The latest figures of ram raid crime are astounding and yet not surprising as we read daily reports of those crimes, but a 518% increase compared to the first six months of 2018 is still shocking.
In the first six months of this year, there have been 254 ram raids – that’s a 518 percent increase on the first six months of 2018.
A police report analysing a year of ram raids found 76 percent were committed by youths under 17 years old and 17 percent were under 13 years old.
Whatever the motive, National wants more penalties.
“It’s basically do nothing. Basically sit around, have a conference, tag and release, then do it all again next weekend”, said National justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith.
Police Minister Chris Hipkins said in a statement that youth offending, including ram raids, was a complex long-term issue. He’s stepping up the focus on steering young people off the road to crime by keeping them in school and engaged in meaningful activities.
Youth worker Aaron Hendry said youth offending comes down to growing inequality.
“Many of them are experiencing poverty, experiencing homelessness and we haven’t as a society provided the right supports,” he said.
He wants the conversation to change.
“We know that the tough on crime rhetoric has no teeth to it. It doesn’t create safer outcomes for our communities, it doesn’t prevent crime. All it does is punish people after victims have been made.”
Documents revealed 518 percent increase in ram raids, one-in-five offenders under 13 (msn.com)
As the crime wave continues, as well as ram raids we have gang activity, break-ins, assaults, and shootings reported almost daily, and so New Zealand is faced with yet another crisis, one that joins the cost of living, the health service, and housing. It is yet another indicator of the failure of Ardern’s Government to actually do something – except engage yet more consultants and employ another tranche of public servants, with Minister Hipkins pontificating that “crime was a complex long-term issue”.
The increase in crime is certainly a long-term issue: “In the 2000s there were around 50 murders a year in New Zealand, compared to an average of three in the 1960s.” Our level of crime is high, the cost of living in crisis mode, and the quality of life low. How far we have fallen.
What are the drivers of crime?
On April 19th, 2009 a Drivers of Crime Ministerial Meeting took place. The opening address was given by Professor Ritchie Poulton, the Director of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit, and attended, among others, by Simon Power, the then National Party Minister of Justice, and Pita Sharples, the then leader of the Maori Party.
In 2009, New Zealand’s government embarked on an ambitious policy program to “improve public safety, improve value-for-money; and improve outcomes for New Zealand society” (Cabinet, 2009). Addressing the Drivers of Crime was the bold title ascribed to a multi-agency program to supplement “tough on crime” rhetoric with “smart on crime” strategies (MOJ, 2009a, p. 2). Cabinet1 papers described “a new approach to reducing offending and victimisation by … address[ing] the underlying drivers of crime”, and to “improve public safety … by working on the causes of crime” (Cabinet, 2009, p. 1; 2010, p. 1).
Has New Zealand Identified the Causes of Crime? – Inquiries Journal
What does the term mean? “The term ‘drivers of crime’ refers to the underlying causes of offending and victimisation (MOJ, 2009a, p. 2). Understand and respond to the drivers of crime. Address the underlying causes of offending and victimisation: families, youth, alcohol, organised crime and drugs, and road safety (NZ Police, 2014a, p. 22; 2014c.”
In a lengthy and very thought-provoking article by Ronald F Pol, 2016, VOL. 8 NO. 02 | PG. 1/4 entitled Has New Zealand Identified the Drivers of Crime? the answer to that question, posed by Pol himself, is “No”.
So what are the identified drivers of crime in New Zealand?
A forum held at Parliament in 2009 on the Drivers of Crime in New Zealand identified mainly socio-economic factors contributing to crime such as:
Family dysfunction; child maltreatment; poor educational achievement; harmful drinking and drug use; poor mental health; severe behavioural problems among children and young people; and the intergenerational transmission of criminal behaviour.
Crime in New Zealand – The Drivers of Crime | Drivers Crime (liquisearch.com)
But the crime wave continues unabated. Nothing has changed except the increasing number of crimes, particularly ram raids, since Poto Williams was replaced by the minister of everything, Chris Hipkins.
The case of the teacher hauled before a kangaroo court and significantly punished with legal costs and loss of professional standing and lack of work opportunities is appalling both in its immediate and long-term effects. The pupil’s refusal to carry out the teacher’s reasonable instruction has been rewarded by the Teaching Council, who have found the teacher could have responded better – he could have been more kind. He should not make a reasonable request of a 14-year-old and have any expectation that it will be carried out.
Teachers now all know that it is pointless to issue any instruction or request at all, that their professional standing is at stake, and that the little darling concerned will have the support of mummy and daddy and a handy lawyer to swing in behind them, and that the teacher will be found to be the miscreant. How times have changed.
Back in the day, we had respect for our parents, the school and the law of the land. And yet now we have the complete reversal of that and so we wonder why we have increasing and escalating crime.
I am tired of hearing about how poverty is the problem. It is not. No matter how much it is fashionable to forever blame other people, self-respect, respect for others, care and concern for the wellbeing of society in general, are all free of charge. It costs nothing to teach children right from wrong. Parental poverty of effective child raising is not the same as monetary poverty.
Children are now taught that they can behave as badly as they like, disobey a reasonable instruction, pillage and plunder without fear of consequences from their family or from those who have been given the task of keeping society safe from these delinquents.
My sympathies go to the teacher. My contempt goes to the Teaching Council who found Mr Robinson of Mount Maunganui College guilty of serious misconduct. It seems he should have been kind in light of the fact that the 14-year-old pupil
“[…] jumped up and called me a f…ing old c… and [said] ‘you’re gonna replace my f…ing earphones’,”
How ‘snatching’ out a student’s earphones blew up teacher Greg Robinson’s 40-year career | Stuff.co.nz
The CAC (Complaints Assessment Committee) threw out the striking charge for lack of evidence, but found that the removal and breaking of the earphones and Robinson’s alleged failure to “de-escalate” the situation constituted “serious misconduct”.
It is no wonder that crime continues apace while we have the cards stacked against right, and wrong is supported and upheld.