Letters: We should all be outraged at gang patches

Photo / File

I read with interest your story in about Rendall Jack and Graham Bell calling for crackdown on gangs.

You story hit home for me as last night, driving home from work through the streets of Hamilton, I saw something that made me feel quite sick.

A group of boys, maybe 12 years old plus or minus, dressed in full Mongrel Mob regalia, were walking down the street. They were accompanied by a young man, perhaps 18 or 19 years old also in full regalia who appeared to be acting as the boy's chaperone.

The boys were demonstrating the classic 'walk of intimidation' – arms hanging but away from the body as if prepared to fight, faces set to a scowl.

I thought those poor kids. What chance do they have? Already they're committed to a culture, maybe even a lifetime, of crime and violence. They've been shaped into little monsters so that one day they can become big monsters. It made me feel sick.

I'm with Jack and Bell. Kids in gang patches at such a young age should outrage us because it is outrageous.

It's not just the people closest to these kids that are failing them, it's all of us.

Jennifer King
Hamilton

More trees please

Having read about the Rotorua Airport upgrade ($4.4 airport upgrade, Friday September 28), there is not a single mention of landscaping.

Has our airport chief executive and Destination Rotorua chief executive not taken a look at Queenstown Airport? Have they not noticed the trees and garden plantings?

The landscaping adds a huge amount of appeal to such places. After all, in their own words, "As a key gateway to our city, the airport is the first experience that many visitors have of Rotorua and helps to reflect our sense of manaakitanga".

Whenever I drive past our airport I cringe at how very stark and unattractive it is. All there is to see are cars and tarseal. Buildings aren't the sole aspects to a commercial development, landscaping should play just an important role, if not more so.

It softens the visual appeal greatly and offers a sense of calm and connection with the natural world. Another example of very poor commercial development is the new shopping complex bordering Rotorua Boys' High School. What a disgrace.

All commercial and urban developers should be bound by covenants for greenery to be heavily included. Clearly, they are not. There is not a single plant in that new shopping complex which makes it very ugly.

So I certainly hope that with our airport upgrade, our council has employed a qualified landscape architect to make our airport one to be proud of. If they haven't, that is a very big mistake indeed and quite frankly, a disgrace.

Suzanne Mexted-Dykes
Rotorua