Two news articles that both managed to carefully avoided the use of the ‘L’ word appeared in The Press and the NZ Herald today, both of them using the term ‘crime spree’.

11 days after the 7.1 quake that destroyed large areas of private housing and it looks like reports of looting are still being controlled in Canterbury; evidence of growing restictions on press reporting of both crime and large scale disasters in New Zealand

This time looting is being referred to as a ‘Crime Spree,’ an ill conceived use of words which suggests an element of joy in the ransacking of quake victims’ homes:

“Seven teenagers have been arrested after embarking on a crime spree through the quake-damaged region of North Canterbury.

Early this morning Rangiora police and NZ Army staff arrested seven young offenders who were breaching a cordon in the Kaiapoi suburb of Courtney Downs.

Courtney Downs is an area that has been severely affected by the Canterbury earthquake and many houses are currently unoccupied…

Police and army personnel spotted the group within the cordon at Kaiapoi at around 2am.

The group ran through numerous deserted properties trying to elude police and army. Six of the group were caught. ” Read the whole article here

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