Most citizens would like nothing more than to see the end of gangs.
Of course that will never happen but the way Rotorua MP Todd McClay sees it, what we can do is make them less visible by banning gang patches from our country's schools and institutions.
As we report today, his
bill to ban gang insignia aims to do just that and may well receive enough support to go through. He's certainly right when he says that gangs serve no legitimate purpose and are involved in a lot of organised crime in New Zealand.
Their protestations that they are "family oriented" clubs are laughable and nobody wants to see them parading their patches around in the intimidating manner which usually accompanies groups and gatherings of gang members. Having said that, a ban on gang patches wouldn't make a huge difference in many places around New Zealand, including Rotorua.
We don't have the highly visible gang presence in the central city like we used to in the 1980s when groups of Mongrel Mob and Black Power members were a common sight.
We know the gangs are still there but for whatever reason, they keep a much lower public profile these days, with the exception of youth gangs, the members of which tend to wear "colours" in the form of bandannas rather than patches. They are generally considered gang wannabes but they cause their fair share of problems from time to time.
As the MP says, the bottom line is that law-abiding citizens going about their day-to-day lives and staff working in our schools, hospitals and government departments deserve to be protected from feeling threatened and at risk.
In his column today Mr McClay says gang patches are nothing more than a "badge of crime" and he has sent a strong message to gangs that their "reign of terror and thuggery" is over.
Strong words indeed. Let's hope his new bill can back that up.
