KEY POINTS:
Many dairy owners feel they are damned if they defend themselves and damned if they don't.
The feeling follows a number of attacks, including the fatal shooting of Manurewa liquor store owner Navtej Singh, which have left retailers wondering who will help them in a threatening situation.
They also want to know, if they do try to defend themselves, exactly how much force would be deemed too much in the eyes of the law.
"The other day there was a person who didn't defend himself; he ended up being stabbed," said Auckland Sikh Society spokesman Ajit Randhawa.
"It would have been the same in the case of this Otara liquor shop owner [Virender Singh, who was charged for injuring a youth]. If he hadn't defended himself he would have been stabbed, so what do you do?"
Auckland's Sikh community have got together to discuss the spate of attacks that they say have left them feeling frustrated and unsure how to act. As a result they have formed a trust to help retailers, such as Virender Singh, who are prosecuted for defending themselves.
Tomorrow they will meet again in Papatoetoe to discuss the case of Virender Singh and brainstorm other ways of improving what seems like a hopeless situation.
"You can see how the retailers are on the back foot in every case. We have had a death, we have had a stabbing and we have had an assault."
Mr Randhawa said part of the problem was a perceived lack of resources by police to deal with aggravated robberies and threatening behaviour.
That was compounded by a lack of "political will" to tackle the problem, which is particularly bad in South Auckland.
There are now concerns that more shopkeepers will start taking the law into their own hands.
"With the response that we see of the emergency services and the police, you can see there is a lot of frustration out there and in that frustration you can see people doing things that under normal circumstances they wouldn't do.
"We would like the powers that be to tell us what resources they have got in a situation like that [to help us].
Police have constantly reassured retailers that if they find themselves in the threatening situation they should ring 111. If they do want to defend themselves the law allows that they can use "reasonable force".
But the problem, say retailers, is that "nobody comes around telling the retailers what is reasonable force".
Criminal barrister Gary Gotlieb, a former president of the Auckland District Law Society, said it was "so damn hard" for anyone to say what retailers should do in a threatening situation.
While the public generally thought anyone who was being robbed should be entitled to defend themselves, dairy owners put themselves at risk if they had a weapon.
- Naomi Arnold
