Paul Goldsmith vigilante shoplifting policy is a joke…
Retail crime crackdown may not work and could make things worse, ministry says
The Ministry of Justice has raised red flags about the proposed changes to New Zealand’s Crimes Act 1961, aimed at giving retail workers and the public clearer legal rights to step in during thefts.
The National-coalition wants to let the public, not just police or security staff, use physical or mechanical restraints to make a citizen’s arrest for crimes such as shoplifting.
But a Ministry of Justice report, called a regulatory impact statement, has warned the changes may not work as intended and could even make things worse.
It said the analysis behind the proposal was rushed and lacked evidence. The Ministry relied heavily on a problem definition provided by a Ministerial Advisory Group, which was headed by a business advocate and community leader, Sunny Kaushal, without enough consultation with retailers or security experts. (Kaushal had political ambitions once – he unsuccessfully stood as the Labour candidate in Pakuranga in 2011, before switching to support National in 2017).
Officials couldn’t access reliable data on how often citizens’ arrests happen, and they weren’t able to weigh up the true costs or benefits of the proposal.
Crucially, the real reasons people hesitate to intervene in retail theft — like concerns about police not showing up, health and safety rules, or poorly trained security guards — aren’t actually addressed by changing the law. So the changes probably won’t lead to much of a shift in behavior, or in crime rates.
There are also major risks: allowing the use of restraints could lead to unlawful force, especially against young people or Māori, and may clash with human rights protections. Police worry that small incidents could spiral into violence, and that members of the public might act when police wouldn’t — potentially damaging trust in the justice system. The proposed rules may also conflict with laws protecting children. Finally, even if retail crime numbers change, it will be hard to know whether that’s because of the law or something else entirely.
…every white supremacist fuckwit in this country is going to believe Goldsmith has given them the green light to smash young Māori who they suspect of retail crime.
As the regulatory impact statement points out, there is no data on this, it’s just bullshit the Exploited Migrant Worker Tobacco Guild have reckoned from their members.
The racial component of retail crime in this country is:
Angry, disaffected Māori and Pacifica youth clashing with exploited migrant Indian and Chinese workers while the white suburbs gasp that ‘something must be done’.
The ‘something must be done’ is from Goldsmith who wants workers AND members of the public to be able to step in and bash those who are judged guilty in the heat of the moment.
The media are focusing on the nonsense automatic tickets that will be written out to shoplifters which is a joke.
If they can’t afford groceries, how are they going to afford a $1000 fine?
The joke ticketing is meaningless, the real threat is the vigilante powers that Goldsmith is promising the Exploited Migrant Worker Tobacco Guild.
If this passes, it will just be a matter of time before some clown decides to the the big man, confront some desperate thief and things get way out of hand.
This is legalised violence that the average citizen should never have.
We all have a right to self defence, but that’s not what this is, this is legalised fighting.
Our Police are the only ones trained and empowered by the State to have a monopoly on violence, Goldsmith is attempting to deregulate that which might make it the only time in NZ History that the National Party have actively undermined a monopoly.
Rather than answer some of the issues raised in the regulatory impact statement, Goldsmith preferred to smear Green Party MP Tamatha Paul…
National devotes press release to needling Green MP Tamatha Paul
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith unveiled a sweeping crackdown on retail crime on Tuesday, introducing instant fines of up to $1,000 for shoplifting and tougher penalties for theft, including up to seven years in prison for aggravated cases.
The reforms, driven by recommendations from the Ministerial Advisory Group on retail crime, also expands citizens’ arrest powers, allowing retail staff and bystanders to detain offenders at any time, regardless of the value stolen, provided police are contacted and reasonable force is used. New measures will also support the use of facial recognition technology in stores, as part of a broader push to deter rising retail theft and restore confidence among business owners. Earlier, it introducing a new ram raid offence, carrying 10 years imprisonment, which would also allow juveniles aged 12 and 13 to be charged in Youth Court instead of the Family Court.
Green MP Tamatha Paul, who is her party’s spokesperson for crime, shared her view on the hard-on-crime retail policy in a cost-of-living crisis. “This is about criminalising poor people,” she said. “We think criminalising people who have to resort to stealing to feed themselves is fundamentally wrong.”
