Among other things, the work has found the number of people charged and convicted actually fell faster under the last National Government, than the current Labour Government.
I think the idea there is to put a question mark into the air over which party, if it's either of them, is soft on crime.
Apparently, when you allow for population growth, police are laying charges now at just over a third of the rate they did in 2009.
Charges and convictions have dropped about a quarter in the past five years.
But under the last National government, the number of people charged fell by 40 per cent, and convictions by 36 per cent.
What this doesn't take into account is whether there was less crime in those years or what other factors were at play.
And there's not a lot of point going back over those figures anyway, the reporting process has changed, what gets counted has changed so we wouldn't be comparing apples with apples.
And I think sometimes there's a danger of relying solely on just one set of stats or another to prove or disprove one point of view or another.
The fact is, if you've been affected by crime, it's not trivial and it's not about name-calling.
It's an intrusion on your life, into your property, on your family and on your liberty.
If it's happened to you personally, or someone around you even if you've witnessed something in the street it's real, it's destructive, it's frightening.
When we see our society crumbling around us the way it is we're going to turn to what we understand.
And what we understand, even when we want to be charitable to people committing crime, is that crime has to be punished.
Whatever way you try to slice the numbers, we're living in a time of lawlessness.
And until we see a response, some real action, this Government will be seen as soft on crime.
Tim Dower is a New Zealand journalist who works for Newstalk ZB as a newsreader and substitutes talkback announcer. This article was first published HERE
Charges and convictions have dropped about a quarter in the past five years.
But under the last National government, the number of people charged fell by 40 per cent, and convictions by 36 per cent.
What this doesn't take into account is whether there was less crime in those years or what other factors were at play.
And there's not a lot of point going back over those figures anyway, the reporting process has changed, what gets counted has changed so we wouldn't be comparing apples with apples.
And I think sometimes there's a danger of relying solely on just one set of stats or another to prove or disprove one point of view or another.
The fact is, if you've been affected by crime, it's not trivial and it's not about name-calling.
It's an intrusion on your life, into your property, on your family and on your liberty.
If it's happened to you personally, or someone around you even if you've witnessed something in the street it's real, it's destructive, it's frightening.
When we see our society crumbling around us the way it is we're going to turn to what we understand.
And what we understand, even when we want to be charitable to people committing crime, is that crime has to be punished.
Whatever way you try to slice the numbers, we're living in a time of lawlessness.
And until we see a response, some real action, this Government will be seen as soft on crime.
Tim Dower is a New Zealand journalist who works for Newstalk ZB as a newsreader and substitutes talkback announcer. This article was first published HERE
3 comments:
Tim, why is the Government so keen to declare that Maori and Pasifika have issues about their health, housing etc, but they will rarely quantify their statistics regarding crime ?
I suggest that if they would openly admit which ethnic group is commiting so much violent crime, then they are a long way to dealing with the issue.
Thank you for being direct about the rampant crime in our God's Own which has now become the devil's playground.
I am certainly not a bleeding heart liberal but I do wish people would become more aware of the link between the crime rate and the catastrophic failure rate in our school literacy, numeracy and writing standards this century. Of course there are other factors as well.
But being in school for up to 10 years unable to do the basics destroys your self esteem. Your hope for a fulfilling future with a decent job is gone and you are a failure. It is truly soul destroying. Crime is something you can succeed at.
Educationalists who know the answers have been ignored for decades and are crying out for radical change to the teaching methods in our schools. The destructive ideologies and institutions preventing the change have to be seen for what they are and made to change.
It is near impossible to wind the situation back. Near every crook has a brother or relly who is a gang member irrational, armed, haka trained, violent and brainwashed against authority (colonisation). No one from mps, judges, police, PD gang supervisors, Corrections staff are going to risk the life of themselves or family by taking a tough line. Many have tried it in Italy and Sicily with the Mafia. And there is the barrage of bleeding hearts to face. When the Chinese conquer things will change.
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