When even Judith Collins tells you Gang Patch Ban goes against Bill of Rights you know we are in trouble

COME ON!

When even Judith Collins tells you the Gang Patch Ban goes against Bill of Rights you know we are in trouble…

Gang patch ban inconsistent with rights — Attorney-General

The Government’s move to prohibit gang patches in public places would be inconsistent with the rights to expression, association and peaceful assembly, a report by the Attorney-General Judith Collins has found.

The Government’s proposed anti-gang laws would ban gang patches in public places and give police extra powers to stop gang members congregating.

Just after 3pm today, parliamentary urgency was accorded for the introduction and select committee referral of the Bill, along with two others. It is now being debated in the House.

In a report also tabled in Parliament this afternoon, Collins’ report on the Gangs Legislation Amendment Bill said it had tested the bill against the Bill of Rights.

“I conclude the proposed prohibition on the display of gang insignia in public places is inconsistent with the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in the Bill of Rights Act.”

…when even Damien Grant can see Gang Patch Bans won’t work…

‘The state should not tell anyone what to wear,’ writes Damien Grant

My position is more fundamental; the state should not be telling some of the worst members of our society what to wear because the state should not tell anyone what to wear.

..the Right have lost their moral compass on this.

Allowing the State to tell you what you can wear and what you can’t wear while destroying the right of association is the sort of thing Authoritarian regimes do, not liberal progressive democracies!

One of the tragedies of our political system is that dumbfuck ideas get mooted and there seem to be no adults left to denounce the dumbfuck ideas before we ram them through Parliament.

The Gang Patch Ban is a nonsense idea that will not lower the violent crime it claims it will impact.

The reason gang crime has exploded is because we’ve had this unique unseen before situation where a professional criminal class have been forcibly removed by Australia to a country they have no connections with.

The ‘501s’ as they are known bring with them a level of uber violence and sophistication well beyond the domestic gangs.

They also bring with them South American Cartel links that provide them with a cheaper more pure meth.

The spike in gang violence is being generated by the 501 syndicates who are standing over domestic gangs and stealing Meth market share with cheaper, purer South American Cartel Meth.

NONE of that dynamic will be impacted buy this stupid fucking gang patch ban and dispersal rules.

Australian Biker Gangs are completely different from the domestic legacy gangs here in NZ who are deeply entrenched in communities. Dispersal notices and none association rulings will be immediately challenged in Court and get thrown out because they will be physically incapable of enforcement when you are talking family members.

Holding up draconian Australian laws (which are currently being challenged) and pretend they will work here is infantile.

We need a focus on the 501s who are generating the turf war, not some unenforceable gang patch ban that will automatically start conflict.

The gang members can’t voluntarily hand their patch over ever, so will need to be beaten into unconsciousness by the Police before the Patch can be taken.

As for the farcical situation of going into a Gang funeral to seize gang patches, the idiocy required to think that situation is a smart policing is book burning level in its ignorance.

As for the $5000 fine – Gang members don’t pay fines now, so how will this end?

As the ‘freedom’ party, ACT should be ashamed of themselves for allowing State over reach like the Wardrobe Police!

National will use this new dispersion law against environmentalists who glue themselves to roads.

NZ First want to designate the gangs as domestic terror groups so that paramilitary force can be used against the civilian population.

These laws will not do a thing to stop organised crime and yet we all have to pretend they will.

The most likely outcome is that this level of State harassment will generate radicalism in the communities you are trying to police and you will end up radicalising a whole group of criminals into becoming domestic terrorists.

You are a fool if you think this bullshit nonsense is going to make you safer.

“The Left love gangs”

The Right Wing Hate Bots keep framing the Left’s concerns with the Gang Patch Ban as us loving organised crime. The idiocy of that talking point is offensive. The Left are concerned with Gang Patch Bans because we see every human has intrinsic rights and civil liberties that the State should protect, not imprison!

We on the Left understand the majority of people in the legacy gangs are former wards of the State who were abused by the fucking State!

We on the Left understand the deep trauma of these communities and know that further punishment doesn’t work to reduce their number.

We on the Left also know the influx of 501’s with a sophisticated and uber violent criminal culture are generating the current violence and that a gang patch ban is just a virtue signal for the stupid.

We on the Left don’t love gangs, we understand why they formed and know that dismantling them requires more than redneck pandering.

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.

If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media.