THE GROWING CHORUS calling for Poto Williams to be sacked as Police Minister bespeaks a fundamental misreading of her performance. We are so used to bumptious males like Stuart Nash and Mark Mitchell holding (or seeking) this portfolio, that we read Williams’ “softly, softly” approach as a sure-fire indication of failure. But, since when did inflated male chests, bombastic claims and political humbug ever bring about anything more useful than inflated poll-ratings? Since we have seen this noisy “Laura Norder” pantomime repeated over and over again, we can say with some confidence that it makes next to no impact on crime.
My impression of Williams is that she has spent the last 18 months searching desperately through all the available research/data for something that just might help her make a real difference. But, seeking to base government policy on something more substantial than rabid right-wing reckons is the very last thing an ambitious Police Minister should be doing. The tried and true methodology is to get the voters’ blood up with rhetoric red in tooth and claw. Then, while you’re doing that, task your officials with finding out what rabid right-wing police ministers overseas have settled upon as their solution to rising crime – and steal it.
Chances are that the real-world effects of these “solutions” will be pretty close to zero. But, since the research/data only proves their ineffectuality after a two-to-five year time-lag, this is of no political consequence. The voters have already watched the launch of the Government’s getting tough on crime initiatives on the six o’clock news, dutifully bumped the ruling party’s poll-ratings up a couple of percentage points, and then forgotten all about it – until the next crime wave. In response to which the entire pantomime will be re-staged. Same script, different actors.
What most people simply don’t understand is how sophisticated criminal offending has become. They see the burly gang members, decked out in their patches, sitting astride their deafening motorcycles, cruising six abreast down the motorway as frightened civilians scramble to get out of their way, and they think these guys are the problem. Fact is, these guys represent little more than the misdirection of the criminal magicians no one ever gets to see. While rival gangs are shooting up each other’s neighbourhoods, draining-off Police resources and thoroughly terrifying the public, core criminal business continues to be conducted largely unmolested.
The Guardian of 7 June reports the existence, in Australia, of “thousands” of members of the Italian Mafia, or, more specifically, the ‘Ndrangheta of Calabria. (That’s the “toe” of the boot-shaped Italian peninsula.) Hiding in plain sight in ordinary suburban communities, looking like any other Aussie, upwards of 5,000 of these criminals have been quietly plying their illegal trade for decades. According to the Australian Associated Press: “The Calabrian mafia work with other organised crime groups including bikie gangs and Asian or Middle Eastern crime groups to cooperate on drug importation, money laundering and violence.”
“It’s entirely possible that people will be living next door to members of the ‘Ndrangheta without knowing,” the Assistant Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, Nigel Ryan, informed the media. “They’ve been able to stay under the radar while living modest lives in modest homes. They funnelled the illegitimate wealth into their legitimate construction, agricultural and catering businesses. In many ways, I would say that the ‘Ndrangheta are actually the ones pulling the strings of other organised crime groups, particularly the more violent groups, such as outlaw motorcycle gangs.”
As The Daily Blog’s Editor, Martyn Bradbury, has been telling his readers for many years, Australia’s harsh immigration regime is sending hundreds of New Zealand-born members or associates of these same violent outlaw motorcycle gangs across the Tasman as deportees. These “501s” have fundamentally changed the way New Zealand gangs do business, introducing a level of violence that had not hitherto been a feature of indigenous gang culture. It would be naïve in the extreme to assume that at least some of the ‘Ndrangheta’s string-pullers had not crossed the Tasman with them.
The Aussies run our largest banks, so why not our largest criminal enterprises? (If you’ll pardon the tautology!)
The same Guardian article also makes reference to the extraordinary law enforcement coup that saw organised criminals around the world avail themselves of a supposedly unbreakable encryption app called “ANoM”. Little did the crooks know that their every text, every e-mail, every JPEG was being copied to the international law-enforcement inventors of ANoM.
“Officers gathered intelligence from the ANoM app to understand how transnational serious organised crime syndicates – including the ‘Ndrangheta – operate and communicate.”
Just how serious is the ‘Ndrangheta? According to Assistant Commissioner Ryan, Calabria’s organised criminals are “responsible for 70 to 80% of the world’s cocaine and they are flooding Australia with illicit drugs ….. They are pulling the strings of Australian outlaw motorcycle gangs who are behind some of the most significant violence in our communities.”
Ultimately, it is the sort of intelligence gathering exemplified by ANoM that will provide the Police with the information they need to push back against the criminal organisations already well-ensconced in New Zealand. If New Zealand’s Police Commissioner, Andrew Coster, is not working closely with Police Minister Poto Williams on this method of bringing not only the local gangs, but also, their Calabrian, Columbian, Mexican, Chinese and Australian string-pullers into New Zealand courtrooms, then he bloody well should be! Undercover operatives and state-of-the-art electronic surveillance have been critical to the apprehension of organised criminals since the 1980s. “Eyes of Mordor” they might have been, but they brought down the Five Families.
