I was appalled that in the space of just one week, there were four separate violent attacks on Asian students. I was disgusted at the savage nature of the attacks, which involved punching and kicking with no concern by the offenders for the pain and injury inflicted on the students.
I felt ashamed as a New Zealander that this could happen to people who were guests in our country. I was concerned that the attackers were young teenagers, many of them girls, who showed no sense of right or wrong and no concern that they could be held to account for the consequences of their actions.
I don’t know whether the attackers singled them out because they were Asian or students. The Police should question those they have arrested about this. It’s quite possible the victims were just seen as easy targets. The consequences, however, will be reputational damage for Auckland and the country with parents who send their children to study in New Zealand because they think it is a safe place.
If we don’t deal effectively with young offenders, the chances are that they will go on to a life of crime, imposing huge human and economic costs on society.
Police and government agencies need to get to the core of the problem. The most common cause of young people behaving like this is the dysfunctional families they come from, where physical and sexual abuse is common and so is drug and alcohol addiction. The parents themselves may be criminals.
If we don’t tackle these factors, homes such as these become a breeding ground for a new generation of people who are social disasters and offenders. The government needs to get serious about early intervention to stop this. Prevention rather than action after the event is best, especially for the victims.
People are sick and tired of hearing from the government that crime is coming down when they have experienced being a victim of crime.
Instead of complacent statements about crime falling we want to see the government better resourcing the police to do the job they expect from them. Police numbers have been frozen while the size of the city grows by 40–50,000 a year and the police budget has been cut in real terms.
The risk of being caught is the strongest deterrent against crime and with crime resolution rates in Auckland for things such as burglary falling to just six per cent, there is no deterrent.
It’s time for the government to lift their support for the police. Police staffing is stretched, and it’s incredibly frustrating for people dealing with criminal offending to be told by the police that they are too busy to investigate.
Recently, I took up with the Minister of Police my concerns that a victim of a crime was told that he should go out and collect his evidence on the identity of an offender who had burgled his home and stolen his credit card. The victim was told to go to the service station where the offender using the credit card had been filmed on CCTV and pick up the footage. The Police Minister did not deny that this had happened but dismissed it as an operational matter.
If lack of police response is because they have inadequate resources, it is a political and ministerial issue. The police commissioner told me at a Select Committee meeting that he had to absorb $300 million in extra costs not compensated for by the government.
It is hard, even for me as an MP, to get the police response the public is entitled to.
After meeting with Indy Purewal, the Redhill Superette owner, whose premises was invaded by teenagers stealing from the shop as if they were entitled to, I went on his behalf to the Papakura police. I wanted a meeting between the police and retailers who were concerned about lacking support from the police in dealing with crime. The Inspector responded 10 days later saying I needed permission from the Minister of Police before he could be involved in a meeting. That just isn’t good enough. In 30 years, I’ve never required ministerial permission to engage with the police to help members of the public.
It is time the government recognised and became more responsive to public concern about the crime that is happening in our community.