Jarrod Gilbert: Why I believe there has been a miscarriage of justice in this gang killing case

OPINION

The gangland killing of Kevin Ratana is a case that highlights both the changes and the specific dynamics of New Zealand’s gang scene; growth, territorial movement, and violence as a means of dispute resolution. It’s also potentially a miscarriage of justice.

Kevin Ratana belonged to the Mongrel Mob. He was the founding member of the Kingdom chapter, one of many new chapters that formed around a single hub in Hamilton. Here we see developments occurring in the gang scene generally.

By the late 1990s and early 2000s, many New Zealand gangs were in poor shape. The gangs had created generational barriers, meaning the gangs had aged and not rejuvenated with young members. The establishment of the Rebels, Australia’s largest outlaw club, here in 2011 signalled the beginnings of a revival.

The swift growth of the Rebels showed there was still an appetite for gang membership, but that the old, established groups had to reform to attract new members. While some failed in this, and a number of established gangs fell away, the successful ones made room for new ideas and new members. One part of this was the creation of new chapters within existing gangs; in short, this meant there were more options for people to find chapters whose culture and style appealed to them. It worked.

With this growth in chapters and membership, many gangs began to spread out, moving into different areas. This fundamentally redefined the gang scene in important ways. Turf that had been considered the domain of one gang for decades was now being contested by others.

A fatal shooting on Puriri St in the suburb of Castlecliff. Photo / Bevan Conley

What came next was predictable. In 2014, I wrote about the growth and movement in the scene - changes which were then in their infancy - under the headline A Return to Gang Wars?

That question has now been answered.

Violence is integral to the gang scene. One of the basic codes within gangs is that any disputes and problems are solved by the gangs alone - and certainly not with the help of outside authorities.

When most of us have disputes over property rights or other harms done, we go to the police or the courts. The gangs forgo that, preferring a more primitive state of nature where might makes right. The inevitable consequence is violence.

And so we come back to the killing of Kevin Ratana. Ratana was part of the growth in the scene and had little regard for existing territories; notably in relation to living squarely in a “blue” area of Whanganui. Blue being the colour of Black Power, the old enemy of Ratana’s red Mongrel Mob.

Black Power had objected to his presence with a number of taunts and threats, one of which led to Ratana pulling a gun on Black Power members. Tensions were ramping up.

On the morning of August 21, 2018, a number of Black Power members converged on Ratana’s house armed with a variety of weapons and yelled out that he had a week to leave the area or he’d be killed. Ratana emerged with a gun, whereby he was felled with a single shot to the neck.

While the killing gives us insight into the changing dynamics of gangs and how this leads to violence, it is one of the convictions for the crime that tests common understandings of gangs and leaves open the possibility of a miscarriage of justice.

One of those found guilty in relation to the death was Damien Kuru, the local Black Power president. Being the president is key to this story. Kuru was not present at the scene and any connection to the attack was flimsy at best. The argument really rested on the idea that he was the boss so he must have known - and perhaps ordered - the raid against Ratana.

This comes back to a common understanding of gangs as highly-structured, mafia-like groups in which the president is all-knowing and all-powerful. In a nutshell, this was the view of the police expert at Kuru’s trial, and it was drawn upon a great deal.

The reality, however, is often very different.

I have witnessed numerous times when members of gangs have done things that their president has not known about. This might be because the president wouldn’t like the activity, the president is held in poor regard by some members, or it’s simply not the president’s business.

I was with the president of a prominent gang in the days after one of his members was involved in serious drug dealing. The president was incredulous that this member had been so heavily involved in the trade, not because it was a crime, but because the member had never been the least bit generous with the drug at parties - even though he clearly had large quantities of it. Think of that what you will, but one thing was dead certain: the president hadn’t a clue what the member was up to.

When it comes to organised gang-on-gang violence, it’s more likely the president will know about it, but there is absolutely no certainty in that. Gangs have more than their fair share of highly volatile, hard-to-control maniacs who will simply do what they do.

Damien Kuru, the Black Power’s president, had his case before the Court of Appeal just recently. It failed - although one of the three judges dissented.

For what it’s worth, I do believe this is a miscarriage of justice. Few people will have sympathy for a gang boss who may not have gotten the rub of the green, but getting such serious matters right is fundamental to our justice system.

The killing of Kevin Ratana tells us a lot about the contemporary gang scene, but the police and judicial response may well show us that we often know less than we think we do.

- Dr Jarrod Gilbert is the Director of Independent Research Solutions and a sociologist at the University of Canterbury.