Like all New Zealanders today New Conservative has our sympathies with those who were affected and even more for those whose lives were unnecessarily and pointlessly lost.

When serious incidents like these downtown Auckland shotgun killings occur, there is always a hue and cry to find and punish those responsible. And that is a valid reaction. We have to know why, and how it occurred so we can stop it reoccurring.

“The blame for this incident must go to the right place, not be placed on scapegoats. The true blame must be given to those at the top, the government.” Says Ted Johnston , Deputy Leader of New Conservative. ( A criminal Barrister in South Auckland for 3 decades)

UNDERFUNDING

The Labour government has allowed our protective systems to run down, and crime to run wild, by underfunding and under-resourcing our police forces, justice and probation/ rehabilitation services.

The police in this incident did a great job, and we are proud of them, but if

this incident had not occurred downtown close to police, then who knows how long it would have taken them to respond. When many dairies or small businesses are raided, police have much, much longer delays.

There are insufficient police. Lower numbers of crime convictions or charges are more related to less arrests and less solved crime, than a lowering in offending. The police are no longer on the beat in downtown areas constantly with their presence deterring and preventing crime. Nor are there sufficient numbers to respond to an increasing amount of crime.

In an environment where we have 388 ram raids in 6 months, plus constant dairy and shopping mall robberies (in broad daylight) the general level of lawlessness, and lack of consequences, create an environment that breeds more serious crimes. The offenders especially younger ones commit crimes with impunity and complete disregard of the law and the public.

Some blame the judge, but he lawfully followed his duties competently to the best of his ability, according to the law as written. That is his job.

That more serious offending will occur is obvious. However don’t let the government or others try to escape culpability and blame by scapegoating the judge for what was a crime that was completely unforeseeable in manner.

DELAYS

On top of this the Justice system, the legal aid system, insufficient judges, insufficient available courts, and court staff, as well as low wages have created huge delays. Up to a half or more of all prisoners in custody are waiting on remand for the court to deal with their cases. It can take years now for relatively minor matters to be disposed of, and more serious charges take even longer. Eventually people are bailed because they cannot just be interminably kept locked up waiting to have their cases dealt with.

“Justice delayed is justice denied, but it is also punishment denied.” states Ted Johnston.

Sufficient government resources and funding must be put back into the justice and crime sector to process the wave of crime. Insufficient funding of probation and rehabilitation, through organisations, courses, psychologists and mental health, sexual offending treatment means that offenders are less likely to have effective rehabilitation.

GANGS

Then on top of this we have a rising gang problem, with increased sophistication, and more close international gang ties. The 501’s deported back from Australia merely aggravate this. Guns and drugs are hard for police to locate as they are often stored by gangs with friends or others using threats. We must deal with gangs, firstly by removing patches would be a good start to weaken their pride and cohesion. Plus tougher penalties for gang related or driven offending. The gangs need to be dealt with like terrorists if they behave as such. We will not tolerate gang takeovers of towns.

GUNS

Then we have inadequate gun control. The massively expensive and wasteful gun buyback system did little but remove guns from the hands of good law abiding citizens. It was merely a virtue declaring display by the govt, since as we constantly see, guns are easily available to criminals.

New Conservative will work on a new arms act that is fit for purpose. The current one is broken and all Labour is doing is breaking it further.

Time and time again it's either failure to do vetting properly (like Tarrant) or it's gangs being allowed to run around and do whatever they want.

REHABILITATION

Currently we have Home Detention, electronic bracelets for offenders and many awaiting trial. They have monitoring, but this is insufficient. Many are able to still take drugs, or breach their detention. New Conservative, will conduct weekly checks. We will make Home D and EM bail stricter, so if they breach, the consequences are prison. This will be a big conversation and examination of the whole sector.

The introduction of targeted new offences for ram raids etc and dairy robberies, with higher penalties can be useful, but may only shift the criminal behaviour to a different type of offending. We often see a huge shift in numbers of particular types of offences over the years.

New conservative will ensure that those who commit offences are deterred and younger ones must be mentored and trained. Boot camps don’t work as all they create are fitter criminals. These also have huge recidivist rates of re-offending.

We must provide guidance and mentor these impressionable youth. Teach these young people morals, right and wrong, that has been stripped even from our schools. Many are lost from broken families or lives and need guidance. We will provide it.

Just locking up young people will institutionalise them, and make them easier recruiting material for gangs, as they become their new families. Targeted intensive rehabilitation is important, to stop them being totally absorbed into criminality.

The typical answer of most govts and politicians who know little about the justice sector is to say, tougher penalties. Get tough on crime, which sounds good but alone achieves little. (Aside from not dealing with other crime driving social factors like poverty).

“merely creating tougher penalties alone, will just help breed more hardened criminals, with less to lose. If they reoffend they just go home to jail. It’s just part of their job. “ states Ted Johnston.

This is why rehabilitation is so important.

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