New power sought to curb gangs

Press, 13 May 1981, Page 3

New power sought to curb gangs

PA Wellington The police should be able to break up associations of violent offenders in the same way that they were able to break up associations of active thieves, said the Government’s committee on gangs in its report yesterday.

The committee, which is chaired by Mr Comber, the Under-Secretary of Internal Affairs, recommended that section 49 (d) of the Police Offences Act. 1927. be amended to give the police this power. It said that the police had in the past been able to break up associations of offenders actively involved in committing offences of dishonesty by using this section.

The section says, among other things, that habitual consorting by thieves is an offence.

The Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, said that the recommendations made in the report would be divided into five areas and that a minister would be responsible for each one.

The five categories are education, employment, law enforcement, community affairs, and recreation. The committee said that no society could tolerate the existence in its midst of groups committed to a philosophy and practice of frequent violent offending. Other recommendations made by the committee to curb gang lawlessness are: • A review of the law and penalties on unlawful assembly and rioting.

• Gang premises should have to comply with local-author-ity by-laws.

• There should be less delay between arrest and sentencing in cases involving serious violence.

The committee recommended that non-association conditions be included in sentences of probation to help offenders who wanted to break away from gangs.

It noted the difficulties experienced by the police in enforcing vehicle-confisca-tion provisions in the law and said that ways should be explored to overcome these difficulties. Problems included identifying the driver of a vehicle and the ownership of a vehicle. Many cars used by gangs were on hirepurchase.

Because of concern about “booze barn” violence, the committee said that the Licensing Control Commission should limit the size of public bars and lounge bars and that district licensing trusts should limit or alter their buildings.

More support should be given for community initiatives to offer young people constructive options to gang involvement.

The report gives prominence to peoples motives for joining gangs and mentions social caues such as housing, unemployment. cultural changes, and family breakdown. The committee said that joining a gang was often a symbolic protest for young people ' who have good reason to feel resentful and angry about the position they are in. through little fault of their own.”

The report puts into perspective the size of gangs in New Zealand. In 1976 the number of people aged between 15 and 24. the age span of most gang members, was 560,000. There are now an estimated 2300 gang members in New Zealand. Most of these, 1650. belong to ethnic gangs and 630 belong to “bikie” gangs.

The committee said that the biggest gang was the Black Power group, with about 540 members, followed by the Mongrel Mob, the Stormtroopers. ‘ the Headhunters, and the King Cobras.

Police estimates showed that between 50 per cent and 78 per cent of gang members had been convicted of crime, but there was no breakdown on what kind of offending was involved. In other recommendations the committee advocated setting up alternative-activ-ity programmes at maraes and other venues. It said that truancy should be cut down through home visits, work trusts should be accepted as employing authorities, and the Department of Labour should continue to encourage work groups such as gangs. It said, “Sitting round the gang headquarters or clubs drinking beer may often be the main form of regular recreation. Periodic ‘rumbles’ galvanise the group and focus its combined energies on the planning of strategy for the ‘war’ against a shared enemy. “It could be said that the battle history does not appear oh the sports page, but is captured and glorified with front-page headlines by the news media, which bestows honours and mana, in the eyes of most of the gang members, for the most violent actions.” The committee commended the police practice of not identifying gang members’ affiliations when giving information to the news media. It hoped that the news media would try to

strike a balance between the public’s right to know about gangs and avoiding coverage that unnecesarily glamorised their activities.