Assault in the Mangere town centre: Part of the bigger malaise
The latest incident of assault on an Indian student Jaskaran Singh Chadha in the Mangere town centre and the failure of police to turn up once again brings to fore the bigger malaise related to safety and security in our communities.
First - our town centres in South Auckland are increasingly under the grip of opportunist hooligans and thugs who thrive on petty crimes like shoplifting and preying on small business owners and their staffs – a concern voiced earlier last year by several members of the public in a local meeting between community, police, local MP and a Minister in the government (Read IWK April 7, 2017).
Secondly, the police are chronically under-resourced to take back that control.
Should small business owners and their staff be living under such a constantly predatory environment in 2017 where shoplifting and assaults are accepted as “quite prevalent”?
The fact that such opportunist incidents are deplored by one and all in the country, especially the police who are often exposed to constant media scrutiny and public attention, often unwanted, does not ameliorate the situation.
The victims are still left with little options other than being agitated, and rightly so, about the malaise that our town centres are currently facing.
Following the lead of this latest assault, The Indian Weekender spoke with the staff, manager and the security personnel at the liquor store in Mangere town centre where Mr Chaddha ultimately took refuge to escape the attack from the offenders, more about the incident, the call to the police and the apparent delay in police response.
However, what came out from those conversations was the fact that such incidents were almost “quite prevalent,” – a situation that may cause concern for many in the community.
Venus Aggarwal, the store manager of the liquor store, told The Indian Weekender “this is quite prevalent here in the Mangere town centre.”
“In fact just a day before this incident happened, on Friday, January 19, few guys came into my shop and tried running away with cans of beer.
“When our security staff managed to get hold of him the police was notified,” Mr Aggarwal said.
“When police arrived at the scene and arrested the culprit that we were informed that the culprit was running away after shoplifting from the local Pak n Save store, who have also notified the police,” Mr Aggarwal said.
“Even earlier in December a shopper came to our shop after being assaulted by a local thug who had snatched his smartphone and asked him to go to our shop and buy a packet of cigarette and $100 bill cash out to get his mobile back,” Mr Aggarwal recalled another similar incident.
The Indian Weekender was told that that incident was also notified to the police.
The views were echoed by the local security staff Mata, who acknowledged that shoplifting and opportunistic snatching was “quite prevalent,” though differing on the frequency of incidences of assaults.
Despite differing on the frequency on the number of assaults, it is pretty obvious that the small businesses and staff, and in some instances shoppers, in the area have resigned themselves to the fact that petty crimes perpetrated by so-called “young offenders” is the order of the day.
It is important to recall that earlier last year in April, several small businesspersons from the Indian community had made a passionate plea urging the police to take back control of many town centres in South Auckland, which according to them were under the clutches of gangs of “young criminals”. (Read IWK April 7, 2017).
"I think the biggest problem today is that youth gangs have taken over the town centres. The Police needs to do something to take back the control of these town centres," one of the business owners from South Auckland had then said in a community meeting convened by National Party MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi on Saturday, April 1, in Papatoetoe.
The Indian Weekender had then probed the then Associate Minister for Justice Mark Mitchell present in that meeting about the measures being taken to dispel the view amongst many in the community that town centres were under the control of “youth gangs.”
It seems that nothing has changed so far on the ground and the malaise continues unabated.
The ease with which “youth gangs” operate almost at will, with little respect for the hard-working New Zealanders or fear about consequences, is indeed a concern.
The fact that the police could not attend to this latest instance of assault – a place where similar incidences were reported and attended by the police just in the recent past indicates the greater malaise prevailing in our town centres in the South Auckland.
Indeed, there is more to be done, to dispel the perception, even if a flawed one, that small businesses and staff have to live with the “quite prevalent” petty crimes and “youth gangs.”
The latest incident of assault on an Indian student Jaskaran Singh Chadha in the Mangere town centre and the failure of police to turn up once again brings to fore the bigger malaise related to safety and security in our communities.
First - our town centres in South Auckland are increasingly under...
The latest incident of assault on an Indian student Jaskaran Singh Chadha in the Mangere town centre and the failure of police to turn up once again brings to fore the bigger malaise related to safety and security in our communities.
First - our town centres in South Auckland are increasingly under the grip of opportunist hooligans and thugs who thrive on petty crimes like shoplifting and preying on small business owners and their staffs – a concern voiced earlier last year by several members of the public in a local meeting between community, police, local MP and a Minister in the government (Read IWK April 7, 2017).
Secondly, the police are chronically under-resourced to take back that control.
Should small business owners and their staff be living under such a constantly predatory environment in 2017 where shoplifting and assaults are accepted as “quite prevalent”?
The fact that such opportunist incidents are deplored by one and all in the country, especially the police who are often exposed to constant media scrutiny and public attention, often unwanted, does not ameliorate the situation.
The victims are still left with little options other than being agitated, and rightly so, about the malaise that our town centres are currently facing.
Following the lead of this latest assault, The Indian Weekender spoke with the staff, manager and the security personnel at the liquor store in Mangere town centre where Mr Chaddha ultimately took refuge to escape the attack from the offenders, more about the incident, the call to the police and the apparent delay in police response.
However, what came out from those conversations was the fact that such incidents were almost “quite prevalent,” – a situation that may cause concern for many in the community.
Venus Aggarwal, the store manager of the liquor store, told The Indian Weekender “this is quite prevalent here in the Mangere town centre.”
“In fact just a day before this incident happened, on Friday, January 19, few guys came into my shop and tried running away with cans of beer.
“When our security staff managed to get hold of him the police was notified,” Mr Aggarwal said.
“When police arrived at the scene and arrested the culprit that we were informed that the culprit was running away after shoplifting from the local Pak n Save store, who have also notified the police,” Mr Aggarwal said.
“Even earlier in December a shopper came to our shop after being assaulted by a local thug who had snatched his smartphone and asked him to go to our shop and buy a packet of cigarette and $100 bill cash out to get his mobile back,” Mr Aggarwal recalled another similar incident.
The Indian Weekender was told that that incident was also notified to the police.
The views were echoed by the local security staff Mata, who acknowledged that shoplifting and opportunistic snatching was “quite prevalent,” though differing on the frequency of incidences of assaults.
Despite differing on the frequency on the number of assaults, it is pretty obvious that the small businesses and staff, and in some instances shoppers, in the area have resigned themselves to the fact that petty crimes perpetrated by so-called “young offenders” is the order of the day.
It is important to recall that earlier last year in April, several small businesspersons from the Indian community had made a passionate plea urging the police to take back control of many town centres in South Auckland, which according to them were under the clutches of gangs of “young criminals”. (Read IWK April 7, 2017).
"I think the biggest problem today is that youth gangs have taken over the town centres. The Police needs to do something to take back the control of these town centres," one of the business owners from South Auckland had then said in a community meeting convened by National Party MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi on Saturday, April 1, in Papatoetoe.
The Indian Weekender had then probed the then Associate Minister for Justice Mark Mitchell present in that meeting about the measures being taken to dispel the view amongst many in the community that town centres were under the control of “youth gangs.”
It seems that nothing has changed so far on the ground and the malaise continues unabated.
The ease with which “youth gangs” operate almost at will, with little respect for the hard-working New Zealanders or fear about consequences, is indeed a concern.
The fact that the police could not attend to this latest instance of assault – a place where similar incidences were reported and attended by the police just in the recent past indicates the greater malaise prevailing in our town centres in the South Auckland.
Indeed, there is more to be done, to dispel the perception, even if a flawed one, that small businesses and staff have to live with the “quite prevalent” petty crimes and “youth gangs.”
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