Surprise, surprise – the Police want harsh new powers against da gangs
You can either read it here first or read it in the mainstream media months later.
As TDB pointed out in June, the Government has dropped the ball on the spike in Gangs because of the unprecedented arrival of the 501s from Australia.
And now, surprise, surprise, the Police want vast new powers to stamp out da gangs…
Police concerned for ordinary Kiwis – want powers to ‘hammer gangs destroying families’
Police were now calling for strategies to intervene and asking the Government to introduce laws that “hammer gangs destroying families through intimidation, dealing drugs and taxing,” he said.
…brothers and sisters, trust me, as someone currently fighting abuse of power by the Police, there aren’t enough bloody checks and balances to their enormous powers as it is, handing them even more power won’t solve this and will only erode your civil liberties far more than they currently are.
I’ve detailed the 3 moments that helped build the organised crime issue here, but now the cops are pushing for more powers, let’s focus on the solutions a progressive Government needs to look at implementing to combat organised crime without inching us closer to a Police State.
1 – Demand a review of intelligence values, are the Police actually pursuing active crack downs on the Australian gangs or are they just observing? The Killer Bees were taken out as a force because all the old gangs narked on them and gave the Police the ability to completely take out the leadership. Police need to think seriously about cutting the same deal with the domestic gangs against the Australian ones, because it is the Australian ones generating the violence.
2 – Meth rehabilitation services must get an enormous boost in resourcing for any chance to cope with the wave of addiction that is coming.
3 – LEGALISE CANNABIS YOU MORONS: Allow the domestic gangs to legally produce cannabis so that their revenue stream is through a legal means rather than the meth, which is happening because of competition with the Australian gangs.
4 – Offer those who have debts with the gangs for drugs amnesty if they come to the Police and complain about stand over tactics for those debts and wipe the debts in return for testimony.
5 – The Police already changed the evidential threshold for the proceeds of crimes act from beyond reasonable doubt to balance of probabilities so their demands to go after those that wash the cash is disingenuous in the extreme because they already have enormous powers in that regard – if Police want to catch the laundering element of organised crime, go to the biggest laundromat in the country – Sky City Casino! Far better surveillance of the Casinos around NZ will harvest greater intelligence of who is doing what. Allowing the Police the ability to spy on accountants and lawyers can easily be abused and the Police haven’t proven they can be trusted with those sorts of powers.
No one wants to see organised crime thrive, but we are at this place because of a unique invasion of NZ by Australian criminals who are far more violent than the domestic variants, this requires a real strategic thinking that the NZ Police are not well known for. Stuart Nash urgently needs to sit down with Police Intelligence and Police bosses to thrash out an urgent response because if the simmering gang war between the domestic gangs and the Australian faction erupts onto the streets, the electorate will turn to National for a war on crime.
It will be a war we all lose.
Or privatization of law enforcement.
Never, ever, ever.
Yep Martyn,
Jacinda today on the press was saying that she wants the minster of police to keep to the promise of 1700 new police as promised and that was after national accused Stuart Nash that he only had police numbers able to be increased to about 800 after existing police members leave the force.
Stuart Nash in response to the accusation said “the number of 1700 was only ‘inspirational”
what a load of shit.
To be fair to Nash, he has stuck with the promise of 1800 over and above the numbers when they became the government (unlike Wintson who is fudging the stats) but he has had to acknowledge it ain’t going to happen as quickly as he would like. The issue is retention and this is a battle they are struggling with as well as taking on new cops.
Questions are, Is there are retention plan? If not why not? Why are so many leaving?
And unfortunately, the starting pay rate is not great, pre-training is at the applicant’s expense and the pay is not going to be survivable for anyone living in Auckland, Wellington, Tauranga, Wellington, Queenstown to do that job and get your own home or even live above basic subsistence, for example.
It cannot be rushed or there will be dire consequences and in the minimum staff turnover will only worsen.
XRAY: “Why are so many leaving?”
You really need to ask? Who would want that job.
Often they’re caught between a rock (or a stack of rocks covering up a stash of guns and ammo) and a very hard place. They’re the ones on the frontline in any tragedy, any dogawful smashup or shoot-up. They’re caught in the middle, eg between rival gangs, yet are supposed to stay calm and steady at all times. And out in some of the rural areas especially, they may often be confronting their own whānau. (Note: All this is about our ordinary local small town cops, not the SS style mutation that is apparently lurking somewhere in the city background.)
It’s a nice wish list but it defies reality.
The Killer Bees were taken out by a huge and pretty much one-off police operation, Operation Leo, and its well-referred to in the media. Extremely resource-intensive and done at a time (2008) before National got in and slashed spending on police. But they didn’t go away and have in fact made their presence felt in South Auckland over the past 12 months in some very deadly examples. Part of the reason is the police were gutted of staff and resources during that halcyon 9 year period.
