I don't want to buy Ian Wishart's book about the Kahui twins.
A book claiming to have all the answers on a crime that our justice system couldn't hold anyone to account for makes me slightly queasy.
But I won't be joining a boycott, either.
I don't mind if my local bookseller stocks
it and I won't feel offended if I see it at the library.
The book is not illegal and is not, as far as I'm aware, so genuinely offensive that the community needs to be protected from it.
Macsyna King, the twins' mother, who was interviewed for the book, is reportedly not going to profit from it and, even if she was, it's worth noting that she has not been convicted or even charged of a crime in relation to the deaths.
Despite all that, boycotting this book is suddenly a fashionable thing to do - forcing booksellers to promise they won't stock it or risk the wrath of an angry Facebook mob.
Facebook and Twitter make it easy to build momentum behind a campaign like this.
It's easy to share your opinion, find others who agree with you, and then spread the word to everyone you, and they, know. Getting numbers to back up your popular groundswell is as easy as clicking "like" on a Facebook page.
I wonder if the almost 50,000 people who've joined the "Boycott the Macsyna King book" page would have signed up if it were more difficult than that? If they had to actually picket outside a bookstore? Or doorknock their neighbours with a petition?
I don't doubt that there's real and justifiable anger among the boycotters - and the community in general - at what happened to 3-month-old Chris and Cru Kahui, and that no one has been held accountable.
I just think the book is the wrong thing to be angry at.
Getting rid of it won't change what happened, it won't help bring anyone to account. And it won't do anything to help the families where kids are still at risk today.
