Kerre Woodham: Because they know they'll get away with it

Before I launch into the usual litany of woe, and really, the stories making the news headlines are indeed indicative of a woeful state of affairs, I do think we should acknowledge some of the good news around. 

Zoe Hobbs was magnificent in Sydney over the weekend; the Tarankai raised, Auckland based sprinter has officially become the first New Zealand woman to run under 11 seconds for the 100 metres. Hobbs created history at the Sydney Track Classic by running 10.97 to scalp one-tenth of a second from her Oceania women’s 100m record with an exhilarating performance.

Sticking with sport, in the third game of their second season in Super Rugby Pacific, the Fijian Drua have claimed one of the biggest upsets in the competition’s history beating the Crusaders 25-24 which has to be good news for rugby full stop.

We also had three sold out concerts on Saturday night showcasing New Zealanders eclectic music tastes: BackStreet Boys, Snoop Dogg, and My Chemical Romance. So many beautiful emos in the central city on Sunday… and there's a great exhibition from the Tate Gallery on at the Auckland Art Gallery which is a must see. 

There was sunshine and people flocking to beaches, and I could pretend for just a moment that we'd had a summer up north.

So that's the good news.

We return now to our regular scheduled programming.

How on earth is the government and Andrew Coster going to spin this? Retail crime is up nearly 40 per cent —nearly 300 incidents every single day— and that's just the reported crime. 292 incidents every day in 2022, up from 140 per day in 2018. Why? Because the crims know they'll get away with it. 

There's been a 400 per cent increase in ram raids in five years, 76 per cent of those caught under the age of 18. Why? Because the crims know they'll get away with it. 

If you're on any neighbourhood FB page you'll see the footage of crims coming up driveways looking for homes to break into, cars to steal, opportunties to take stuff they're not willing to work for - why? Because they know they'll get away with it. 

Violent gun crime is on the rise. Police data reveals that while the number of firearm offences has risen and fallen over the past 15 years, 2021 was the worst over that period with 1,308 firearms offences recorded. It surpassed 2019 when there were 1,142 incidents, including the mosque terror attacks. So 2021 worst year in 15 years - until 2022. 

That was on track for being the worst year ever.  

Data released by police under the Official Information Act shows 10 murder or manslaughter deaths in 2022, up until 31 July. There were 11 in total in 2021.

Injuries are also running at a record rate, on track to exceed 300 firearm-related injuries for the first time. In 2021, there were 298 gun-related injuries recorded by police, the highest ever.  Why?  You know the chorus - repeat after me. Because they know they'll get away with it. 

And all we get from the Police Commissioner and this government is gaslighting: New Zealand is a safer place because of the gun buyback. There is no increase in crime.  Ram raids have decreased since I became PM. There are more police on the streets. Fog cannons will make a difference.

Utter, utter BS from a government that will not draw a line in the sand and say enough.

No more.

In a civilised society this is simply not acceptable and those who transgress, those who don't or won't observe the rules of civilised society need to be punished. 

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