She also said: “if people don’t have enough money to buy food, then they’re going to look towards shoplifting things.”
Her comments come as food banks report struggling to meet demand — even before the peak winter surge — and continue to call for increased and guaranteed government funding. In the May Budget, the National-led coalition allocated $15 million to support food banks through the Food Secure Communities programme, but only for one year, with funding set to expire on June 30, 2026.
…let me see if I can get this straight.
We now have new legal rights to attack those we suspect of shoplifting, but let’s smear Tamatha Paul?
This is going to be a fucking nightmare.
PS – Dear Cracker. If I see you bashing poor people in the supermarket, and I think you go too far, please understand I will need to use this legal power and bash you. That’s right. I sure as Christ won’t help you attack the poor people, but the millisecond I judge that you have gone beyond your legal powers, I will immediately attack you to prevent you hitting them.
Thanks to Paul ‘Mad Max’ Goldsmith, it’s Vigilante Nation – GET YOUR BASH ON!
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Is there a correlation between increased homelessness, poverty, higher meth and cocaine use and benefits cuts. I would say yes, the CoC have created the conditions for increased crime rates. I have experienced this in in my own neighborhood where one of our checkout operators was chasing two P addicts out of the store as they were stealing food. It is not my role to intervene and it’s not safe at the time I told the staff member to leave it as she was chasing a couple up the street, I also asked the staff member was she getting paid to do that and was it in her job description. I said to her, they look like P addicts as they were gaunt and grey. Why is the government not putting more money, resources and effort into drug eradication, we know we have a big problem. And where are all the proceeds from drugs crimes money going to? it should be going more into rehabilitation and prevention. Too many NZers are using nasty, soul-destroying drugs wrecking families and children’s lives and not enough effort is going into this epidemic. Too much lock them up thinking that will fix it, and out of sight out of mind bullshit. Fuck we need to wake up in our country.
Alcohol is the cause of most problems in society yet is politically acceptable because it is a profitable business that supports the politicians to ensure it’s availability continues. If there was no demand things would soon change and my idea of socially responsible drinking would be 1 standard drink a month, any more than that and you are a tidy alcoholic is the kindest description I have for them. I expect that most will strongly disagree as they like a drink to relax and don’t cause trouble but if the majority insist on access to alcohol they must also accept responsibility for the problems it causes.
Another great comment Bonnie .
Bonnie ,have you noticed that the same demographic that peddle tobacco and vapes also peddle booze .?The local dairy and bottle shops are selling death everyday using under paid exploited labour from their homeland .
Well said PA .
This is what it looks like when the right do virtue signaling.
Moving further away from the rule of law – equal treatment of every offender and offense by creating ever more subcategories of offense is stupid.
Fire the activist judges and stop sentence discounting if you want to fix rampant crime.
The judges are not the problem ,.It is the time to get people before the court that is the problem .Why are people being remanded in custody longer than 3 months .If the crown cant make a case in 3 months there is no case so they should be released .After being on remand for a year or so they will have served more time than they would have that is why it appears judges are giving low sentences as by the time the crown makes the case then they get to court they have already served their time .
There is the proverb. Might as well be hung for a sheep than a lamb.
If I am to risk my life stealing one sheep I might as well form a gang of my impoverished neighbours and steal the entire flock.
We might as well also arm ourselves with knives and cudgels to fight off any who seek to arrest us and terrorise any who might inform on us.
After all we have nothing to lose.
So who will we choose as the targets for our violent robberies? Those wealthy nobility inside well guarded walls? Or those recently arrived objects of suspicion and racist prejudice, resented for their supposed wealth and vulnerable amongst their humble houses and shops?
That would explain why in English Peasant rebellions the Flemish and Italian migrants were the mobs first target for loot.
So NEW severe penalties to curb crime. Is there not something about repeating the same action and expecting a different result being insanity?
Death penalties did not deter starving peasants? Are longer prison sentences going to deter desperate drug addicts?
Maori will be targeted cos they do all the shop lifting.
Maybe they could not..
‘Maori will be targeted cos they do all the shop lifting.’
ALL the shoplifting? Not an exaggeration?
So tell me.
A brown person surnamed Smith.
