Ram raider clickbait fear mongering mainstream media are feeding the get tough on crime lynch mobs
Police pursuit policy change followed by dramatic increase in fleeing drivers
Nearly 10,000 people in vehicles fled from police in the past year – more than double the number recorded prior to the police changing their pursuit policy nearly two years ago.
At the same time, the number of those behind the wheel not identified has nearly tripled, while those being held accountable have stayed the same.
These are the key reasons Police Commissioner Andrew Coster referenced in announcing recently that the police pursuit policy would be reviewed next year and a Fleeing Driver Framework introduced.
The Government has also announced a range of new powers to target fleeing drivers.
The current thirst for vengeance as frightened and scared people are drenched in crime porn clickbait by a mainstream media desperate for ratings can be seen in no better place than the report into fleeing drivers.
The pundits have decried the jump in fleeing drivers as proof positive soft on crime Labour have betrayed the NZ Police by handcuffing their balls and making them cuddle crime rather than arrest them!
So demanding of vengeance no one noticed the most important number in those stats – no one was killed during Police chases.
Sure, crime have managed to get away from Police chases, but equally no one has died!
You can’t have public policy like police chases from ill trained Police Officers that kill other transport users or the fleeing drivers!
That’s bad social, policy!
A faster, quicker arrest and judicial turn around time would generate the reality of consequences for behaviour far more effectively than allowing Cops to chase kids to death.
Post Covid, media coverage of youth crime has exploded.
Images of ram raids and organised crime violence has shocked, frightened and angered the country with a 25.2% increase in theft and a 19.7% increase in acts intended to cause injury.
The recent stabbing and killing of a Dairy worker in the Prime Minister’s own electorate has become emblematic of a narrative the Government is soft on crime while the get tough on crime cheerleaders promise terrible retribution.
Ram Raid news stories make news producers orgasm.
They are cheap, easy to produce and present as live breaking news and the kids committing the crimes boasting on social media for notoriety guarantees a self feeding loop which terrifies the middle classes and sets the get tough on crime lynch mob off.
The perception is that crime is out of control, despite the evidence showing a spike, but in context, isn’t the hysteria clickbait the mainstream media are selling it as.
The number of serious repeat ram raiders is about 100, 80% of whom are already known to welfare agencies who are the kids from John Key’s draconian welfare reforms that saw kids in cars, state house tenants thrown onto the street for wrongful meth testing and whose parents were incarcerated in our private prison industry.
How will more draconian policies fix the problems the last set of draconian policies created?
This fear mongering clickbait is generating real world ramifications with ACT and National promising ankle bracelets on children and a return to counter productive Military Boot Camps.
The same people screaming that the mainstream media are scaring us over Covid are more than happy to promote crime clickbait by that very same media!
Youth crime has spiked and it needs actual solutions, what we are getting is just more raw meat fear mongering for ratings.
The anxiety a recession creates cancels out compassion, empathy and rational debate. As the desperation drives violent crime via a Crime Porn News filter to insecure viewers, watch how the crime debate disintegrates into lynch mob level bumper sticker slogans.
Your anger is being manipulated by the ‘Get Tough on Crime’ Cheerleaders for counter productive policy.
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I wonder if we will ever get these news headlines.
‘Tax evasion by corporations bleeds New Zealand dry!”
“Increased wealth inequality drives youth crime!’
‘Media desperate for advertising revenue lick corporate arse!’
‘New Zealand voters keen to jump from Labour frying pan into National fire.’
‘Twitter is a massive waste of time!’
Or “The Forgotten People in All of This”. The inside story of the monetary and mental health costs worn by the people that are getting ram raided, robbed, assaulted and murdered. Interestingly as a group they receive less in assistance than the perpertrators. In many cases they receive nothing. Yes we need to find a solution to the social conditions that have created this behaviour but at the same time people need to be held accountable for their actions.
In one Stevie.
Absolutely nailed it Stevie, no matter opposition opinions to the contrary.
Life is compromise. It would safer if all cars never exceeded 5 km/hr. Or we never left the caves. Or never tried anything.
What the current police policy proved is, is that giving the 5% who a criminals a free reign turns Auckland especially into a crime shit hole. A liquor shop on Mt Eden Rd was ram raided twice last week. That didn’t make the media but the plywood and the other business owners will tell anyone who asks!
And how many lives have been ruined or ended by these arsehole criminals destroying their livelihoods? And they still kill and maim even without police involvement.
And exactly how does a quick arrest occur when the criminals make it to home base by virtue of getting into their stolen cars? Answer, it doesn’t, ever!
Labour/Greens “law and order” policy is out of vogue, I’m afraid!
Not looking forward to a National/ACT Government, however we need to target these recidivist young offenders and try to turn them around before they graduate to higher levels of crime. I don’t know what the answer is ?
Much of this offending is driven by anti-social behavour ie drugs and gangs ?
You keep banging on about John Keys failure to help ‘the kids living in cars’ willfully ignoring the fact that the emergency housing waitlist has increased about 500% since he was PM. Eyepatch much?
Surely if those people running away from police, because they agree not to chase the cars has doubled. It means if they still chased cars there would be 10000 less crimes. Hence Ips0 facto crime DOES go down if police are tougher .