John MacDonald: We should be focussing on the how not the why on gang crackdown

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

Did you see Police Minister Mark Mitchell on TV last night?

He was asked how-on-earth the Police are going to manage to implement these tough new anti-gang measures and he did what politicians do all the time, and started going-on about why they’re doing it.

We know people have had a gutsful of gangs - I’ve had a gutsful too - so the Government doesn’t need to keep telling us that. That’s the “why” bit.

The “how” bit is how the Police are going to enforce this ban on gang patches and insignia in all public places, including the internet. How they’re going to stop gang members congregating in public. How the courts are going to take gang membership into account when sentencing, when you’ve got the Bill of Rights hanging over everything.

And the reason Mark Mitchell didn’t answer the “how” question directly is because he knows as much of the rest of us, that it’s just pie in the sky nonsense.

And that’s not just me saying that. Chris Cahill from the Police Association was a bit more diplomatic when he was on Newstalk ZB today.

He said, of course most cops want to see something done about gangs. Of course they want to make gang members more uncomfortable - to feel less welcome.

But he’s not convinced that what the Government’s going to bring-in will be workable or do-able. And he’s the person we should be listening to.

He thinks freedom of expression could be a real sticking point.

Just like it’s your right to wear a Coldplay t-shirt - it’s every gang member’s right to wear a patch. It’s your right to have a little tear tattooed under one of your eyes. Someone from the Mongrel Mob has the right to have the bulldog tattooed on their cheek. Just like it’s my right to get the word “dreaming” tattooed across my forehead.

Because that's what the Government’s doing if it thinks this is going to be enforceable.

For me, the bigger issue when it comes to gangs, is what they do behind the scenes. The drugs they peddle. The way they kill people who owe them drug money.

For me, what it comes down to is this: How can Mark Mitchell spend the last few years telling us police are nearly outnumbered by gangs, and then suddenly expect us to believe him when he says the cops can make this crackdown happen?

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