Christopher Luxon and Mark Mitchell would do well to ponder the possibility that the recent spate of drive-by shootings may actually be intended to divert Police resources away from the string-pullers. In calling for Poto Williams’ head, they may be doing the very thing that would most assist the real criminal masterminds. If this is the case, then a sudden reduction in drive-by shootings will not be a sign of Police success, but proof that the wise-guys are once again conducting their criminal enterprises in the preferred manner.
Quietly, without being noticed.
Since when did inflated male chests, bombastic claims and political humbug ever bring about anything more useful than inflated poll-ratings? Takes me right back to Muldoon and Rowling.
Muldoon actually did something to deal with gang violence though.
The violence you are talking about was at many levels lower and more reactive/personal than what is happening now.. Muldoons approach was to actually have an honest dialogue with the gang leaders, which was all they ever wanted.. When you have career criminals making huge amounts of money, an “honest ” dialogue would be a farce… Do you honestly believe any of the Gambino family would have given up their almost total control of the construction industry in New York after being “reached out to” via a few “heart to hearts” with the mayor, or even the President?
Yes, exactly. Muldoon’s approach to gangs- like heavy industry- was spot on. We don’t have leaders of that calibre today sadly.
I agree. What an insightful article.
Far from having “spent the last 18 months searching desperately through all the available research/data for something that just might help her make a real difference” Poto and co have, until very recently been in complete denial about the issue. Perhaps she says one thing and does another, I think she is clueless and cowardly and out of her depth. One initiative – the Bill from Nicol McKee that would have allowed Police to freeze and seize assets from gangs upon finding an illegally held firearm at a raid; was rejected by the government.
No doubt the drug kingpins need to be taken down, there has been some recent success in that area. Probably the best that could be hoped for is a reduction in the supply of drugs hitting the streets – with the unintended increase in price and therefore motivation that would result and a probable rise in alternative sources of criminal revenue. Perhaps tobacco smuggling, theft and burglaries would rise.
The inter-gang warfare issue is complicated. I heard one, so called, academic blaming it all on colonisation; clearly choosing to fail to mention the pre colonisation intertribal (gang?) warfare that left tens of thousands dead or enslaved. More killed than all the Kiwis that lost their lives in both world wars according to historians. As usual from our activist academics; plenty to say, none of it honest or of any use.
Bit loose with the truth or just not conversant with reality and existing legislation. Also noted that you have no time for academic research. Far better to follow the lead of prejudicial hard-line reactionaries with their half-baked assumptions eh?
As an observation, historians are generally academics so do they fit in with your assessment, “plenty to say, none of it honest or of any use.”
Yes aom, when I hear activist academics I reach for my gun – metaphorically speaking.
The genuine academic is engaged in a search for the truth, once an ideology is taken on board that search has ended. There’s plenty of that going on unfortunately.
So you are not an academic and sure as hell not engaged in seeking truth. You obviously hold to an ideology that arguably has been unsuccessful since there has never been a dramatic fall in crime statistics under hard line policies. Yeah – we could go down the US route. Oh – that is really rooted.
“Plenty to say, none of it honest or of any use”……yep sounds like the 1ZB crowd to me. Stupid chest beaters that don’t base their rhetoric on anything to do with facts or statistics. What on earth makes anyone think National will be better with crime? Nothing to do with evidence. It would be great if their reduced funding actually equated to better policing, but there is nothing to suggest that it did. That’s reduced funding while knowing that in all likelihood hoards of potential criminals were on their way from Australia. Yes somehow it will be much better with Alopecia Jesus at the helm.
Obviously there are two things at play and always has been. Overt organised crime and covert. But Australia is a much more profitable country to do evil deeds in, especially with its corruptible police. Hence covert crime flourishes there.
The overt one is dangerous and is concerning for the public who will buy a stray round or 10 one of these days. It’s the shop front for coverts intimidation.
Yes, Nationals typical budget slashing during the Key government really put the dampers on law enforcement in this country but kind of balanced it with filling jails. Neither are a good idea but the rot set in there. But the Ardern governments well meaning, mushy left liberal kindnesses both in key appointments to law enforcement and deeds to crime approach is proving dangerous for ordinary people, and ironically it encourages more of it.
Kindness and crime reduction are incompatible, especially when you ignore the festering sore of housing problems in this country. Like so many things this government do, they cancel one and other out.
There needs to be a substantial lift in police numbers, not management, but actual cops doing the job as well as Customs, Courts, immigration and IRD to counter this scourge. And on the other side serious work to counter the negative effects of capitalism that none of those government departments can do.
