The University of Auckland has pushed back against National leader Simon Bridges calling one of their staff members, 'sweary bear'.
Last night, Mr Bridges tweeted an analysis piece by Stuff around his party's new law and order policy discussion document .
"So who are the 'experts' plural who know so much about criminology in this piece?" Mr Bridges tweeted.
"Some sweary bear Ron Kramer, gang apologist Denis O’Rielly, Chester Borrows & Mob Pres Sonny Fatupaito. Really?"
National is proposing to ban gang patches in public places, refuse parole to murderers who will not give the location of a body and revoke parole for people who associate with gangs.
It also is looking at a new police unit to "harass and interfere with gang activity", modelled off NSW's 'Strike Force Raptor'.
After Mr Bridges' tweet, the University of Auckland's Twitter account hit back, stating, "for the record, the ‘Sweary Bear’ you refer to is Dr Ronald Kramer, a senior lecturer in criminology at the university".
"Dr Kramer has a PhD in sociology from Yale, has been published in the British Journal of Criminology and elsewhere and is a respected commentator."
"#expertbear."
The Stuff article quoted Dr Kramer, who called the proposals "transparently pathetic" and former National MP, policeman and prosecutor Chester Borrows who said he was "not sure what creating more offences in relation to gang membership will do".
Mr Burrows was also interviewed on TVNZ1's Breakfast prior to the discussion document release. When asked by host John Campbell "should we get tougher on crime", he said: "No, we should get smarter on crime."
Mr Fatupaito called the policy proposals "regurgitating policies of yesteryear" and 'dog whistle' politics.
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