Rotorua — Freedoms NZ leader Brian Tamaki hopes more than 1000 people will take to the streets of Rotorua today to march against crime, which he says he will make the No.1 election issue.
Tamaki said his Man Up Bay of Plenty team would gather the troops in Rotorua from 10.30am before they take to the streets.
“We will march from the mall where the recent ram raids happened and by the retailers and shop owners who have been affected by the amount of crime that is happening in Rotorua,” Tamaki told the Herald.
“From there we will go to the lakefront where a number of speakers, including myself, and retailers will address the people.
“Rotorua used to be the mecca of our tourism — the tourist capital of the country and it is now the crime capital of New Zealand.
“Law and order must be the most important issue this election.”
According to Tamaki, crime statistics in Rotorua have skyrocketed.
He says assaults have gone up 30.5 per cent, sexual assaults are up about 40 per cent, robbery is up 42 per cent, violent crime victimisations have increased by 95 per cent, retail crime is up 180 per cent with 1750 incidents and ram raids are up by 1028 per cent.
Across New Zealand, the police are adding 250,000 new identities to their database every year.
Tamaki said he had his own team of data people.
“They have more than seven million people in their system as offenders, victims of crime, people involved in a serious vehicle crash or missing people. Considering we have a population of only five million, would it be safe to assume almost everyone has been impacted by crime in some way?
“This is New Zealand, not Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador or Honduras. These countries all have high homicide rates, robberies, and widespread gang-related violence,” Tamaki said.
“We are going to work with the crime networks and work with the gangs so by Christmas, people can come back and enjoy their Rotorua holidays,” Tamaki said.
“That’s what is part of this initiation today. I’m hoping for over 1000 today — but could be less or could be more.”
Tamaki said even this morning, the Armed Offenders Squad and ambulance staff were on a call-out.
“This is a daily occurrence and we have to do something to stop this out-of-control crime spiral,” Tamaki said.
