MEDIAWATCH: These are the people Labour want to ‘smash’

ByMartyn Bradbury

As Labour get closer and closer to power, they start adopting the dog whistles of the Right.

Last week Stuart Nash came out wanting to ‘smash’ the gangs, because when you get into power, all you do is use the might of the State to smash everyone you don’t like.

How Donald Trump of Labour.

So it was a genuine surprise that Stuff.co.nz ran such an in-depth and thoughtful evaluation of what is really happening between Kawerau Mongrel Mob and Whakatane Black Power.

Congratulations Tony Wall and Karla Akuhata for a truly insightful approach to a topic that is so easy to denigrate into simplistic ‘smash them bro’ politics…

Godfery, who works for Manna Support Services in Kawerau and is a district councillor, says that’s the point – the gangs are ingrained in the community.

“They’re neighbours, they’re involved with the school community, coaching, taking kids on trips.

“Gangs are a symptom of the economic divide – we also know that it’s larger now than at any point in New Zealand’s history.

“The focus can’t be on trying to pull people out of the gang because you lose them, eh. You’ve got to work with them and when they’re ready, they’re ready.”

Milosevic says the gang is trying to put initiatives in place to turn members’ lives around.

…so instead of ‘smash them bro’ style politics which Labour are now adopting as they get closer to winning, some understanding and decency could prove far more fruitful conclusions than ‘smash them bro’.

Last time in power, Labour helped build the prison nation we are faced with now, it would be pointless fighting an election to simply replace one tough on crime pack of clowns with another tough on crime pack of clowns.

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4 Comments

  3. Reform the prison system to something that humanises and rehabilitates inmates to be more included in employment and housing in a more open society.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/09/why-scandinavian-prisons-are-superior/279949/

    Most crime is a product of loss of hope.

    There are a few distorted personalities who are harder to turn around but that number grows when you have prisons as grooming schools.

    Now private prisons clearly show there agenda is not to reduce crime but distort bent people even more. There is no place for money making from prison systems as the outcome will always be making more money by growing the business.

    We are follow the USA increased incarceration rates, creating a divided society and allowing predatory market practices dictate our destiny.

    While wealth is stolen from the population and country by elite who are never held responsible, then we will see a further decline in community health and accelerating poverty and crime.

    Peoples lives are wrecked by Govt who allow this to continue.

  4. heaven forbid that labour should run with a caring society programme the likes of muldoon put in place trying to solve the gangs problem of getting work, no much easier to run with their 32 year old neo programme

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