Ram raids have climbed to an average of more than two a day, prompting an Auckland judge to say the public and the police “are fed up with it”.
Police figures released yesterday show there were at least 388 “ram-raid style events” in a six-month period to the end of May, including 99 which remained unsolved.
During the six-month period, police said there were 218 prosecutions for ram raids, while 86 young people were referred to Police Youth Services.
Last year, police recorded 516 ram raids around the country.
Just a few hours after police released the latest data, a District Court judge in West Auckland told a convicted teenage ram raider; “The public are fed up with it, the police are fed up with it … and people want tougher penalties for this type of crime.”
NZ Herald
Wonders will never cease… a judge who gets it. He is dead right we do want harsher penalties for crime. Fortunately for us, we have an election coming up so we can tell the politicians we want harsher sentences. You have a stark choice, the crim friendly parties of Labour, the Greens and the Maori Party or the tough-on-crime parties of Act, NZ First or National.
What we also need are penalties for crime that do not allow the judiciary very much discretion at all in sentencing. Discretion is what allowed judges to water down ‘three strikes’ legislation. Removing concurrent sentencing might be a good idea too.
Government Police Minister, Ginny Anderson told the Herald the level of retail crime is “completely unacceptable” and said the Government was taking steps to get on top of the issue.
“No one should go to work and feel unsafe,” she said in a statement.
“[The steps we’re taking are] including intensive programmes to break the cycle of offending and provide support to retail owners – but we know there is more work we need to do.”
NZ Herald
Yawn! You have no idea what to do, do you Ginny dear?
Meanwhile, crime continues to rise, and the Government has to fight an election with headlines highlighting that their wrong-headed policy of emptying the prisons hasn’t worked as they merely flooded the streets with hardened criminals. Even Blind Freddy could see that this was going to end in tears, but it seemed to escape Kelvin Davis.
Send a message on crime this election.
Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. This article was first published HERE
2 comments:
It is difficult to see a solution. USA with its severe punishments does not do well. We are no longer told but most offenders seem to be maori. As wih USA, the unruly savage gene must be very persistent and strong. It is not countered with anti colonist brainwashing, kapahaka and haka and close association with advocates and practioners of both, whanau or not. Boot camps are ineffective as those running are cowed, and in any case just build more emboldend, better united, better skilled rebels.
As previously, lottery allocation of long harsh isolated sentences with hard labour should deter others. Unless the Human Rights Commissioner decides to consider the interests of the law abiding majority as paramount, he will need to go. No other workable remedy seems to be on offer.
this is what happens when you have one of the longest tails of underachievement in the developed world Almost half the prison population are Maori. In the past when we were more enlightened about how to prevent crime we focused on education to promote a civil society in a democracy. Our education taught ethics, work habits concentrating on disciplined learning with punishment if a pupil didn't keep on task and direct instruction for teaching the basics such that even those from low SES homes could achieve. Then in the 1950s along came socialists and academics with new fangled ideas about teaching methods and a sentimental view of human nature. The decline in standards began immediately and the ideas are so entrenched it will take a miracle to get us back on track. This is particularly so because many educationalists are seeped in sociology blaming failures in our education entirely on social and economic conditions.
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