The leader of Ngaruawahia's Tribal Huk gang, Jamie Pink, seems an interesting bloke. He told meth dealers to get out of town by a certain hour or, without having to put into words, cop the consequences. A couple years ago he got his gang making sandwiches for schools in low-income areas.
He comes across in video interviews as what some Kiwis would call hard case. (I think hardly anyone has used that term for a couple of decades. But I'm partly old school when it comes to language, as I am a believer in sometimes a "local solution.") His anger is at the scourge of meth - P - use in his tiny township. Several years ago, on hearing his 12-year-old daughter had been offered P, Mr Pink went round to the dealer's house and took to it with a sledgehammer. We can presume they've long since departed.
We can applaud the sandwich-making efforts, just as long as they kept it up. Let's assume the gang has. The vigilante stuff of giving meth dealers a deadline to get out of town I personally applaud. Liberals won't. I'm old school on certain situations and drugs being sold to school children is one.
About 30 years ago some old mates I grew up with in Rotorua took the law into their own hands. A gang had moved into their pub and were assaulting local patrons in the toilets and generally making a nuisance of themselves. So the good guys made a plan. On a pre-arranged signal, a family of tough brothers and their equally tough rugby team-mates attacked. Every gang member got knocked over. They were told never to come back and they didn't. No cops required. Problem solved. However, in principle, vigilantism goes against the rules of civilised behaviour and can be condoned only in exceptional circumstances.
