Darroch Ball
Co-Leader Sensible Sentencing Trust.
Make no mistake, the current issue with COVID being linked to gangs has nothing to do with ‘vaccination hesitation’ or ‘mistrust of health officials’. It has everything to do with how the gangs don’t give a damn about doing their part for society and obeying the law.
The lockdown of our largest city has presented a circumstance that has allowed the usual ‘background operations’ of gangs to bubble to the surface. Hard city boundaries have shown up the movements of gangs and their operations, as well as highlighting how much disdain they have for the law and authorities in general.
The only surprise about the fact that COVID spread out of Auckland is that it didn’t happen sooner.
The biggest frustration for 99.9% of kiwis is that the nature of this virus dictates that it only takes a handful of people to stuff it up for the rest of us. The level of risk around spreading this highly contagious and deadly virus is tantamount to playing Russian roulette with a Gatling gun. The ‘high trust’ model that the government is using for New Zealand works for the vast majority of people. The problem with it is that it relies heavily on individuals doing the very basics right – fastidiously following the law, following private businesses’ rules, showing common courtesy to others, and respecting the fact that we all have to sacrifice for the good of our country.
The fact that gangs are not renowned bastions of those qualities is not lost on the government – hence their move to grant two Mongrel Mob kingpins ‘essential worker status’. Even though the problem isn’t only isolated to gangs, the risk of spreading the virus that gangs uniquely present is stratospheric. This is purely because of how, and why, they operate – it’s like throwing petrol on the COVID-flame.
Gangs are blatantly ignoring the rules that are designed to keep the virus at bay, minimise the spread, and ultimately save lives. We’ve seen multiple stories of mass gang gatherings, funerals, attempts to cross Auckland borders, and damage of MIQ facilities – to name but a few issues from a much larger list that have been missed by authorities.
But don’t worry, Mongrel Mob spokesperson Louise Hutchinson has told us that even though they are constantly crossing the Auckland boundaries (with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in their boot) – “they aren’t distributing meth”.
The real problem here is that this current government has made a rod for its own back without even realising it. They have continually approached wider gang issues with more of a ‘let’s hug it out’ mentality and less of a ‘let’s enforce the law’ approach. So when it now comes a time where the law needs to be enforced – the gangs just don’t care.
Whether the government wants to acknowledge it or not, gangs have exacerbated, if not been entirely responsible for, the spread of this virus from Auckland to the neighbouring regions.
So, the government’s solution? Either enforce the law and make sure gangs follow the same rules as everyone else, or grant the gang leaders ‘essential worker status’ so they can sort it out themselves. Guess which option they chose.
Let’s put this in context. Over the past year, we have seen a massive increase in gang numbers, shootings, drug dealing, murders, and gang-related violence on our streets. If this government is now asking gang members to sort their lawless antisocial behaviour out themselves, we have lost before we even began.
Other groups which have broken the law with mass gatherings or breaches of the Auckland border have been tracked down and prosecuted.
It is clear that the government is openly admitting either that they have lost control of the gangs or that there are two sets of laws – one for gangs, one for the rest.
The problem is it’s the 99.9% that are suffering for it.