Kerre Woodham: Taking their cars is a good start

Six thousand years ago these words were inscribed on an Egyptian tomb: “Young people no longer respect their parents. They're rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self-control.” And then along came Plato in the 4th century BC, and this is probably the one you're more familiar with if you've heard the quote, “What has happened to our young people, they disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?” Plato bemoaned four centuries before Christ. He could have been writing about the oiks in Horowhenua in 2024.

More than 200 cars, each with a number of passengers on the inside, gathered in a car park at around 8pm on Saturday in Levin, and then convoyed through the streets at the intersection of Queen Street and State Highway 57, attempting to do burnouts at the location. Police tried to disrupt the activity and move them on, but they were hopelessly outnumbered, and the patrol cars were kicked by bystanders, who also threw bottles at the cars. Two officers suffered injuries. Police Minister Mark Mitchell said this morning on the Mike Hosking Breakfast that police have become punching bags for these oiks. (Oiks is my word, not his, but I'm sure he'd have used it if he thought he could get away with it.) They have no respect for police and it's time to get tough.

“The problem is at the moment, they seize the vehicles, they’re impounded for a while and then they go back. I want to seize the vehicles and keep them because I think that would be a real deterrent. If these boy racers realise that they come out, they're actually going to lose their vehicles.”

That was Mark Mitchell, the Police Minister, saying don't just impound the vehicles for a period of time - take the ringleaders, take their cars and keep them. Society has always been at a loss as to what to do with problem children as you've heard. Six thousand years ago, the Egyptians were bemoaning them. New Zealand's own Mazengarb report was produced in July ‘54. Oswald Mazengarb was a lawyer who was appointed by the Government to chair a special committee on moral delinquency in children and adolescence, after a teenage sex scandal in Lower Hutt and other high-profile incidents such as a milk bar murder in Auckland and the Parker-Hume killing. The report was sent to every New Zealand home and basically blamed juvenile delinquency on inadequate parental supervision. And Oswald advocated a return to Christianity and traditional values. Working mothers also had the finger pointed at them, excessive wages paid to teenagers, the influence of American films, comics and other literature all contributed to the problem, and Oswald's findings were that there should be new legislation introducing stricter censorship and restrictions on giving contraceptive advice to young people. Brilliant.

And now in 2024, we're still bemoaning the youth of today in their anti-social behaviour. I do not think in the case of the Levin car hoons restricting contraceptive advice will do the trick and bring them to heel. It didn't work in 1954, it won't work in 2024. But for their own good, the minority of those who behave badly need to know there will be consequences for when they're behaving badly. You cannot just say ‘oh well kids will be kids’. We used to need them to be bold and reckless when we had citizen armies because they were the heroes, they were the brave ones, they were the ones who would be the first to put up their hands and race across hostile terrain to take out the sniper's nest, thus saving the battalion. We don't need them for that anymore, thank heavens. But it doesn't mean they get a free ride. It doesn't mean they get to ride through the streets of whichever town or city in New Zealand they choose and get away with it. You can't outnumber them. It's the same with the gangs. There aren't enough police to outnumber them, to go Mano a Mano, one-on-one. But you can do it smart. You can use the technology to work out who the ringleaders are, who the worst of them are or just use a few as an example.

‘It's not fair. I was just looking.’ Don't care, you were there. It’s for their own good, and I'm sure Plato would have said that, Socrates would have said that, the unknown Egyptian tomb writer would have said that, and Oswald Mazengarb would have said that. It really is for your own good to know there are limits to what you can do and what you can get away with. I think taking the cars off them is a very, very good start.

Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.