New Zealand won’t be able to get rid of gangs, says a former Australian police officer and gang expert, but it will be able to manage them.
Yesterday, police arrested senior leaders, as well as the majority of patched members and associates, of the Bay of Plenty chapter of the Mongols motorcycle gang.
Off the back of a number of gang-related shootings earlier this year, yesterday’s police sting has prompted fears gang activity is getting out of control.
But Dr Michael Kennedy, a lecturer at Western Sydney University and a former Australian police officer, says New Zealand is in a better position than most countries to manage the issue.
He told TVNZ1’s Breakfast that compared to countries like Germany, the United States and Australia, it's far less complicated for New Zealand due to not having a clash between state and federal agencies.
“They’ve got to get the cooperation of - in the United States in particular - every other police commissioner, every other governor. It’s either 20 or 30 thousand policing organisations in the United States. How the hell does a country so competitive as that agree on anything?” says Dr Kennedy.
He says it's easier to manage in New Zealand because there are less groups that need to agree with each other.
“In New Zealand you’re very fortunate.
“You don’t have any of that. You’ve got one Prime Minister, one Police Commissioner. They can make decisions and they can get something done.”
He says the New Zealand Government will deal with the gang problem, but they "can’t get rid of it".
"They'll manage it because they're able to do it in one hit."
Though the Bay of Plenty Mongols were part of the Australian Bandidos gang before being deported to New Zealand, Dr Kennedy says they're not an "Australian gang" as police had dubbed it yesterday.
The death follows the appearance in court of a person accused of a double homicide earlier this week.
"I mean, what do you do when we get people from the Mongrel Mob over here - 'Oh, these New Zealand gangs'? They have got plenty of New Zealanders in Australia.
"I don't think it does anything to eliminate the groups or map them any better."
Police said yesterday there have been six known shooting incidents in the Bay of Plenty involving the Mongols and other gangs. Nine people are facing a total of 228 charges.
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