Gang slang in court lands woman in jail

A woman has been jailed for a month for contempt of court after she yelled an offensive gang slogan from the back of a Whangarei courtroom.
Hune Tapu Taituha Herbert, aged 21, from Whangarei, was in the back of courtroom three at the courthouse on Thursday afternoon to support a friend who was appearing on a minor charge.
As the woman was led away from the dock, Herbert stood up, raised her hands in the air and yelled the gang obscenity.
Judge John McDonald ordered police to arrest Herbert and place her in the court cells for a while.
When Herbert was brought back to the courtroom about two hours later and placed in the dock, lawyer Mellissa Russell told Judge McDonald that Herbert had been "giving a message of support to her friend".
Mrs Russell said Herbert apologised for her actions.
But Judge McDonald said the words Herbert yelled were a gang slogan and would not be tolerated in court.
The judge said there were a number of people in the public gallery when Herbert yelled the obscenity. There were also others who were entitled to be in the court, such as lawyers, police and probation staff.
"I consider your conduct to be contempt of this court as outlined in section 206 of the Summary Proceedings Act 1957 in that you wilfully interrupted the proceedings of the court or otherwise misbehaved in court," Judge McDonald said. "Your apology to me through Mrs Russell, who has done all she can on your behalf, is at best lukewarm.
"You cannot understand - and do not seem to understand - that this is a court of law."
The judge said things done in the court were supposed to be done in a civilised and measured manner and it was not a place where people could act in the way Herbert did.
"I consider that your contempt has not been purged. That your outburst and the saying of a gang-related phrase ... is totally unacceptable.
"It was directed in part at me, but that is not what I have to deal with today," Judge McDonald said.
"What it did was disrupt the court. It disrupted people who were here legitimately.
"The power of contempt is to be used effectively to protect the rights of the public to ensure that the administration of justice is not obstructed or prevented.
"Without such power and without finding such people as you, who acted in the way you did in contempt, there would be chaos and anarchy in our court.
"I therefore find, you having committed contempt of my court, that the only way of dealing with it, given the seriousness of it, is to sentence you to one month's imprisonment, which I do."
The jailing comes after rising gang tensions in Whangarei spilled over in the court two weeks ago when members of rival gangs squared off against each other. On that occasion Judge Duncan Harvey cleared the court and a large number of police rushed in to defuse the situation. Nobody was arrested then - but it would appear that Whangarei's judges have had enough of such disrespect in their courts.