Editorial: Horrific act of violence in our community

Linda Hall, Assistant Editor, Hawke's Bay Today. Photo / File

What an absolutely horrendous ordeal the flatmates in Riverslea Rd in Hastings went through on Wednesday.

Minding their own business while welcoming a new housemate, their evening turned to horror as gang members allegedly took to the new flatmate with an axe.

The weapon alone sends shudders up my spine. Everyone in that house must have been terrified.

It's hard to believe how quickly this altercation turned from greeting to violence.

Perhaps it is time for Police Minister Stuart Nash to come through on his promise to "smash the gangs".

Last month he added one of Australia's gang patches to the list of those banned in government buildings in New Zealand.

Now members of the Comanchero Motorcycle Club cannot wear their patch in court buildings, WINZ offices, libraries, schools, hospitals - even public swimming pools. And fair enough.

People in our community have the right to walk the streets and sit on their porches without fear of being attacked by anyone.

Nash has also promised to seize cash and assets from gangs and increase the number of police in the region.

While I agree a hard line has to be taken when it comes to violence and drug trafficking in our community and the sooner the better, I think we need to look at the cause of all this anger.

It's not normal to take an axe to someone.

So while we don't want them on our streets we need to look at ways to turn these members away from crime and drugs.

I've seen a couple of videos on Facebook recently about gang members who have turned their life around. They openly speak of the how they hurt their family members, how they regret what they did and how much better their life is without drugs and violence.

The still belong to a "gang" but it's a very different group of people.