Renewed gang activity 'a tragedy-in-waiting'

Masterton needs to wake up to a renewed threat of gangs in the town before someone is killed, a community worker has said.
"Don't let something slide to (that) point," Tere Torea says.
"All it takes is one kick to the head, or somebody pushes someone and they fall and hit their head or break their neck.
"What do they say? 'What a shock. It was so sudden'.
"The public says it doesn't exist, out of sight, out of mind. We'll always have the youth problem, and stuff like that.
"What's it going to take?" Mr Torea said.
"This is not alarmist. This is real. Don't wait for a tragedy.
"I'll always have people saying I'm grandstanding, but the youth are being led astray."
Mr Torea said the emergence of a new gang, the Killer Bees, in Masterton, is a concern.
"These guys are killers. When somebody puts 'killer' in the front, there's the brand. Who was the other gang that was like that? The Hell's Angels."
Mr Torea said "when you see two groups confront each other in the street, that's an open, clear dispute".
"What you don't see is you've got youth being enticed to go into these gangs, and they're making their choice. Rust never sleeps."
Mr Torea said it is too easy to blame the families and talk about 'haves and have-nots'.
"Those reasons have always existed, but those kids are wanting things and they're taking things by force.
"It's extortion, reign by terror, and it's not on not from youth, not from anybody."
Mr Torea said the town should reflect on the 1980s and 90s, when there was a gang-related killing and the firebombing of policemen's houses.
His own house was burnt down by gangs in 1996. "Passivity doesn't work," Mr Torea said. "Look at World War II."
Mr Torea said the gang influence is not a US import, or Americana. "We've got Kiwicana, and it's terrible Kiwi carnage."
Mr Torea said young people who commit crimes show they don't value other people or their property, and they need to be made to acknowledge the harm they cause. "That's what people are crying out for."
He said he had spoken to a friend from the east of Masterton recently, who noted the progression in youth crime.
"It starts with tagging, then burglary, and you know what happens next."