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A community worker with a long involvement with gangs says a new gang strategy needs to be more carrot than stick.
Police Minister Judith Collins has announced a new data-driven approach that looks at total spending on gang members and their families and tries to stop young people joining gangs.
She says gangs were a huge driver of child deaths and family violence, and family violence produces new generations of gang members.
Denis O’Reilly says talk of gangs is shorthand for Maori, and gangs now match the demographics of Maori society.
He says the focus needs to be on whanau rather than gangs.
"When you talk to these so called gang whanau and you talk to the parents, in the main none of these people want their kids to be in gangs. These people want warm, safe house, violence-free, drug free, they want their kids to achieve at school, they want them to have good jobs, they want what every other New Zealander wants but unfortunately we have got a system that does not allow that," Mr O’Reilly says.
One reason for high beneficiary rates among gang members is it’s hard to get jobs if you’ve been in prison.
FULL INTERVIEW: DENIS O'REILLY
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