A Mongrel Mob tangi at the Wairoa cemetery in 2015. Photo / Warren Buckland
A Hastings gang member says Wairoa Mayor Craig Little should "let the dead rest" after the mayor's bid to ban gang insignia from his district's cemetery's headstones.
Mongrel Mob lifetime member Johnny Nepe Apatu told Hawke's Bay Today Little was "talking through a hole in his head" when he talked about pushing for a bylaw change that would ban gang and other "offensive" insignia from headstones.
"There are a lot of worse things than being in a gang," Apatu said.
"If the mayor is going to segregate he should make sure he is looking at the whole community - the paedophiles, the murderers.
"Having an insignia on a headstone is an honour and an acknowledgment, what's wrong with that? He needs to let the dead rest, they have served their purpose here.
"Most gang members belong where they are buried, let them rest in peace. Why cause havoc?"
On Tuesday, Little claimed that other members of the community found their presence offensive.
"Any gang stuff is offensive to people," Little said.
"So if you have a loved one beside one, you can be looking at your loved one's headstone and you look up and could think they are part of the gang because there is a big gang [headstone] behind it."
The bylaw has already been recommended for public consultation by the office of the district council's group manager of planning and regulatory services.
Little confirmed a six-week public consultation would begin soon.
Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Alex Walker said the council's Cemetery Bylaw meant it stopped gang members from erecting headstones with gang insignia in the district.
"My gauge is whether a headstone would add or detract from the resting place of my grandmother.
"The use of gang insignia, especially when they are used on large memorials, and large in size are not respectful if they detract from the identity of those that surround them. This includes other symbols like swastika."
The council's Cemetery Policy was reviewed and reconfirmed by Council on August 26, 2021, in accordance with the council's Policy Register, she said.
Hastings District Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said the council had rules around the types of gravestones that can be used and it assesses these when applications are made, but there is nothing specific about gang insignia.
"To date, there have been no significant issues brought to our attention – we would reassess and respond if problems arose and were ongoing," she said.
"Our cemeteries are sacred resting places – it's about being respectful to all the families and whānau who access them to honour their loved ones."
Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise agreed.
"Headstones are private property so we do work with family and with monument makers to ensure the material used are suitable," Wise said.
"Our cemetery team look after every family with respect and work with them to ensure their loved ones are remembered in a way that is fitting.''
Sociologist, Director of Criminal Justice at the University of Canterbury, and author of "Patched", Jarrod Gilbert, sympathised with Little's concerns but said it came down to the rights of gang members versus the rights of others.
"If it was offensive symbols like swastikas, and really offensive language then I am with the mayor on that," Gilbert told Hawke's Bay Today.
"But gang patches would fail to meet the threshold of 'offensive'. You can find people walking around with patches anywhere.
"The passing of a bylaw is all well and good but would it survive a legal challenge? It's difficult, it seems like an issue is being created where there isn't one."