Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ryan Bridge: If you're not responsible or capable of saying no to a gang life, how can you be punished for it?
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Interesting op ed. This is from the Conversation Chris Gledhill,
- 0:03Speaker 1: they professor of Law at Auckland University of Technology and
- 0:06Speaker 1: opeed about the government's new gang legislation. It argues that
- 0:10Speaker 1: the changes that are being made and some last minute
- 0:12Speaker 1: ones could impinge on the Bill of Rights, and it
- 0:14Speaker 1: makes some good points. It also says this people join
- 0:18Speaker 1: gangs for various reasons. For some it is a matter
- 0:21Speaker 1: of family connections. For others, gang membership may arise from
- 0:24Speaker 1: being marginalized from society. The Royal Commission on Abuse and
- 0:28Speaker 1: Care highlighted that abuse was also a pathway into gang membership,
- 0:33Speaker 1: and a twenty eighteen a report highlighted that imprisonment feeds
- 0:36Speaker 1: gang recruitment. So you don't have a choice if you
- 0:41Speaker 1: are poor, if you have family in a gang, if
- 0:44Speaker 1: you went to jail and they recruited you in jail,
- 0:47Speaker 1: that's on society, not on you. You don't have a
- 0:50Speaker 1: choice in the matter. It's a crucial part of the
- 0:54Speaker 1: puzzle because it sets up the entire system of response
- 0:58Speaker 1: to dealing with the problem. Right, if you're not responsible
- 1:01Speaker 1: or capable of saying no to a gang life, how
- 1:04Speaker 1: can you be punished for that association is the expectation
- 1:10Speaker 1: that if you join a gang and you've been raised
- 1:12Speaker 1: in a household that is associated with a gang, that
- 1:15Speaker 1: you are impoverished, that you don't know what is right
- 1:19Speaker 1: and what is wrong, and if so, how can you
- 1:23Speaker 1: be punished? You know? N two the number to text.
- 1:28Speaker 1: I interviewed a guy called Puck out of the Hawks Bay.
- 1:31Speaker 1: He was with the Mangol mob. This is years ago,
- 1:33Speaker 1: and he was done for a homicide, spent time in prison,
- 1:36Speaker 1: but then turned his life around, had a positive role
- 1:39Speaker 1: model and he knew what he had done was wrong.
- 1:43Speaker 1: I sat down with him for a good couple of hours,
- 1:45Speaker 1: had a good chat. He knew what he had done
- 1:47Speaker 1: was wrong and was remorseful and really sorry and wanted
- 1:52Speaker 1: to apologize to the people that he had heard. And
- 1:56Speaker 1: then I found out about a year later in jail
- 2:01Speaker 1: he had turned his life around. In fact, the then
- 2:04Speaker 1: Prime Minister Cindra Dernad use him as an example of
- 2:07Speaker 1: somebody who could turn their life around with a positive
- 2:09Speaker 1: role model, etc. Anyway, he then did some horrendous domestic
- 2:13Speaker 1: violence stuff, dealing meth in prison. I mean, you name it.
- 2:17Speaker 1: So there's a guy who I know knows what he
- 2:20Speaker 1: did was wrong, you know, and he had bad influences
- 2:23Speaker 1: growing up. All on that SLF knows what he did
- 2:25Speaker 1: was wrong, but did it anyway? For more from News
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