A white person surnamed Whetu.
Which is the Maori? Which is the Pakeha? How is it decided one is one race and the other is not? Surnames? Skin Colour?
Ah. I understand your reasoning. If they commit criminal actions they become Maori.
If not they are New Zealanders.
Is that it?
Do you have evidence to back up that fucken racist comment
Thats like me saying Pakeha are the main pedophiles
Tough on crime – but not fraud which does Aotearoa out of millions of dollars every year.
Not crime apparently. Just greed.
‘Tough on crime – but not fraud which does Aotearoa out of millions of dollars every year.’
Do not be so cruel!
Are you expecting Goldsmith to punish his drinking buddies?
Goldsmith was always a ‘weak link’ but do look at what is really happening here – again more DISTRACTIONS, designed to take your thoughts/mind off the “real disturbing issues” with this CoC. They are hell bent on privatising and destroying NZ which includes enabling their wealthy mates to also take us to the cleaners. The “sorted” out there just don’t want to see that prices for all services are up 10%+ and that doesn’t include insurance which will do a huge surge. How in the hell are the ‘underpaid’ folk in our society supposed to survive? But so many of you don’t give a damn so long as you are OK, isn’t that so? Again I have to repeat I can’t believe so many seemingly intelligent people can act in such an unintelligent way. Back to the heli-pad, hard to believe Williams and Mowbray can today moan about their disappointment at the backlash. What the hell did they expect? Again they are skites always banging on about how wealthy they are while her family toy business is poisoning our planet. My Mother used to say, “Real class don’t talk about money”, and certainly don’t ram it down your throats. Time for an enormous RESET.
yep
Paul Goldsmith has all the intellectual ability of a weiner, so it is not just possible but extremely likely that any policy announcements coming from him are utter and complete nonsense.
The other day Huskins was interviewing someone who was so swayed by ideology she claimed that shoplifters weren’t doing it out of desperation due to the cost of living crisis, as they had the temerity to steal $24 /kg rump steak from some lame old dairy manufacturing cow that is suitable for nothing more than hamburger.
And Goldstein’s hardworking kiwi mum and dads are actually the supermarket duopoly who steal orders of magnitudes more from their customers than their customers ever pinch from them.
If Goldstein and his mates just fixed the cost of living crisis as they promised, he would have no need to make a continual fool of himself.
Unforeseen outcomes? Training videos for store staff on the lookout for offenders? Why I mention that is because I had a dairy at one time and the retail assocn trying to be helpful can advise on likely problems and raise concerns about people acting unusually. Old people can be suspected I think as being poor and possibly ‘at risk’.
At a small supermarket I occasionally use, at one time I had a chap hanging around me with a clipboard. I eventually asked him what his job was, and he was quite put out to actually talk to a customer. But I was not the regular look and pick customer. I was surveying their meat section for general prices as they tend to be dear, and how much dearer the organic stuff was. Thinking also did I want to buy the dearer organic or if I decided for it, should I buy it from the organic-only shop. So I was hovering, and not choosing – different from usual customer pattern.
This is just an example of how trouble can arise. And now rising prices have to be studied and calculations worked as to value and comparisons. So if I was dressed untidily in grubby work clothes I could fit someone’s prejudice. And the facial recognition thing, apparently even if you can prove you are not the individual suspected, the staff will not allow you to enter and shop – the machine is paramount and must be obeyed. Yuk, I don’t like this world that snide politicians and amoral financial and management advisors have foisted on us.
All this from the head of the Demographic that sell death daily .They peddle death in the forms of tobacco booze ,fizzy drinks and sugar laden lollies and other so called snacks along with a million vapes a month to NZ .iF YOU ASK THEM HOW MUCH MILK AND BREAD THE SELL IT WILL BE BUGGER ALL .When the last government was going to restrict tobacco sales to 600 outlets the other 6000 plus were up in arms because that was their profit for the week gone .
Shopkeepers have no hope in hell to detain shop lifters let alone fine them on the spot. Is it called gas lighting or virtual signaling to the gullible voter.
Can we smack Goldstein around for acts of cruelty to Epsom?
When he lay down bare bottomed offering no resistance I guess that wasn’t a crime.
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