Press release 28-7-06

Crime Stats Hide the Real Story, Says Trust.

The Government has been so busy trumpeting recent crime statistics that it has failed to notice New Zealand people are living in fear and being forced to build barriers to protect themselves against the rising tide of crime in the community.

This week new crime statistics for 2005 showed almost every town and city in New Zealand has its own trade-mark criminal speciality and with police struggling to find new recruits, people were instead using drastic measures to defend themselves and their property.

A spate of horrific murders including the recent slaying of Wellington firefighter Tony Stanlake and Tokoroa teacher Lois Dear showed just how violent New Zealand had become.

Spokesman for The Sensible Sentencing Trust, Garth McVicar, said in his home town of Napier, recently named as having one of the highest crime rates in the country, constant criminal activity had forced the council to erect a prison-like 2.3m high fence around its botanical gardens.

“The fence is yet another win for the criminals, who are forcing us to drastically change our lives to suit them. Instead of building more barriers society should be gathering all its resources to fight the rising tide of criminal offending,” said Mr McVicar.

"This is where crime begins – with the vandalism of our gardens and property today, and serious violence against law-abiding citizens tomorrow. We shouldn’t be giving into these hoons and thugs. Instead we should be treating them like a virus and eradicating them.”

Mr McVicar said that many soldiers had given their lives fighting for democracy and freedom overseas, but the biggest threat to that freedom was now within our own shores.

"Those soldiers must be turning in their graves to see how successive governments and community leaders have bowed and scraped to the whim of the crims."

The fence Napier is building was a sad monument to how low society had sunk, said Mr McVicar, and he pledged that the Sensible Sentencing Trust would continue pressuring government and local body politicians to fight crime like the evil virus it was.

ENDS

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