Len Brown
Mayoral Candidate - Manukau 2007
021 893196

Moving Manukau Forward

South Auckland has received another full frontal media assault, this time through the international media outlet, TIME magazine. TV1 news recently took its lead from TIME and produced an investigation piece over two nights.

"You have really got to ask the question what is the purpose of this coverage" said Len Brown Mayoral Candidate for Manukau City yesterday. "There was nothing new in the material presented and this leaves us all with the question - who benefits from this sort of journalism?"

"There are a lot of hardworking people in our communities who are helping our young people to overcome the appeal of the gangsta image and lifestyle," said Len Brown. "These people, including the parents and families of young people, provide positive alternative options for young people to live normal lives."

"What annoys me is that when local American mimics are given airtime nationally and put into print internationally, we simply make them famous through such extreme media coverage," he said.

It is not the first time that this has happened in South Auckland. The media glorification of the Stormtroopers around twenty years ago raised the mana of gangs and promoted their members as cool multi-media stars. "We need the opposite message," said Len, "namely that the gangsta image is not cool; it's bad for our kids, their futures, their families and our communities."

"I do not subscribe to the view portrayed on screen and in print that you do the crime and then you do the time on national TV and the international print media!" he said.

The facts of the matter are that there has been and continues to be significant government resources and massive community commitment devoted to reducing the influence of gangs, crime and the drugs culture. We need the media to be a part of the answer rather than an unwelcome part of the problem through their actions.

Len Brown has been involved in community development for over twenty years and has been involved with recent local initiatives working on alternatives with young people caught up in gang violence and drugs.

"It is not compulsory for our kids to wear bandanas and parrot gangsta rap to star in the media", he said. "Our towns are the wellspring of some of the country's greatest young sporting, musical and academic talent. So I challenge the media to put our great young talent on show, our future All Blacks, opera stars, scientists and entrepreneurs."

"Lets agree to leave those American wannabes to the fate that we are all working towards, their rapid decline in interest and eventual demise."

ENDS

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