The crime we should be fighting vs the crime war we are fighting

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Police Minister Mark Mitchell was upset that no one took him seriously

Ram Raids and Gang turf wars generate enormous headlines and clickbait sensationalism but if we look at the stats we see a very different reality of crime for the vast majority of Kiwis.

There were 886 ram-raids in 2022.

There were 57 murders in 2022.

Those are terrible crimes, of that there is no doubt, but in 2022 there were 175,573 domestic violence investigations with almost 50% of Māori women experiencing domestic violence in their lifetime.

Again, ram raids and murders are terrible crimes, but their numbers pale into insignificance when you look at domestic violence in New Zealand.

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Our attention is captured by Gang violence and Ram Raids, but utterly missing when it comes to domestic violence.

That’s why Mark’s most recent National Gang Unit seems to be more PR spin than actually dealing with our core issues…

Police to establish national gang unit

Police will establish a national gang unit, supported by ‘district gang disruption teams’, to target crime, harm, and intimidation caused by patched members.

The national team will work with police districts across the country, drawing on joint operations to monitor gang funerals and other activity.

…We already had a Gang Intelligence Centre, and it was a joke…

Gang Intelligence Centre leadership concerns revealed in document release

New Zealand’s Gang Intelligence Centre has been blighted by poor leadership and has been struggling to reduce the harm caused by organised crime.

Multiple sources RNZ has talked to said the leadership of the Gang Intelligence Centre was “clueless”, and one person said it was run by a bunch of buffoons.

Leadership were said to have no understanding of the gang environment, which in turn meant the centre was failing to have an impact on the harm being caused by gangs.

…Hand on heart I don’t think National MPs could tell you what is the difference between the Mongrel Mob, Mongols, Head Hunters, Black Power or Comancheros and that’s deeply concerning because they all have completely different reasons for existence and attempting to tackle the most glaringly apparent elements of gangs with laws that breach human rights will only radicalize those communities.

The problem we have right now with gangs is the unprecedented forced deportation of the 501 criminal elements from Australia who have unleashed a tsunami of violent gang take overs because they are prepared to use a level of violence and sophistication far in advance  of the domestic gangs.

I don’t think National care about the nuance and I don’t think domestic violence even enters into any of this.

The focus is on the appearance of Crime in the News and the fear it generates, I don’t think there is any real plan here to tackle crime other than building a new Mega Prison.

 

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40 COMMENTS

  1. Prison building & massive increases in crime rates will be the legacy of Mitchell, Luxon et al.

    There is no understanding of the drivers of crime and therefore no means by which this could be reduced, minimised or eliminated.

    • Maybe we could arrest & lock up the perpetrators. Oh wait that would lead to higher incarceration rates, better stick to cuddles.

    • Crash the fucking system and gut the fucking thing. the hegemony of capital is fucking us. and so is the bureaucracy that supports it. so many people without a sense of value and taking it out on the nearest and dearest.

  2. I mean the task of the Gang ‘Intelligence’ Centre is just to build a big database of anyone who has ever had a beer with or is related to anyone in a gang, so it’s quite a lot of work really. I’m surprised that Tim Jago’s party isn’t just proposing to legalize just using the census returns of anyone who ticked the ‘Maori’ box to fill in the blanks.

    • Politicians who do not comprehend even the basics of economics do horrendous damage to economies.
      Domestic violence is sickening and more often than not a consequence of poor governance of the economy by the Government of the day,we have a recent example 6 years of Labour.
      I welcome ideas on how we reduce domestic violence.

      • Oh that was so easy…Grab Uffindell’s bed leg Bob the troll, we’re in for a good ride as shown by just 7 months of destructive National government policies. Now, what the fuck has your reply got to do with donation fraud you idiot.

      • Who was it you paid to write this for you, Bob? Or did you copy and paste.
        Certainly not your own work.
        You can’t even string together three words without 2 spelling mistakes, 5 grammatical errors and wrong punctuation.

        • Golly JK that’s a bit harsh I’m rather proud of my literacy skills.
          I think you are just being a “meanie.”

      • fuck economics – ecology doesn’t give a shit about some fake tokens and who has the most of them

      • The last NAct Government was fully informed that the drug Alcohol and specifically Alcohol abuse was a huge driver of violent crime, domestic assaults, child abuse and other crimes ….

