Landmark to get landmark term behind bars

Today is the fifteenth anniversary of one of the most heinous events in recent history, which happened when three white supremacists murdered African American James Byrd, Jr., by chaining him behind a pickup truck and dragging him along an asphalt road in Jasper, Texas. One of the three bellends responsible, Lawrence Russell Brewer, was executed by lethal injection for this crime by the state of Texas on September 21, 2011. The other two are still alive at time of writing: John William King remains on Texas' death row while appeals are pending, while Shawn Allan Berry was sentenced to life imprisonment. But now that that ugly piece of business is out of the way, a young man who helped his friend spray-paint swastikas and other offensive statements on Jewish graves at a central Auckland cemetery has been told he is "staring down a sentence of imprisonment". 20-year-old Christian Landmark, originally from the UK, spent last night in custody and will stay there until he is sentenced later this month. It serves him right. This insensitive and unethical behaviour should not be tolerated. There are better things people could be doing with their lives than desecrating a Jewish cemetery.