Poto is a hopeless police minister but its her PM who put her there and must take the blame. Poto’s softly softly approach has mothing to do with strategies because its evident she has no strategic grip on her portfolio. Its all about inventing responses on a daily basis that do nothing. And I think we all know Labour are hopelessly out of their depth on these issues.
This governments report card on law and order is going to be a sizeable contributing factor to its demise!
Thank you for bringing some common sense and sanity to this issue.
Yes, Poto Williams isn’t the most persuasive performer at QT but the Mumbling Mark Mitchell, who seems to have a permanent slot down the list at around No 10 in QT (I wonder why?) to ask, yet again, ‘does the minister agree that gang tensions are rising?’, offers only hollow rhetoric in any of his speeches.
Yesterday, for example, his straw men arguments ended with the slogan ‘soft on crime’, pointing the finger at the government. Pathetic.
National, and to a much lesser degree, previous Labour, governments, gave numerous illegal ‘business’ opportunities for gangs with their very inadequate or non-existent social policy – especially child welfare policies – going back decades.
Williams may just match Mumbling Mitchell in the verbal dexterity stakes, but she’s way ahead of him politically, as Chris’s article suggests.
“the slogan ‘soft on crime’, pointing the finger at the government. Pathetic.”
Really Verity? Perhaps you’d like to enlighten us with a list of “tough on crime” moves.
Here is a list of anti crime bills rejected by the government (compiled by David Farrar);
Sep 2018 – voted down bill to allow Police to issue firearms prohibition orders against gang members with a history of firearms or violent offending
Oct 2018 – voted down bill to allow for random testing of drivers for drug impairment
May 2019 – voted down bill to increase maximum penalty for selling or supplying unapproved psychoactive substances from two to 14 years
June 2020 – voted down bill allowing maximum penalty of 20 years for “coward punches” causing death
Mar 2021 – voted down a bill requiring a school to be notified if a registered sex offender lives within 5 kms of the school
Apr 2021 – voted not to proceed with a bill that increases the maximum penalty for assaults on first responders or prison officers to 10 years
April 2021 – voted down a bill imposing a maximum penalty of five years for killing a police dog
June 2021 – voted down a bill that clarified carjacking is robbery
Oct 2021 – again voted down bill to allow Police to issue firearms prohibition orders against gang members with a history of firearms or violent offending
Apr 2022 – voted down a bill to ban the Government funding gangs
May 2022 – voted down a bill to increase the power of Police to seize assets gained through significant criminal activity
Is that where Mumbling Mark got his list from that he read out in Parliament on Wednesday – from zealot right-whinger David Farrar! No surprises there!
Mumbling Mark cannot even compile the list on his own initiative.
And Mumbling Mark on Thursday, was still at lowly No 10 (out of 12) at QT and still asked the same question about ‘gang tensions rising’. Nothing new there!
Easy Fix.
Legalise all drugs.
Retrain the dogs.
So do nothing? 23 drive by shootings in 2 weeks and the minister doing nothing is OK?
I think it’s fair to say that just kicking in doors won’t be enough by itself.
But in the short term at least, that has to be part of the response –
*Door kicking -concentrate resources on getting guns off the bad guys not the good guys but longer term:
*make any offense with a firearm an “aggravating factor” with jail time.
*disempower gangs by legalizing pot and consider some controlled legal sale of harder drugs including meth, legalize cigarettes.
*stop legitimizing gangs by giving them government money, making them critical workers or letting them run check points. Treat them as Lepers, you know, the same way the government treats farmers or “the river of filth”.
*tighten laws on assembly around use of intimidation
*stop letting shit bags out of jail because they had a rough start – do the time but give them resources to get clean while inside.
Don’t blame Poto she is not the one that signed of the 501 policy it was John and his lot. And its the judges that give the soft sentences.
(Judges) At the direction of the current government because you know, colonisation and more importantly, the costs of commissioning and running new prisons. 25% less people in prison currently and as someone said (Martyn perhaps?) – Could there be any correlation between an uptick in crime of these types and the facts they are no longer being put away?
Much as it may suit you to blame the National government and John Key he had no say as the 501 deportation was Australian government policy which we had no say in .He complained to the Minister Julith Bishop but at the end of the day all countries have a right to deport a person who is not a citizen to the country they came from
So why blame Ardern then, I’d hate to think the right are hypocrites?
No warrant searches on parliament must accompany any “gang” legislation. What about the corporate gangs? Progressive and Food Stuffs? Flethcher Building?
FFS – there’s only one way to de-power gangs. Break up their monopolies. This applies to parliamentary, corporate and criminal gangs.
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