gangs and political parties in Aotearoa
So some politicians have gone and got some other politicians all het up by visiting gang members and....
Well, there's an election coming up, so they're all going to seize on whatever chance they can get to make the other parties look bad.
This time around it has been politicians from Te Pāti Māori and the Greens visiting the Mongrel Mob.
In the past it has been the National Party's Rob Muldoon - here he is shaking hands with a gang member employed on a work scheme. Have a look at this page, scroll down to "Intervention", and check out the side panel titled Muldoon and the gangs:
He believed in engaging with gangs through government-subsidised work schemes to keep people from a life of crime.
The results may have been a bit iffy, but the idea was good. Given Muldoon's record, I wonder if perhaps the problem was more in the implementation than the principle. The main body of the article gives a little more:
A 1981 report recommended making subsidised work available to gang members. The government acted on this recommendation, and in the mid-1980s millions of dollars was given to gang collectives for work-related activities. Although most funds went to genuine projects, in some cases they supported extravagant clubhouse renovations and opulent lifestyles. This abuse of the schemes resulted in their cancellation in 1987.
So, Rob Muldoon, a National Party Prime Minister, saw the good sense in working with the gangs to get gang members into gainful employment so as to reduce crime. Now we have the National Party getting all upset because certain other politicians have met with a gang. What gives?
The current iteration of a National-led government is all about being "tough on crime", by which they mean throwing people in prison. This approach does not work as it does not address the causes of crime, but it does help create the conditions in which crime thrives. But the current iteration of the National Party is committed to this violent rhetoric of being "tough on crime".
And why would politicians from Te Pāti Māori and the Greens meet with gangs? In this article on Radio NZ Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara explains herself:
"I think what we need to clarify first Guyon is the fact you see Mongrel Mob, I see whānau. I see mums and dads, I see uncles who have been trapped in intergenerational trauma who have not been listened to, especially in the last three years by this government who continuously target those behind the patch."
"We do not discriminate against anybody, and especially where Māori are over represented, and in the gangs we know that there are many Māori whānau in gangs."
"I see wānau" - that right there is the key. These are not monsters. They are very ordinary people. They are parents, children, uncles, aunties, cousins. They want the best for their own children, like all of us.
"Intergenerational trauma" - this is another very important point to remember. The gangs did not just emerge out of nowhere. Young kids with all the opportunities this country has to offer did not wake up one morning and decide to be gangsters. There is a complex mixture of historical, social, political, and familial factors that have lead to people joining the gangs.
We will not rid ourselves of the gangs by throwing all the members back in prison. Quite the opposite - many a young man in remand for the first time has wound up joining a gang because the gang offered a measure of safety in a very frightening place.
"Oh, but he must've done something to get himself locked up in the first place!" Well, no, not always, and in any case:
- What lead him to make those bad decisions that got him in trouble with the Police?
- How does putting him in a situation that leads him into a gang helping deal with those factors?
- Wouldn't it be better to deal with the issues that lead to him getting in trouble so that he'll be able to function as a member of society? Like, you know, work schemes that give people purpose and pride and skills and a legitimate income, like what Muldoon tried? Or the many other interventions that have been tried over the years?
It's cheap and easy to shout "tough on crime", "lock them up", or whatever. It's cheap and easy to bash vulnerable groups in society - and for all the fear they inspire, gang members and criminals are vulnerable members of our society. It is much harder and more expensive to put in the work necessary to lift people out of poverty and deal with generations' worth of trauma that push people into crime. I'm not interested in the rantings of politicians who think the answer is to bash vulnerable people. I am interested in politicians who want to deal with the causes of crime. I am interested in politicians who want to lift people up and make life better for all of us.