The bus facility in Dunedin has been dealing with a death, but as my daughter who lives there told me, it's been a mess for years and you avoid it.
Quick question: what's the point of a public transport facility if it is famously bad, so you don’t get near it?
New Plymouth I read is having growing issues, and good old Auckland once again last night had the Police Minister as their guest, as a series of business owners told their story yet again.
I know he is a regular here, but you can't fault Mark Mitchell on engagement. If the government has one bloke who is determined to sort some stuff, its him.
He fronts, he listens, and he explains.
Trouble is, we get impatient around issues like crime and thuggery and we are triggered by the one event that went pear shaped, not the 37 that were contained or quelled.
Which is not to say any of it is acceptable, but the downtown Auckland story is one of despair, and deprivation, and dishonesty. Leader after leader, from mayors offices, to business groups, to police, to ministers, to councillors have all had plenty to say over the years.
But its failed. And in that failure actually might be a bit of hope, if this government has the fortitude to act.
The reason we are here is because we wanted to try hugging people. We would let them out of prison, we would give them home detention, we might not even charge them at all. And if we did, we could rely on a nice judge to wag his finger and tell us not to do it again after he read the cultural report.
The advantage of that is we know what doesn’t work. Is tossing them in jail the answer? Probably not long term.
But surely its reached the point where it’s the best we have.
As Levin showed us over the weekend, the respect for law and order is gone, and it's gone because we got soft, and thugs love soft and take advantage of it.
When the centre of a countries biggest city is a no go zone and there is an industry in meetings of anger, despair and exasperation from businesses going broke because of fear...
Time is up on excuses.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
I know he is a regular here, but you can't fault Mark Mitchell on engagement. If the government has one bloke who is determined to sort some stuff, its him.
He fronts, he listens, and he explains.
Trouble is, we get impatient around issues like crime and thuggery and we are triggered by the one event that went pear shaped, not the 37 that were contained or quelled.
Which is not to say any of it is acceptable, but the downtown Auckland story is one of despair, and deprivation, and dishonesty. Leader after leader, from mayors offices, to business groups, to police, to ministers, to councillors have all had plenty to say over the years.
But its failed. And in that failure actually might be a bit of hope, if this government has the fortitude to act.
The reason we are here is because we wanted to try hugging people. We would let them out of prison, we would give them home detention, we might not even charge them at all. And if we did, we could rely on a nice judge to wag his finger and tell us not to do it again after he read the cultural report.
The advantage of that is we know what doesn’t work. Is tossing them in jail the answer? Probably not long term.
But surely its reached the point where it’s the best we have.
As Levin showed us over the weekend, the respect for law and order is gone, and it's gone because we got soft, and thugs love soft and take advantage of it.
When the centre of a countries biggest city is a no go zone and there is an industry in meetings of anger, despair and exasperation from businesses going broke because of fear...
Time is up on excuses.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
2 comments:
Need to look overseas to see how wrongdoers are handled.
US, UK, Aus. or even Hong Kong.
No mucking around. No good guys. No excuses. No cultural crap.
Agree Mike. In my local supermarket in Auckland, I witnessed two women with a full trolley of all sorts of expensive items, casually walk towards the door without paying. When the guard asked if they had paid, they said they had thrown away the receipt and kept walking. No one stopped them. The staff said they come in every week and steal but they have been advised by management to do nothing. They log it in an excercise book and report it weekly to the police and nothing happens. So why on earth would they stop then? If it is free for them, then it should be free for everyone. Anarchy is already here, entrenced in our society.
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