A senior Mongrel Mob member says National’s latest gang policy fails to address the root causes of membership and could make the problem worse.
Harry Tam joined Breakfast this morning to give his reaction to the policy, which would see a person’s gang membership become a specific aggravating factor during criminal sentencing.
It comes after Ōpōtiki saw hundreds of Mongrel Mob members roll into town for the tangi of Barbarians leader Steven Taiatini, who was allegedly murdered.
The policy has been criticised by Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori, who say it’s only a small tweak to laws that already exist.
Tam says the policy would fail to address the causes of gang membership and violence.
“We’ve got to come to terms that we can’t actually arrest our way out of this problem,” he said.
“This problem has been ongoing for decades, and I haven’t seen a policy that actually addresses the causes of gang membership.”
He said that policies adopted overseas which focused on social development rather than suppression were far more effective, and he wanted to see New Zealand look into it.
“That’s what we haven’t seen in this country. We’ve seen a continual political football that’s been passed from one party to the other, trying to show how tough they are on crime.
“Quite frankly, tough is not enough in this situation,” he said.
Tam spoke about the current Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in state care.
He said it shows trauma suffered by communities has become intergenerational — pushing people towards gangs.
“Because those issues have never been addressed, we have communities of people who have trauma that has been passed on intergenerationally.
“Unless we actually deal with those issues, we’re not gonna get very far, and quite frankly, it’s cost the country heaps.
He believes that harsher sentences and higher incarceration rates would actually drive up gang membership, as well as being a burden to taxpayers.
Tam called prisons a “prime” recruiting ground for gangs.
“If you’re gonna keep on putting people into prisons, numbers will increase, you’ll need more prisons and who’s gonna pay for it?
“When people come out of prison, are they better or are they worse?”
Gang leader’s death ‘capitalised on’
The situation in Ōpōtiki has sparked heated debate among different groups across the country and the political aisle.
Reaction from political parties has been branded a “political football” by a number of players, including the town’s mayor and Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi.
As for Tam, he’s disappointed, saying Steven Taiatini’s death is being capitalised on by National and the media.
“Show some respect to the family who lost Steve,” he said.
“I think it’s rather unfortunate that National has been very opportunistic about this whole situation, where they’re capitalising on the death of a person.
“If we really care about public safety, what did we do to keep Steve safe — we didn’t.”
He said the media’s reporting on the tangi and subsequent fallout had exacerbated the public’s fear of gangs, creating “moral panic”.
“We take situations, we blow them all out of proportion, and they become a reality in the minds of the people.
“Those that we talk about start acting out because we expect them to act that way.”
Policy about ‘sending a message’ – Goldsmith
Over the weekend, a number of politicians said the new policy already exists, with Police Minister Ginny Andersen calling it a “technical tweak”.
“The law as it stands says sentencing must take into account being in a gang or organised crime group as an aggravated factor in sentencing. National are simply proposing a technical tweak,” she said.
National’s justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith told Breakfast this morning the law is less about changing judicial process and more centred on “sending a message”.
“We know that it’s already dealt with organised crime,” he said about the current Sentencing Act.
“We’re just beefing that up further and saying any membership of gangs should be a contributing factor, regardless of what the crime is.”
He said it would be paired up with other gang-related policies the party has proposed, like a ban of patches in public, more firearms searches and better dispersal powers.
The law would help to address gang “intimidation”, he said.
“Giving the police the powers they need to deal effectively with gangs in our community.”