        The NAct Govt however did a Dirty Politics campaign to undermine the Alcohol reform advice they were given, they smeared health professionals and others,,, and protected the Alcohol industry from measures that may have led to lower abuse of their drug ,,, which just meant lower sales and profits to the booze pushers.

        The NActs sabotaged measures to lower Alcohol abuse ,,,, and in doing so deliberately ignored the single biggest measure to lower crimes of Violence.

        Since they did this Dirty Politics ‘Drug Policy Abuse’, the extra numbers of assaults and abuse that could have been prevented would be in the tens of thousands…..

        and they know it.

        They are ‘proud to be men’ ,,, and women , helping the Alcohol drug pushers sell more product….

        For diversions and smoke-screens ,,,, they wank on how they will “crush” the gangs ,,,,, just like they and Judith Collins crushed all those boy racer cars last time they were in Govt….

        It’s all a load of piss and wind and the results will be just as pathetic …..

  3. “unprecedented forced deportation of the 501 criminal elements from Australia”

    Call it for what it is Victorian era, Convict Penal Transport.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_transportation

    “While the prisoners may have been released once the sentences were served, they generally did not have the resources to return home”.

    Except today legally they can never return home to their family.

  4. It’s a sad indictment that Maori commit more crime against maori, I for one can’t excuse that behavior nor am I gonna justify it by applying CRT. Poor decision are more prevalent in communities that lack social cohesion regardless of ethnicity, a significant amount of murders in this country is due to domestic violence but even the victims that don’t die from DV are traumatized regardless.

    • wow, seems like something that might have occurred as a result of government policies delibrately intended to break down social cohesion

      • Oh boy, you’re going to love the future when robots & AI start causing mass unemployment, large parts of the world become unliveable and water becomes a scarce resource. It’s closer than many realize.

        • Except that ‘robots and AI’ have nothing to do with it. This isn’t going to happen in human-run countries.

          • How many of those “human run countries” are going to have serious issues with water resources or are going to be rendered unliveable by climate change? Quite a few if I understand what you’re hinting at.

          • Interestingly, AI & robots will form a major part of future security & combat systems, and will probably simplify law enforcement & prison systems, especially as we currently have difficulty filling these roles with humans. Oh, you’ll love it.

      • the government is a result of our values – and individual greed is at the top of them

  5. Our political infrastructure’s a rudderless neo-liberal ‘politic’ manipulated by the foreign owned banks and exacerbated by a cadre of home grown sociopaths feeding off the poor which is a Kiwi cottage industry for societal dysfunction fuck. We’re effectively being harvested by parasites.
    ( Sorry. I had to put a fuck word in there somewhere. )
    Here’s what to do.
    Asset strip then expel the ANZ. ASB. BNZ and Westpac. Write off all mortgage debt. All of it. Today.
    Then. A public, Royal Commission of Inquiry up and into every politician who enabled the rise of the society-destroying neo-liberalism which has become the disastrous, parasitic infestation that it is which is now in full bloom.
    Then? Love. We must go full love. According to a Spanish societal experiment I read once on prisons and prisoners, the best way to rehabilitate criminals is by expressing love and tenderness to them while they’re imprisoned. Introduce criminals to what they had no idea they were missing. Comfortable living, good food, enough cash money to be a little frivolous with and unconditional love. Recidivism all but vanished from their lives.
    For the criminal political and lobbying elite who cause our unnecessary suffering for their wealth creation? Chip the fuckers and make a tracker app freely available so we know who they are and where they are 100% of the time because those bastards are beyond redemption so we just have to protect ourselves from them.
    Here’s a couple of examples of what’s happening to us at this very second.
    Amazon Prime.
    The Men Who Stole The World
    “They’re bankers, traders, investment funds executives. They forgot all about morality to make money. The entire world had to suffer the consequences of their actions. They impoverished countries, drove millions of workers into unemployment, and contributed to the rise in extremism. So who are they? And, after the 2008 crisis, were the real culprits condemned? Could there be another?”
    https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0O2TMP9GSQBYXL4R3CPXCOUF44/ref=atv_dp_share_r_em_69b91017ac204
    The Banksters.
    Banksters / prime video
    https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0LL9O6AGLG84YIBFDHY3E6G700/ref=atv_dp_amz_c_TS5124c5_1_4?jic=16%7CCgNhbGwSA2FsbA%3D%3D

      • Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. So that would let Maori step down from being the favourite focus of the horrified looking for blameworthy crime targets.