Meth rehab or any drug rehab, (even tobacco with all its well-known negatives), only works for those who really want to stop. If they are enjoying the habit, no matter how warped, forget it because you are flogging a dead horse. And there will always be a void for drug rehab and I base this on the fact this government talked up a storm in this area and like most other promises have timidly fiddled about the very outer edges of doing something and done next to nothing. And lord knows, National will do the opposite and probably outlaw it.
Drug debts being paid, one assumes to gangs for their drug debt in lieu of reliable information, given some 12 – 24 months later in court and if it is an unethical lawyer, make that 3 – 4 years. That is never going to happen. For starters the addicts live hour to hour, day to day, forget relying on them for much more than the time they are seated in front of you and even then reliability is very elastic with such individuals. Secondly, these debts are often fiction and are a vehicle for scum to use their gang to simply pray on the vulnerable for no reason whatsoever. Thirdly, quite how does one direct credit a “drug debt” to your local drug dealer? And do you not think the cause and effect of this scenario will lead to an explosion of “debt”?
Police didn’t change the evidential threshold for proceeds of crime, the government of the day did. And please, do not think for a moment all or even most lawyers are honest, ethical and upstanding people. They are frequently as bad as their clients complete with the same drug habits. And are you aware this countries credit rating is tied to us dealing with money laundering properly and as it transpired, both here and internationally? A fair bit is/was laundered through lawyers, car dealers and real estate and surprisingly not the casino’s who have been part for the enforcement for years! And who could possibly forget New Zealand’s and our then PM’s role in tax havens which we only learnt of thanks to the Panama Papers Criminal money laundering knows no bounds, just ask the blind eye turning National Party!
“Meth rehab or any drug rehab, (even tobacco with all its well-known negatives), only works for those who really want to stop. If they are enjoying the habit, no matter how warped, forget it because you are flogging a dead horse. ”
There are many who want very much to end the destruction that meth is causing, including to individuals, to family members and wider whānau, and many just need some support for this.
“– Meth rehabilitation services must get an enormous boost in resourcing for any chance to cope with the wave of addiction that is coming.”
I doubt you’d find a cop on the force anywhere in NZ who did not agree with that one.
“Part of the reason is the police were gutted of staff and resources during that halcyon 9 year period.”
Yes. Those in govt-power of the day seemed to want to short circuit due process; with police numbers kept low, those deemed crims were shafted straight into the fast-expanding private prisons.
Where is the fucken money for rehab no good talking about it where is the money and the trained workers P has been her a very long time now where is the rehab. Our police have been busy confiscating luxury cars and goods acquired, so sell it and use this money to rehabilitate. National gutted a lot of our state agencies one of their policies was to reduce state servant numbers. Now national are saying they will do this and that and they care about education and health nah! we cant believe their spin.
“a unique invasion of NZ by Australian criminals who are far more violent than the domestic variants” yep and because they dont data match with Australia, NZ police have given firearms licences to hundreds of them as well as the one they issued to the March terrorist. Are the police going to be held accountable for this? Or is the government going to give police more power and erode our rights even more? Pretty sure you can guess which is more likely
For mine, the first step is to determine Oz founded gangs as criminal organisations – and regard membership of them and business association as a crime in New Zealand.
The latter sort of cuts out their connections to local gangs, lawyers, real estate agents and accountants and banks.
Zero tolerance, still birth them.
no no don’t give our Police anymore power the cant handle the power they have already
“Stuart Nash urgently needs to sit down with Police Intelligence and Police bosses to thrash out an urgent response because if the simmering gang war between the domestic gangs and the Australian faction erupts onto the streets, the electorate will turn to National for a war on crime.”
Yes. It’s already beginning.
“It will be a war we all lose.”
Nash needs to up his game and realize these people are not do gooder’s who run martial arts centres, and youth activities, they are calculated business men working and worshipping the mighty $, gathering members and contacts to do their dirty work.
Gangs are the biggest terrorists in the country operating in the Haze, through drugs, intimidation, extortion, stand over tactics what ever you want to call it.
Families are more likely to be damaged or affected by drugs, crime syndicates and gang violence here in NZ rather than Al Quaeda/ISIS and Middle Eastern Terrorists.
However the SIS/GSCB & the NZ Police appear to be more focused on the International Terrorism than the gangs operating domestically here in NZ ?
Gangs are in the too hard department for this Coalition Department we need the ex Crown Prosecutor and Crusher from National to come down hard on the gangs and their drug distribution networks.