The sad story of Andrew Mears

New Zealand has managed to raise a generation of young people who do not understand that their actions have consequences and live in a strange self centred universe where they cannot conceive their actions might affect another person.  When finally something goes catastrophically wrong, they are shocked.


Andrew Mears is understandably distraught to have killled a human being. But he was night hunting in blatant defiance of the terms of his hunting permit.  He is devastated at the the fact he has killed someone.  But here is the thing, he is lucky to only have a manslaughter charge against him.  He is a murderer.  He was trying to kill something, he just had no idea what that thing was.  If he was luckier it would have been a deer, he wasn't.  Neither was Rosemary Ives.  He intended to kill something, he just wasn't aware that that thing was Rosemary Ives.

There is little doubt that Mears only reflects the tip of the iceberg of males in NZ who drive, hunt and drink with no concern for the safety of those around them.  They never intend for anyone to get hurt and when it does happen, they act like they are the victims of a terrible mistake.  But not intending that no one gets hurt is not enough, as Mears has so graphically demonstrated.