Sun, surf, sand, Samoans, maybe we would be better off with Marian & Prince here???

You can sympathise with the Australian Police, they must get sick of dealing with NZders and their criminal behaviour. In this case they seem to have decided enough was enough and sent them ‘home‘, unfortunately for us, ‘home is NZ!

This ‘family’ is a real piece of work, Maria & Prince Brown will no doubt be relishing the chance to start afresh in NZ, especially with our grossly incompetent Corrections Department, this would be a bit like coming to Disney World. There is absolutely no doubt they will continue their crime spree in NZ.

I’m wondering if we shouldn’t be taking a leaf out of the Australians book.

I notice that Maria is actually from Samoa, if that’s the case then we should be looking at deporting her at the first sign of trouble.

Of course that won’t happen, because Barry Matthew’s and his crew won’t keep tabs on her and her delightful son, and they’ll probably kill someone while on bail. Then the tax payer would have to foot the bill to keep them in prison for 10 years and then the stupid parole board will let them out for good behavior.

As the Corrections Department seem to think the Samoan Justice system has something to offer NZ, maybe Barry could send them back as ambassadors… permanent ambassadors!

I’m sure the Samoans would be able to deal with them. Might save us some money just sticking them on the first plane out so they just stay in the transit lounge.

Chinese community leaders met yesterday to discuss ways to distance their communities from Peter Low. And the chief executive of a broadcasting station wants an apology from the man who suggested using triads to combat crime.

“His (Peter Low) ideas of doing things is not the New Zealand way, and it certainly is not the Chinese way.

“He does not represent us or the Asian community.”

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=30&objectid=10520648

Well it wasn’t like we didn’t see this coming!

Having had some first hande experience of working with Chinese in political groups, and there always seems to be one person pushing their own personal agenda who has a little clique around them talking them up – one minute they “speak for the whole community” next you find they’d be lucky to speak for their mates!

I’ll say it again ( because there’s been some comments claiming I am bagging ‘Asians’) The objectives on the web site were laudable, there are already groups within the community doing great work, and I think anything that invloves recent immigrants in working with fellow NZders to reduce crime is fantastic and to be encouraged. Triads and vigilantes on the other hand, are plain stupid, and Mr Low having lived here for 20 odd years should have known this would back fire.

Last week I wrote about the AAG (Asian Anti Crime Group).

At the time I thought that perhaps the media was using the term vigilante, and that they were hyping things up when the group appeared to be about education and lobbying – nothing wrong with either although replication of efforts already underway. I wasn’t alone and I see Rabon Kan ( http://www.stuff.co.nz/4609463a1861.html ) also thought the same thing.

Unfortunately I was wrong. I see the groups organiser, Peter Low, has described the group as…

“We are a vigilante group and are training now”

“I want this group to be legalised. If they (the police) don’t allow it, that’s when we might have to employ Triads to protect our community”

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10520221

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4609478a11.html

As this appears in both the Herald and Stuff.co.nz, it isn’t miss-interpretation. Peter Low is apparently from Singapore, and as English is essentially a first language there this hasn’t been ‘lost in translation’.

He comes across as a bit of a ranter (actually sounds a bit like an NZ First member, but that’s highly unlikely). The groups motives seemed worthy, but if they think somehow replacing local criminals with triads is a solution they have really lost the plot. Triads, if they even could be bothered operating here, would make the locals look like amateurs, so that doesn’t sound like a very well thought out solution. It’s possible all the attention is going to Mr Low’s head and he’s getting a bit carried away. Although if he gets really carried away the sight of Asians dressed in brightly coloured tights with funny helmets roaming South Auckland fighting crime would be a wondrous thing!

As I said last week, people would be far better off throwing their weight behind an existing group, ideally with their fellow New Zealanders.

Mr Low also says “This is non-profit, non-religion, non-politics and non-racist, It is open to all to become a member”- however if he was really serious about reaching out to all sections of New Zealand society then he wouldn’t have called it an Asian group.

I am guessing this group won’t be around in six months, sensible people Asian or otherwise, will likely gravitate towards existing groups, or someone claiming to be a member will do something silly that will isolate the group from the mainstream.

A pity, this is a wasted opportunity.

First off, I have no problem with people employing any means at their disposal in self defense. Vigilantism however, is a bit different. There is a fine line between self defence and preemptive action, and vigilantes can quickly cross that fine line taking justice into their own hands, this slips into a grey area where the crowd mentality descends into prejudice and suspicion, that isn’t justice or self defence, it’s mob rule. It may be that the media has chosen the word ‘vigilante’ when the group itself has not actually used this word – they should be correcting the media at every opportunity.

If your’e squemish, don’t check out this link, but this shows rather graphically what happens when people get really pissed about crime and take matters into their own hands… http://pakistaniat.com/2008/05/16/vigilante-justice-burnt-alive-karachi/comment-page-7/

It may well be that the Asians (mainly Chinese) who have got together to protect themselves are really just trying to help their fellow citizens avoid becoming victims, and clearly there’s nothing at all wrong with this. The website (curiously in English) http://www.aag.org.nz/faq.php seems reasonable enough, a pity the interviewees on radio and TV have sometimes verged on the slightly hysterical. I question why they feel that Asians (a pretty broad ethic generalisation) have specifically different requirements from any other ethnic group when it comes to dealing with the effects of crime. I can’t think of any, but I can sure think of some habits that ethnic Chinese immigrants have brought with them that would make them a target of crime – like the weakness for carrying large amounts of cash around with them.