      • We’re effectively being harvested by parasites.

        Hardly barking and quite succinct. is that a tick under your arm?

  6. Funnily, it was the domestic violence that ended busting our gang connected, drug dealing & armed neighbors because it allowed the Police to intervene and take the perpetrators & associates off to jail and the victim was able to move on, hopefully to a better new life. So maybe focusing on domestic violence is a way to deal with gangs & criminals. I guess we’ll need to build bigger prisons then.

    • Domestic violence and gangs go hand in hand. There is violence in the gangs and new members are driven to their ranks to escape family violence.

  7. Martyn – Those 2022 crime figures are unpleasant…so what did the 2022 Labour Government do about it, apart from encouraging a lowering of the prisoner numbers across the nation.

  8. El Salvador is a perfect example of how violent crime can be brought under control very quickly if there is sufficient popular support and political will to do it. Having low crime rates and the orderly society that goes with it just means not giving a shit about the rights-claims of violent criminals and other miscreants, which they relinquish themselves by the fact that they are violent criminals and miscreants. If you want the full suite of civil rights, then just don’t be an antisocial violent thug.

    • NR you could turn yourself into one of those location signs that point the way to different venues kms away – Antarctica so many kms; perfect and crimeless similar- everyone being fair encouraging and firm with decent behaviour – point to the nearest space module for your free visit to the stars (one way). The expression of your ideas is not radical as in way-out thinking, it’s nearly perfectly rigidly conservative. However that is very human, wishful thinking of everyone behaving to suit the thinker or the prevailing code enforced is normal, you will be glad to hear.

      • I think what Bukele has done in El Savador with his hard right approach to crime is very radical indeed, given how ineffectually limp-wristed liberal democratic approaches to crime have been and continue to be. Let’s face it, hard right illiberalism is now the only anti-Establishment position these days, given how Leftism is well-entrenched as political orthodoxy.

        • But isn’t this a kneejerk reaction? But then when authority is too loose and society is mangled then people riot. Then harsher methods are needed. But working to have a fair, civil society and getting there would be a crowning achievement of the 21st century.

          But we won’t get near if we don’t get a chance to get started and I have a feeling of Germany in the 30’s and Greece going down. Yet we quote the ancient Greeks. We have to get people together who do more than recite the precepts and work to spread them.

          I’m wondering if we could set up pockets, probably geographically linked, of partly-independent political entities. We might call them Shires! Sounds a bit dreamy but it’s time to dream, then snatch them and pin them on paper, and work out some simple systems and share trials and outcomes with other like groups.

          Ever read Terry Pratchett’s Discworld? It’s good to go somewhere different in one’s mind light-heartedly – think of other approaches and see the good, bad and sometimes ridiculous in them as well as applying to our own.

        • Bukele and his mates picking winners – no thanks. Next you’ll be telling us Duterte’s crime squads were cleaning up the filth by murdering people. you and your vigilante’s can fuck off to a favela in Sao Paulo.

  9. The cause is years of abuse by the state .And domestic violence is not restricted to MAori and gang members and just males .My son was assaulted by his ex wife and he is neither a gang member or a maori .Until we rid NZ of all forms of poverty we will always have this issue .Todays moves on housing by the government will create more domestic violence as more families are forced onto the street .The tax cuts should be cancelled and the top rates lifted instead and all under employed builders should be put to work building more social housing .

    • not the state gordon, although they are complicit – it’s the hegemony of capital. if you ain’t got it you have no value. you’re just a fucking plebe to be flotsam-ed around like a piece of garbage. working paycheck to paycheck and struggling for shelter and food. our society is as sick as the lowest wife beater who can’t control their rage because they have no control themselves. give people self-respect and control of their own lives and they will flourish. we all will. why do we all go and shop at a supermarket? because food is a commodity. why do e all pay exorbitant rent? because shelter is a commodity. we’re all just a bottom line on a spreadsheet – madness.

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