Kerre Woodham: Same level of crime as you'd usually expect? That's not what the people are feeling

Yesterday, in light of the many phone calls, texts and emails I had, we put in a call with Police Comms asking whether they had someone willing to address the concerns that many people in Hawkes Bay have, regarding looting and general lawlessness.

They're trying to get someone, obviously they're very, very busy, and at least emailed back to say they would do their best to get someone on this morning.  

As I said yesterday, where there is a vacuum, where there's a lack of communication with the outside world, stories can spread and in that spreading misinformation can grow.

We’ve heard the stories of hundreds of bodies piled up around the district, but there is no evidence yet of that. It's in nobody's best interest to deny the fact that people have died, because we know that men, women and children have been killed in this devastating flood after the river burst its banks.

We know there may well be more as the clean-up and recovery continues. Who benefits from keeping secret the fact that people have died in the flood? Nobody. 

There is no political gain. There's no conspiracy, there's no cover up, there's nothing to see here, just the tragedy of people losing their lives in a flash flood. So there are some egregious tall tales doing the rounds.  

But yesterday, we had people ringing up, incensed by the Police Commissioner's comments that crime was pretty much on a par with crime that's normally committed in the community.

Andrew Coster said family harm incidents were the most prevalent and that if anybody had any information regarding thefts and looting, they should contact the police.

He pointed out that many of the stories Police do investigate are found to be just that, stories.

Like the Gun City one; that it had been looted, that is not true. But explain the callers and texters and emailers to me then?

They can't all be hysterical. And what would the motivation be? People are tense. People are stressed. People are worried. But I'm not entirely sure all of them are wrong when they say that they are getting car loads of people coming out to scope damaged property in remote areas.

I'm getting flashbacks to the Covid response, when the Ministry of Health and the Prime Minister assured every one there was plenty of PPE to go around.  

There are mongrels out there, complete and utter mongrels. Is this business as usual? Is this, oh well, you just kind of expect this level of crime at any given time, right?

All I know is that when the Police Commissioner says we have a strong police presence in the Hawke’s Bay region, that there's no extreme lawlessness and it's basically just the same level of crime as you'd expect, that's not what the people are feeling. 

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