The Police Minister thinks you do. She went on TV yesterday, and when asked if we feel safer she said: ‘More police on the beat make our communities safer’ and then tried to gaslight you into thinking that the crime isn’t as bad as you think it is.
The reason the retail crime numbers are up is because there is this great new app that allows retailers to report the crime to police. It's not because crime itself is up, but because reporting is up.
Well, maybe the reason reporting is up is because there is more to report, because crime is up.
But hey, I didn’t work for five years in the police policy unit so I don’t know, I might be oversimplifying it.
I'm not going to argue about whether crime is happening or not. I'm just going to list for you the significant crimes that I have seen in the news in the last week or so. And you can decide if you feel safe or not, like Ginny thinks you do.
On Sunday last week, workers at an Auckland liquor store locked in a burglar carrying a screwdriver, hoping the police would be able to arrest him- he escaped through the roof.
Two days later, the workers at another Auckland liquor store chased five youths armed with a bat and a knife out of the store while a witness blocked their getaway car with a ute.
That same day, a 15-year-old girl was shot when a group of thugs in a car got angry in a road rage incident on Auckland’s Southern Motorway and then chased the car she was in for several kilometres before shooting at her.
A couple of days later, a video emerged of a group of about six people viciously beating one person lying motionless on the ground in Quay Street, Auckland.
This weekend, police arrested three teenagers for brazen daylight robberies at Michael Hill Jewellery stores in Auckland and New Plymouth, and a gas station. That sounds more sophisticated than kids just making a mistake, right?
Overnight, the doors of two businesses were hacked at with an axe during a three-hour crime spree across eight shops and businesses in Christchurch.
A family is considering leaving New Zealand because their 15-year-old boy had been chased home from school while being threatened with stabbing for the second time.
The post shop in Titirangi is closing for good after being attacked seven times.
That is just the last eight days, and just what’s stuck in my mind.
In the last five years, retail crime has almost doubled. Violent crime is up 40 percent, serious assaults up 120 percent, and acts intended to cause injury are up 30 percent.
1800 extra police is welcome, but we’re going to need more than that if we want to persist with emptying our prisons onto our streets and giving Kiwis this much crime to live through on a weekly basis.
So, you decide if you feel safer. Or if you think the crime is just the result of a cool new app.
Or if Ginny just doesn’t know what to do, other than try to trick you into it isn’t real.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show.
7 comments:
Two weeks ago I was paying for fuel at a service station in Napier when a hooded lout stole a bunch of stuff and ran out the door. The guy behind the counter told me it happens regularly and they stopped reporting these crimes to the police because they never do anything.
Meanwhile, I live on a street in Christchurch that had the speed limit reduced to 40kph earlier this year. About twice weekly 7am through to 9am (commuter rush hour) around 5 police hide behind parked cars pinging speeding cars with their handheld laser devices. Yesterday I asked one of the police why they don't leave the poor commuters alone and go catch some criminals. I was told to stop obstructing police business and get out of their way.
We left NZ to come back to South Africa in January 2022. Much happier here with less Government control and honestly, in South Africa at least not only the criminals are armed and we may defend ourselves. It's not perfect, but it's not a PC mess like our beloved NZ has now become.
NZ is being destroyed by design, same as all other Western Democracy's. This is the committee of 300's plan for a NWO One World Government plan to enslave us all under a communist system of control. Our enemy is the UN and all the other NGO's that control our governments and our sovereignty.
Clearly Heather we certainly do not.
When a government cannot recognise that crime is rationally related to gangs, truency and prison releases through ideology then you are no longer safe from said crime.
To be honest heather, I feel more embarrassed than unsafe. The cbd of akl is ferral and if I see a german backpacker or hear an american accent, I feel like running up to them and apologising. Nz is going to get such a bad reputation. It is shameful.
I certainly feel less safe than ever before. Downtown Auckland after dark very daunting. It seems much crime and violence is maori based. Or by Pacifica who contrive to identify with maori. I consider the bordering seditious "imagine decolonisation" campaign by especially the artfully glib Moana Jackson and driven Mutu to be the root cause of many problems. Their message taken to all marae filters down to all levels. The nicety of wording is simplified to "reject colonisation" ie reject every behavioural norm and law which has a colonist basis. Hence many maori, the young in particular, run totally wild. In pre colonial times rampant misbehaviour had a te ao/tikanga remedy; a mere blow to the skull. Followed, if a slave, by the hangi. With such draconian remedy as cistom it is curious that maori protest so amuch about any attempted discouragement action today.
I am especially concerned not to get involved in road rage. Contrary to popular belief the scope for this is far less than 40 or 50 years ago (heavy reliance on the right hand rule, few defined lanes, no real control of speeds with a huge range, many obstructive low performance vehicles, short sight lines, roads too narrow for opposed overtaking etc.) But whereas one simply gave or got the fingers now, following gaming, likely to get rammed, run off the road assaulted, shot etc.
The Police Minister said "We were on target to meet the 1800 police recruits". She did not say how many Police had left the force. So the 1800 recruits is probably not 1800 extra police, it may not even be sufficient to meet the personnel who have left. I find it hard to believe the government has increased the Police force by 1800 personnel.
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