Goldsmith said for too long gangs have been unwanted, intimidating and a pervasive prescience in communities.
A law professor says the Coalition Government’s new plans to crack down on gang insignia and public gatherings is “more of a political gimmick than an evidence based policy choice”, and could potentially backfire on them.
University of Auckland associate law professor Carrie Leonetti told the Herald the proposed legislation is reportedly based on a similar law passed in Western Australia.
However, she has never seen any evidence to suggest banning gang insignia and banning consorting had an impact on gang membership or violence.
Leonetti said the Government’s chief science adviser’s report last year on how to reduce gang-related harm recommended the exact opposite of what the Government is proposing.
“The report recommended working on primary prevention and trying to find ways of joining gangs and trying to minimise the harm gangs propose,” Leonetti said.
“It strongly suggested the tough on crime and zero tolerance crackdown would not be effective but could be counter-productive and may feed into the disengagement a lot of gang members feel.”
Leonetti said the proposed legislation could be an effective recruiting tool rather than a tool for dismantling them.
The new legislation will ban gang patches in public places and allow police to issue dispersal notices and non-consorting orders. Photo / Tracey Grant
However, another expert in drug markets and organised crime, Massey University Professor Chris Wilkins, said there is merit to the Government’s new policies.
Wilkins said patches are a form of marketing for gangs.
“They are projecting power, intimidating to the public, so the more you see people walking around with gang patches in the neighbourhood, the more you feel intimidated and the more you feel that the authorities aren’t listening to you,” he said.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Police Minister Mark Mitchell yesterday announced the Government will introduce legislation to ban all gang insignia in public places and create greater powers to stop criminal gangs from gathering in groups and communicating.
Speaking at the Auckland Central police station yesterday, Goldsmith said under the new law to crack down on gangs, police will be able to issue dispersal notices, which will require gang members to immediately leave the area and not associate with one another for seven days.
Courts will be able to issue non-consorting orders, which will stop specified gang offenders from associating or communicating with one another for up to three years.
“The law will also be changed to give greater weight to gang membership as an aggravating factor at sentencing, enabling courts to impose more severe punishments,” Goldsmith said.
Under the legislation, wearing a gang patch in public would come with a penalty of a fine of up to $5000 or up to six months in prison.
Mitchell told the AM Show this morning that the gangs who will be targeted are on the national gang list.
”To be a gang, you have to be more than five people, have a common name, and have to be involved in criminal activity,” he said.
Mitchell said the law doesn’t apply to gang colours.
“This is a superficial policy that adds little if anything to existing powers and even worse, the evidence shows it doesn’t work to reduce gang activity and intimidation,” Webb said.
Associate professor Carrie Leonetti said there are countless reasons why people join gangs in New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
“We all agree that gang intimidation must stop, but insisting that police use their resources to chase down people for wearing jackets, bandanas, hats, even jewellery like rings, rather than criminal behaviour, is not the best way to do that.”
Webb said the Government is not interested in the evidence. Banning gang patches in Whanganui didn’t work as it was too hard to enforce.
Green Party justice spokeswoman Tamatha Paul said it sounds like the Government has no plan on how these laws and policies will be enforced in real life.
“It reflects the fact that the Government wants to be seen to be doing something, but really it will create more harm in the community and will increase hostility between police and the communities they are meant to be serving,” she said.
“It hasn’t been well thought out and the actual application of these laws will be really tricky.
“How would you be able to identify anybody if nobody has any patches on? There could be something happening right in front of your eyes and you wouldn’t know.”
Goldsmith said over the last five years gangs have recruited more than 3000 members, a 51 per cent increase. At the same time, there had been a significant escalation in gang-related violence, public intimidation and shootings, with violent crime up 33 per cent.
“We need to take action and reduce gangs’ ability to engage in criminal behaviour and prevent them from further endangering and intimidating Kiwis.
But Leonetti said there are complicated reasons why people join gangs and why gangs inflict harm.
“These have to do with disenfranchisement, family harm, family violence, disengaged communities,” she said.
“Particularly young men tend to join gangs because they fulfil a familial role they don’t have in their lives.”
Police Minister Mark Mitchell said New Zealanders deserve to feel safe in their homes, communities and public places.
“For too long gangs have been allowed to behave as if they are above the law. There is no tolerance for this behaviour and these new laws will support police to take action against it,” he said.
Mitchell said the ban on gang patches would apply to funerals/tangi and although funeral services were always emotional events, that doesn’t give gang members the right to disrupt and take over public places.
The legislation will be introduced to Parliament over the next two weeks, go through the normal public consultation process and expected to be passed into law by the end of the year.
Mitchell said Police Commissioner Andrew Coster is 100 per cent on board with the legislation and highly motivated to get out there with it.
