Community voices dissatisfaction with Auckland police

Manukau Indian Association (MIA) hosted a public meeting on Friday, April 29, on the issue of rising crime in Auckland, especially in the south of the city where assaults have become a daily routine.

Present at the meeting were MP Jenny Salesa and MP Phil Goff of Labour party, Auckland Council Deputy Chair Ross Robertson, MIA President Veer Khar, community representatives, shop owners and victims of crime.

South Auckland has recently become a hub for the crime mongers to rob, assault and peddle unsolicited activities. The objective behind these actions has more often than not been termed as opportunistic and materialistic instead of being racially motivated.

According to the community representatives, most of the victims are dissatisfied with the approach and actions of the police; some even complain of not being heard at all by the police. The victims mostly are dairy, liquor, jewellery shop owners besides pedestrians on deserted streets. The gathering raised concerns among many who questioned if the police were properly performing their duty.

According to statistics, as mentioned by MP Phil Goff, only six per cent of the crimes reported are solved or has an outcome where the offenders are punished but the remaining 94 per cent manage to get away with it without being convicted or punished. This further encourages them to continue with such activities and increases the number of crimes in the city.

A victim present at the meeting spoke of the astonishing response and action from police when her husband was being attacked at the East Tamaki dairy shop last week.

“My husband was being hit with a hammer by a man when he tried to retort to the robbery at our dairy shop in East Tamaki. I called the police and mentioned that we are being assaulted right now. I was [asked] silly questions instead of sending the cops to the scene. On raising an alarm, locals and friends rushed to the scene but by that time the offender had fled. The police arrived much later after the attacker [ran] away and my husband was already covered in a pool of blood,” the woman said.

A couple of other stories were also presented at the forum where people complained of the police department pays no attention no heed to their issues.

“The police have to be more vigilant not just in terms of issuing traffic violation tickets but in tackling such crimes with stringent rules and grim punishments,” said one of the victims of assaults at the meeting.

At the Q&A session responding to various queries and suggestions, MP Phil Goff added that the problem remains deep-rooted within the society. The fault does not only lie with the offenders but also with the family and the environment they grow up in.

From the history and family backgrounds of the recent offenders, it was ascertained that the parents of these young individuals were involved in drugs addiction, dealing and smoking marijuana, were alcoholic and had a history of domestic violence. Most of these offenders were young, had not attended school for weeks and months, and their guardians had little to no knowledge about it.
 

Mr Goff also mentioned that 50 per cent of the prison population is of Maori origin. Most of these offenders were Pacific Islanders and have had a history of a dysfunctional family.

“To reduce the crime rate in the city, such broken families and individuals have to be rehabilitated because there lays the root cause of all the problems,” added an attendee at the forum.

The community associations of South Auckland are holding regular meetings to discuss means to mitigate illicit activities in the areas and how to stay safe and act at times of distress.