The ‘rest of us’ (the group has introduced the distinction, so for this post I’ll stick with it) don’t walk around carrying (often) tens of thousands of dollars in cash, I personally very rarely carry cash at all. There is really no need to, you can comfortably get by using electronic transactions whether they be card or web based without needing to use cash at all. If any other ethnic group displayed a predilection for carrying and hoarding cash then without doubt it would be the target of crime. The reasons why people persist in using cash when it is not really required could be debated, lets just say, electronic transactions are traceable by agencies like the IRD, and that may be one reason.

This sort of crime is nothing new, it isn’t recent or unique to New Zealand. In parts of Asia you need to be pretty careful about what you do and when, with the exception being Singapore – but even they have crime. In every situation it requires you to do as the locals do and exercise common sense.

That’s not to say we should just accept crime, clearly we shouldn’t, but equally no one should put themselves in position where they attract the attention of criminals.

The events of the last few weeks have been appalling and its good that the ‘Asian’ community has become active in the law and order debate. What I saw when Yin Ping Yang and Joanne Wang were murdered, was not a crime against Asians or Chinese, but a crime against a fellow New Zealander.

It would be better for NZders of Asian ethnicity to join the groups established by their fellow New Zealanders rather than form their own thus perpetuating what seems to be a social isolation from other New Zealanders. This way they could have added their voices to the debate about law and order issues, and learned from the experiences of the rest of us. One of the best ways of dealing with this problem is for all New Zealanders to work together as a common group, not a disparate ethnic groups. We are all victims of crime.

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest”

Confucius

Well, Clark and Co were actually serious, and in another example of election year stupidity  we have the instant solution to South Auckland’s problems (just add huge dollops of cash)…

“The Government has revealed tough measures to clamp down on liquor sales, including allowing councils to prevent outlets opening near schools and to limit opening hours.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday the Cabinet had considered a raft of changes to liquor laws, including tougher controls on the supply of alcohol to young people and putting more restrictions on the location of off-licences.

She said the Government had prepared legislation “(after giving the matter about 30 seconds thought)

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10517993

Regardless of whether you think this is the solution to the problem, this can’t possibly be  a well drafted piece of legislation. It’s even scarier when they describe it as a ‘raft’, you just know there is a whole lot of other things buried in there. There are already controls on sales of alcohol to “young people”, how about just enforcing the existing laws? You could actually achieve everything you wanted with the existing laws, but this being election year I guess everyone wants to look useful.

I hope this doesn’t get any support in parliament and isn’t passed. It should be seen a blatant electioneering and if it turns out after the dust has settled after the election then the whole thing can be looked at rationally.

I wonder when Clark is going to start using those image consultantsthat transformed her last election, is that lipstick rubbed on her cheek??

http://stuff.co.nz/4586224a11.html

In case everyone forgot it was election year our Dear Leader has come up with her own solution to solve the problems in Glenn Innes Panmure Otara  Manurewa. Less stores selling alcohol.

Gee obviously a lot of thought has gone into this. Probably along the lines of it being an election year and needing some good press and being seen to solve the mess you created in the first place.

Despite billions of dollars being spent on social services, health and education and massive increases in the government bureaucracies and budget allocations, the real solution to social dislocation and poor uneducated people behaving badly is actually to reduce the number of stores selling RTD’s… well, it’s taken the PM over six years to work it out and it’s such a neat cheap solution you wonder why she hadn’t thought of it before.

Sheer genius, there’s so much evidence to show this simple solution will solve the problem… and really, the next step should be to roll it out nationally and have prohibition as that was such a success. The next logical step would be to encourage people to abstain from sex as this will reduce unwanted pregnancy and any social problems stemming from that.

There is no easy answer but a bit of leadership from the Police could be a start. I don’t mean having patrols armed with “Bushmaster” rifles (and in case you thought that was a hunting rifle, a Bushmaster is a modern version of the M16 assault rifle), we have the AOS and guns in some cars so this suggestion is as meaningless as the PM’s suggestion.

The Police Commissioner should sit down with the Mayor (Deputy in this case) and come up with a local solution, and I would suggest that this would involve really concentrated, high profile, long term community policing. The sort of policing the Police hate, getting out of their cars and hitting the pavement, small community stations spread throughout the district. The community getting to know their local Policeman or Policewoman, and that person being around and visible.

I know the Police cultrually seem to hate this method of policing and have steadfastly resisted efforts by governments of all persuasions efforts to introduce it. Well guy’s, you’ve had years to come up with a better solution and not only have your ideas not worked, but you are now officially deeply unpopular with the public. So maybe it’s about time the leadership showed some balls and tried something different, even if your rank and file would rather sit in the comfort of their cars and eyeball people, because the situation is now clearly so bad, that a few Bushmaster rifles is not going to solve this mess.

The Police need to actually get out and engage with the public, both law abiding and those on the fringes. You need to give the public confidence and hope, and you simply won’t do that with a bunch of guns. The Police might even start attracting a different kind of recruit interested in real community policing. Sadly it is going to take some creative thinking and courage to undertake the change, and to date the current leadership in the Police has shown a woeful lack of this quality.

This won’t solve the problem over night and will take a commitment beyond an elected politicians three year vision, but over time it may helpto change attitudes towards the Police and the public attitude – both from those who commit crime and those who could help to stop it. This won’t stop major crime, but it will help prevent small crimes that lead to young people moving onto bigger things.

Even if it stopped one in five kids becoming hardened criminals thats a step towards breaking a cycle that closing a few stores selling alcohol won’t make a bit of difference too.