Paula Bennett spot on regarding gangs
4th September 2017
Yesterday Deputy PM Paula Bennett said what most decent people believe: gang members are, because of their conduct and
values, lesser beings than the rest of us, and ought not to be entitled to the same legal protections as law abiding
citizens. The Prime Minister has smacked Ms. Bennett down, and forced her to “clarify” her remarks. Sensible Sentencing
supports Ms Bennett’s brave stance.
“Gangs are a cancer on our society which successive governments have allowed to grow for more than forty years” said
Sensible Sentencing gang spokesperson David Garrett. ”It is wonderful that our deputy PM recognizes that reality”
“These organizations are quite literally outlaws: they have complete disdain for the laws which govern the rest of us,
and their ‘values’ are the complete opposite of those of decent people. Any organization which sets as a test for full
membership the raping and beating to death of a vulnerable street prostitute like Mallory Manning is surely not an
organization of decent human beings, or even half decent human beings” Garrett said.
“Sensible Sentencing’s policy is clear: The police ought to be instructed to follow a ‘zero tolerance’ policy with
regard to gang members: outstanding arrest warrants should be executed wherever and whenever possible; breaches of
non-association orders etc ought to result in immediate arrest; the owners of vehicles which are not registered and
warranted ought to be ticketed without exception. Vehicles which are so dangerous as to be unwarrantable should be
impounded.”
“There should never be co-operation between gangs and the police during – for example – ‘poker runs’ or other activities
gangs indulge in to disguise the real nature of themselves and their activities. Their business is crime: the bashing
and intimidation of ordinary citizens; the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine – an evil drug which lies
somewhere behind almost all serious crime in this country”
“It is probably too late now to eliminate gangs from our midst. They have grown too large and too strong, and have a
number of what Lenin called useful idiots standing up for their so-called rights. Bill English is unfortunately probably
right when he says there cannot be two sets of laws: one for gang members and one for the rest of us. But the relentless
harassment of gang members under existing law is both doable and proper.” said Garrett
“If gang members don’t like relentless harassment, the answer is easy: take off the stinking patch which proclaims the
wearer as an outlaw, and renounce the organization associated with that patch. We are rightly a tolerant society, which
allows people a wide range of behavior that other elements in society may not like or approve of. But we don’t have to
be a society which aids and abets or even tolerates those who sneer and laugh at its most basic values.”
ENDS