “rape and murder fantasy lyrics”.

The Stop Demand charity-lobby group (Reg. No. CC30599 – registered on 20/06/08), which has been putting pressure on [lobbying] Auckland Council, which owns Western Springs, urged [lobbied] it to consider its ethical, moral and social responsibilities in relation to the rap group and allegations that it incites sexual violence through its lyrics. The charity-lobby group members will be delighted that the Immigration NZ has banned all the group’s members from travelling to New Zealand, even though they were scheduled to appear at the forthcoming concert at Western Springs. [Read more…]

Registered charities & “political advocacy” – protests to highlight porn & sexual violence link

by Leave a Comment

“Demonstrators have marched down Queen Street [Auckland] in front of the controversial Boobs on Bikes parade in an effort to raise awareness of the links between pornography and violence against women and children,” reported The NZ Herald on 20 August 2008.

“Around 60 protesters carried a banner saying “Pornography fuels sexual violence against women and children” as well as signs bearing slogans such as “porn fuels rape“….”

The Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc. (SPCS) which played no part in the protest, only learnt after the event, via the media, that two charities registered with the Charities Commission – The Auckland Women’s Centre Inc. and Stop Demand Foundation – had organised the demonstration against the Boobs on Bikes event. Both charities had applied for and received a permit from the Auckland City Council for their protest march. Both had been registered as charities with the approval of Mr Trevor Garrett and the Charities Commission Registration Team, on 30 June 2008, two months prior to taking to the streets to target the porn promotion parade and its organiser. A third charity Family First New Zealand (Reg. No. CC10094), registered as a charity on 21 March 2007, issued media releases attacking the porn promotion activities of the Boobs on Bikes Parade promoter. [Read more…]

Registered charity challenges Court of Appeal’s child porn ruling

by Leave a Comment

Stop Demand Foundation, a registered charity (CC 30599) with the Charities Commission, has attacked a Court of Appeal decision granting name suppression to a 50-year old Manawatu man found guilty of possessing images of child rape. The charity’s founder, Denise Ritchie, who was interviewed on TV One’s Breakfast programme about the matter this morning, says the Court’s decision is a blow to child rape victims in New Zealand and to lobby groups like hers around the world fighting sexual violence against children.

The Manawatu man, who admitted 21 charges of possessing objectionable material, was sentenced to six months home detention and fined $5250 at the end of last year.

In a decision only made public yesterday, the Court of Appeal ruled that his name should be kept completely secret to protect his family members.

Ms Ritchie, who has read and studied the decision, pointed out on TV One’s Breakfast programme that the convicted man has not lived with or had close association with any of the “family members” whose reputations and privacy the Court of Appeal Judges have sought to protect. She argues that granting name suppression to the offender merely to protect the reputation of these people sets a dangerous precedent. [Read more…]

What’s behind Boobs on Bikes? By political activist John Minto

by Leave a Comment

Article from the Stuff News Archive (2009): Political activist John Minto wrote ……..

Boobs on Bikes

John Minto: 2014 Candidate -Mana Party

[Photo Source: http://yournz.org/tag/john-minto/]

Most people seem to think the Boobs on Bikes parade is tasteless and tacky but nothing to get steamed up about. Just harmless fun and a bit of titillation to warm up a cold winter perhaps.

Certainly we have plenty of people hung up about sex and nudity but the protest at the parade was not a bunch of prudes averting their eyes at the sight of silicon-implanted breasts. Instead it was a warning cry about the deep damage being done by the hard-core porn industry with Boobs on Bikes organiser Steve Crow at the heart of the problem.

[Note: The next Boobs on Bikes event has been announced as scheduled for 7 October 2015, – rescheduled says Crow – from August 2014, “To coincide with the shift in dates for the Erotica Lifestyles Expo“].

I’ve seen material pictured and quoted from some of Steve Crow’s publications which is quite depraved. For example men speaking about women in a way no reasonable people would speak about their neighbour’s dog.

Denise Ritchie of the [registered charity CC30599] group Stop Demand [Foundation] (the demand side of the sex-for-sale industry) points out that sex-related crimes against women and children do not take place in a vacuum but rather are underpinned by the hard-core porn industry. This is where for example videos of simulated rape, incest and all manner of sexual violation against women and children are produced and sold commercially.

I don’t have to buy his filth if I don’t want to but if Crow’s activities are making our community a less safe place for me and my family, and other women and children in particular then I have a right and a duty to object.

This is serious money. So is there a connection between Steve Crow’s promotion of hard-core porn and sexual violence against women? I have no doubt there is a strong, direct link. There can be no doubt that the abusive behaviour of some people is stimulated by this Crow-type pornography.

Denise Ritchie points out that two months ago a 60 year old Wanganui man was convicted for performing sexual acts on his severely handicapped wife after watching a pornographic video with two other men, one of whom he invited to “join in”. It would be only the deliberately naïve who refuse to see a connection in this case and more widely. I have no doubt that the glorification of rape on a pornographic video will reduce the seriousness of such behaviour in the minds of enough men so as to increase the risk to women generally.

To quote Ritchie once more, “our Chief Censor [Mr Bill Hastings at that time], our pornography investigators and global research are unanimous in reporting that hard core pornography, which makes up the bulk of Steve Crow’s commercial interests and profits, is increasingly cruel, misogynistic and degrading of women.” We should all be very concerned at the messages this material is sending to men.

Forget about the boobs on bikes. These are the entertaining sideshow to a porn industry which is making the country less safe for all of us.

Stephen Peter Crow promoting Erotica                             Lifestyles Expo

Steve Crow: ‘Long-standing identification’ with Boobs on Bikes parade. (Photo: Stuff News 27/04/11)

According to Stop Demand, a 2006 Treasury report estimated that sexual violence in 2003/2004 cost the New Zealand economy no less than $1.2 billion. $827 million of this is the loss of quality of life for victims, across an estimated 16,500 sex offences.

Source: What’s behind Boobs on Bikes by John Minto. Published 09/03/2009

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/blogs/frontline/1880536/What-s-behind-Boobs-on-Bikes

Note 1: Stop Demand Foundation is a registered charity (CC30599) that was registered with the Charities Commission on 30/06/2008. Its website is www.stopdemand.org  A message to men on its website states:

“Sexual violence, exploitation and denigration of women and children is overwhelmingly a men’s issue. We need men’s proactive support to stop it.”

To find out about the governance of Stop Demand go to: http://www.stopdemand.org/wawcs0153449/WHO-WE-ARE.html

Note 2: Stephen (Steve) Peter Crow has 33 criminal convictions for distributing objectionable material. Source: Sunday-Star Times 26 October 2003.

See: The People Vs. Steve Crow,” by John Landrigan, North & South (Issue 207, June, pages 82-90). “Besides the porn baby [controversy], collectively he, his ex-business partner Fiona Gibb and Vixen Direct [Ltd] faced 135 criminal charges last year. Crow pleaded guilty to 33 of the lesser charges – for the distribution of objectionable material … he still faces seven regulatory infringements to a law he does not agree with.”

Note: 3

Mr Crow had criminal convictions for distributing objectionable material and the inquiry was treated as an employment issue.

Police are told not to associate with people with a criminal history.

See full article: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10392287