Editorial: NZ a haven from world atrocities

New Zealand is a long way away from the atrocities seen in Europe this year.

Crime is a part of every community. It just varies in severity.

Here in Hawke's Bay some crime is on the rise.

According to the latest crime statistics, quoted by the Labour Party, robberies in the Eastern Police District rose from 96 in the 2014-15 year to 141 in the latest financial year. That's up 47 per cent. Burglaries were up 29 per cent to 3435 and assaults were also up 15 per cent with 2382 reported in the last year.

Victims of such crimes feel their privacy has been invaded and they often find themselves jumping at noises in the night. It must be horrible feeling unsafe in your own home.

I have come to relish the relative safety of Hawke's Bay. During my travels in Europe, it seemed every time I turned on the TV there had been another terrorist attack on the continent. I was sitting just 300km away when I heard about the attack in Nice. A terrorist drove into a crowd of families watching a fireworks display on Bastille Day. The driver, described as a soldier of Islam, killed 84 people.

Later that week a teenager armed with an axe and a knife attacked 20 people on a train in northern Bavaria, Germany. Days later, a German-Iranian teenager shot and killed nine people in a shopping centre in Munich.

Then a priest was stabbed and had his throat slit while taking mass in northern France. Four others were taken hostage by the two armed men who claimed to be from Islamic State. The French people I spoke to were saddened by the attacks on their soil but not surprised. These assaults were becoming all too common.

It is a sad state of affairs when you can't hop on a train, visit the mall or even attend church and feel safe. While we will always have an underbelly, these atrocities make me grateful to call a small region on the east coast of the North Island, New Zealand, home.