Gang fears growing
Is gang activity getting worse, or is it business as usual? Certainly fears are growing that a rise in violence is down to a spike in gang membership, writes Georgia-May Gilbertson .
One man held a steel bar. Another had a hammer in his right hand and pulled a blue bandanna over his face.
The Black Power members, most aged in their teens, had stepped out of a black Subaru onto the street on the outskirts of Maraenui, Napier.
A witness to the events last Sunday said it’s not the first time he’s seen this happen in his area, he doesn’t think it will be the last either.
‘‘That’s the one!’’, one of them called out as they chased after another group of teenagers, who wore red.
The confrontation happened in front of young children, who he saw playing cops and gangsters – not cops and robbers – earlier that day, the witness said.
‘‘That was the saddest part, kids under five years old seeing this kind of thing, they have no hope.’’ he said.
Later that night, shots were fired at the Napier Medical Centre, but that followed a series of violent encounters throughout the day which included a gang member being struck by a car, and another being stabbed.
A witness told Stuff that they saw a group of Black Power members outside the centre. The group began shouting before a shot was fired at a car, which the witness believed contained Mongrel Mob members.
A police officer’s house, along with the Wairoa Police Station, were also the targets of gunfire last month.
Some say the recent incidents are the result of increased tensions between rivals and even their own chapters, others say it’s nothing new.
Detective Inspector Mike Foster said there had been a recent spike in gang membership in the past two years.
‘‘Roughly there’s been a 58 per cent increase in gang membership. There’s a larger visibility of gangs, particularly in Hawke’s Bay. A few years ago they weren’t so visible, but now they are.’’
Foster said police were seeing an increase in Mongrel Mob numbers and public visibility compared to Black Power. ‘‘The members are certainly getting younger. When you’ve got a methamphetamine market, their business model is to employ more people to sell more drugs to make more money.
‘‘This is not solely a police issue. We can’t arrest our way out of the situation.
‘‘We want to prevent the harm to the community and prevent young people from joining the gangs and going down that track, but we can’t do it on our own. We’re on board with Government agencies to try and combat it.’’
Foster described Sunday’s incident as a result of turf wars between the two gangs.
‘‘It happened in a place where people were walking their dogs and picnicking and to have them exposed to the type of violence we saw on Sunday – which was hideous – is wrong and it shouldn’t be happening."
Black Power member and community advocate Denis O’Reilly said things were ‘‘unsettled’’ within gangs due to their growth in numbers, and older members struggled to communicate with younger ones.
Senior lecturer and clinical psychologist at Waikato University Armon Tamatea said senior members would have had similar experiences when they joined the gangs when they were young.
‘‘These people are talking to themselves 20 or 30 years ago, so it’s not surprising that they (younger members) won’t listen.
‘‘A lot of young people often join gangs when they’re in prison as it reduces their chances of victimisation – especially if they have no support networks. But in saying that, they can also increase their chances of victimisation by marking themselves as rivals of other groups.
‘‘Those who join follow what they know, so they’ll have friends, wha¯ nau, uncles and aunties who join – for many, gang-centred lifestyles are considered very normal,’’ Tamatea said.
Tamatea said gangs were beginning to change narrative when it came to motive and activity.
‘‘A popular view was that they used to be about crime, territory, dominance and power, now there is an increasing conversation about social opportunities and elevating the level of education and health amongst their people’’.
Honorary life member member of the Mongrel Mob Harry Tam said it wasn’t that younger members weren’t listening to older members, it was that elders struggled to communicate with them.
‘‘I have past history in youth work and working with young people requires a skill. Most of our people are generally unskilled, they don’t have a strong education background, some can’t read and write, others carry a lot of trauma from their lives.
‘‘Older members have a lot of life skills, but they’re not great communicators. It’s a two-way street.’’
Tam said socio-economic factors also contributed to young people joining gangs as well as family connections.
‘‘As long as we’ve got a growth in disparities, you’re going to have angry people. This isn’t a gang problem, it’s a socio-economic problem and once we accept and start working on those factors as well as working directly inside the gangs to moderate behaviour that requires people like myself with the mana to do that, then you might as well just forget about it.’’
But Canterbury university criminologist Greg Newbold said new chapters were formed in gangs as there was no national leadership within.
‘‘There’s been attempts over the years to unify the mob in the ‘80s but it never worked.
‘‘The gangs recognise no authority but their own. It’s very hard to get any unity between the chapters as they’re all incredibly independent.’’
Newbold said there was always tension between the Mongrel Mob and Black Power – a tension that very few would be able to explain.
‘‘This is a feud that’s been going on from the very beginning. The original tension was that they were both Ma¯ oribased gangs, vying for the same membership.
‘‘They were in competition with one another – so they hated one another for that very fact, just like religious groups hate one another because they’re of a different religion.’’
Ambassador for Hastings and Flaxmere councillor Henare O’Keefe said the Hawke’s Bay community was working towards solutions to prevent such violent incidents from happening, but it wasn’t something ‘‘that would happen overnight’’.
‘‘Everyone needs to be loved. When young people join the gangs, a void is being filled, so we must find out what that void is so the community is able to help.
‘‘They have to keep up appearances – but they’re just blokes who have joined a club,’’ Newbold said.
‘‘Gangs become like a surrogate family, they have weak family links and it’s a driver to joining gangs.
‘‘When people come from a very solid family, you’re much less likely to join a gang.’’
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An arrest has since been made after an assault in Anderson Park. A 19-year-old man will appear in the Napier District Court on Wednesday.
‘‘This is not solely a police issue. We can’t arrest our way out of the situation.’’ Mike Foster Detective inspector