News

A second-year Otago student has been sentenced to 150 hours of community service following his arrest for endangering public safety on Friday 29 March. The student spoke with Critic directly and has asked to remain anonymous.

At about 1am, a “huge fire with about 100 people around it” was already blazing at a flat party on Clyde Street. Police walked in just in time to catch the convicted student throwing a new piece of wood on the fire.

“This chick cop just zoned in on me, grabbed me, and threw me in the back of the paddy wagon,” the 21-year-old explained. “I was probably getting pretty lippy. I was quite steamed.”

The police report said that “the fire was licking the bottom of a flat” and “paint was getting cracked and bubbled.” Duty solicitor Jim Large told the student, who admitted literally adding fuel to the fire, that the judge would make an example of him as part of the recent zero-tolerance approach to couch-burning.

“The judge really ripped me to shreds. One piece of wood doesn’t constitute putting a gun to someone’s head.” Critic speculates the charge might have been slightly more significant if guns were involved.

The student has six months to complete his first 100 hours of community service, but will try to get his op shop volunteering finished within a couple of months by working whenever he can. He concluded, “It was a bit of a rough charge to say I was endangering lives, but working in an op shop is pretty chill. It should be better than picking up rubbish. It’s the criminal record that’ll cost me.”