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National | Gangs

'We want to hit the gangs and offenders where it hurts them' - Police Minister

The government will expand police powers to deal with gang violence, the new police and justice ministers announced today.

This includes creating a new intimidation offence and stronger search and seize powers but police will still need a warrant.

The government has been under heavy pressure to take action over the rise in violent crime, which also led to the removal of then police minister Poto Williams.

Cobalt is the police's new nationwide gang crack-down operation, succeeding Operation Tauwhiro, which targeted gangs and their guns and saw 1800 guns taken off the street, Police Minister Chris Hipkins says.

"We want to hit the gangs and offenders where it hurts them by going after where it hurts by going after their guns, their cars, their motorbikes, and making it harder for them to launder money.

"Gun violence within communities has gone up and that is one of the main reasons the focus of this operation is gang members.

Justice Minister Kiritapu Allan (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) is looking closely at the youth justice system to see what changes could improve the lives of youth within communities around the country.

"The reality is we all know that people don't become gang members overnight. There are enough contributing reports showing joining gangs hinges on socioeconomic factors- family community environment or a lack, a desire to have a sense of belonging.”

'Symptoms of our history'

Black Power lifetime member and social activist Denis O’Reilly says gangs in New Zealand - and in particular indigenous gangs such as Black Power and the Mongrel Mob - have too long and too easily been condemned as the cause of a raft of social ills "when, in reality, they are symptoms of much deeper problems, many of which stem from our history as a country".

"For many Māori that history means colonisation, land loss, loss of the reo, marginalisation, compounded later by urban drift. In turn, those things have led to a broken connection with land and with community, the breakdown of whānau, and a loss of identity.”

He says the initiatives announced today fail to address the core problem.

"Chris Cahill from the NZ Police Association repeats the ‘hit gangs in the pocket where it hurts’ mantra, calling for greater opportunities for police to “seize ill-gotten gains and hence remove the incentive to join gangs”. Really? Young people, especially young men, join gangs simply to enrich themselves financially? I don’t think it’s as simple as that.

"The term ‘gang’ is simply a label and it is applied seamlessly to misbehaving youth, through to victims of abuse in state care, through to individuals and groups involved in organised crime. The common denominator in the eyes of most New Zealanders is that they are all likely to be perceived to be brown-skinned.

"The gun crime initiatives could equally apply to a white power terrorist or even to the ACT gang who have deeply held views on the right to own and use firearms. The vehicle impoundment regime could apply to the Destiny church motorcycle gang protests or ‘Freedom’ or ‘Groundswell’ gang convoys."

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Gangs