A man is stabbed in broad daylight in Birkenhead, Auckland. People walk out of supermarkets around the country with trolley-loads of food without paying. A man is shot dead while riding his motorbike in Northland. Alcohol shop owners across the motu can only watch as thieves blatantly hide booze in their bags – or in some cases down their jeans – and brazenly walk out of the store.
Some of the crime is petty, some serious but there’s no doubt crime and criminals are ruling the land and the internet.
Go to social media sites and you’ll find hundreds of videos and TikToks of people helping themselves to what they want. Some community pages even have “Thief of the Week” and plaster a picture of the culprit online. Trial by social media is hardly a deterrent.
The reaction from police, which we see all too often to major incidents, is carloads of armed officers with guns at the ready turning up.
Twenty armed officers – not Armed Offenders or Special Tactics Group cops – responding to a live, unfolding event is admirable and must give New Zealanders confidence that police have the manpower and the firepower to react.
