Mike Hosking: Crime is out of control - Police Minister Ginny Andersen is a disgrace to the office

OPINION

I am confined to a few hundred words here so my planned list of the weekend’s crime activities will need to be shortened quite considerably. But we have an excellent selection of ram raids, attacks and burglaries - and the ensuing outpouring of anger, grief and despair.

At Glenfield Mall another Michael Hill smash and grab. Remember Michael Hill has already closed one shop because of crime and spent lord knows how many millions on guards and fog cannons.

I note last week at their AGM, Briscoes told shareholders they are spending another $1 million a year on security, on top of all the other millions they are spending, so between Michael Hill and Briscoes alone, security is a booming business.

We have the Palmerston North cafe attacked by the Mongrel Mob. The ram raid at the Takanini liquor store (the one who applied for bollards but got turned down). The police chase in West Auckland. The Christchurch “crime spree” (the headline writer’s words, not mine) with eight businesses targeted.

Then we have the dad distraught over his son being targeted and threatened with stabbing. The kid doesn’t go to school, the police can do nothing because of their ages, so he is thinking of leaving the country.

There s also the NZ Post shop set to close in Titirangi after seven break-ins.

As I say, plenty more where that came from, just not enough column inches. Against this backdrop we have the recently-released stats around arrests, especially for young people.

Of those arrested, more than half never got to court. Of those who did, barely a third got a sentence … and you wonder why they go back for more.

We all know the story about the Government’s approach to prison - that’s why the numbers are down 20 per cent; they’ve been let out, they’ve got ankle bracelets, and the absconding on bracelets is up 90 per cent.

Fortunately, we have the relatively new Police Minister who sees what none of us do: a) that crime isn’t up apparently, it’s just being reported more she says; and b) we feel safer because there are (almost) 1800 more cops on the beat.

New Police Minister Ginny Andersen.

This Government has said a lot of elaborate and straight up and down nonsense in the past six years, but Ginny Andersen and her brass neck on crime has got to be in serious contention for the most spectacular bout of gaslighting yet. And in her outlandish and outrageous untruths around crime is the cold hard reality of a two-term Government.

The trouble with the facts is they catch up with you. In the early days you can say things like you will build 100,000 houses in 10 years, and you will put more police on the streets, and you will grow the economy, and put in light rail and build cycle bridges. That’s why term one is always the easiest, you get to blame the last lot and also explain away any non-delivery by suggesting the best is yet to come, and it’s still early days.

Six years in, the numbers don’t lie and this Government is caught up in one gargantuan lie. I know no one who feels safer. I know no one who thinks the police are adequately resourced and attend to crime in the way we would expect.

In our wider family alone in the last year, we have dealt with several break-ins, several threats (death and otherwise) via social media, an assault in the city centre and a home invasion. Not one of these has been attended to in anywhere close to what you would once have expected … not from the police, and because the police didn’t always do what they once might have, not by the judicial process either.

From our experience, to get: a) the police at your place at pace; b) an interest that will lead to an investigation; c) an arrest; d) charges that lead somewhere; and e) an actual sentence which might involve an element of deterrence, you’d be better off at the TAB putting $50,000 on Moana Pasifika to win Super Rugby.

The simple truth is people are scared and, if they’re not scared, they are furious. This is not the New Zealand we know, or the New Zealand we like and want for our kids.

Crime is rampant, the thugs are violent, the gangs are growing, the police are over-worked, the judicial system is either asleep or under instruction, and the minister is a disgrace to the office.

I blame Jacinda Ardern and I’ll tell you why ... she appointed Andrew Coster and (former Police Ministers) Poto Williams - and it’s been downhill ever since.

Being soft on crime gets you the mess we have, and no fewer than five police ministers in six years, whose sole line of defence is just world-class BS and spin.