Word: gangs
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...Gang members will have to get their tattoos removed if they want to remain in Wanganui, if Laws has his way: "You get a laser treatment or go somewhere else." Chester Burrows, the National Party's law and order spokesman and member for Wanganui, has indicated that he'll try to introduce a bill to Parliament that will give local councils the right to ban gangs and gang regalia in cities. King thinks it unlikely the bill will succeed. She favors U.K.-style anti-social behavior orders to curb gang activity...
...Gang veterans say the gangs are aging, with members mellowing as they become parents themselves. Lifetime Black Power member Dennis O'Reilly, who has also worked as a senior bureaucrat for the New Zealand government, says the shooting into a gang member's house was highly unusual, and that attacks on family go against tradition. Claude Kahika, president of the Mongrel Mob's foundation Hastings chapter, admits "sporadic gang violence flares up now and again. But because of the network of older guys, a dialogue and communication is there now." He says he has been negotiating with the gangs...
...While debate continues about how to deal with the problems posed by older gangs, it's the new wave that is costing the government sleep. Police statistics suggest that about 70 teenage gangs, with more than 1,000 members, are prowling the depressed suburbs of southern Auckland. Inspired by violent rap, hip-hop music and L.A. gang culture, they seem destined either to swell the ranks of the more established ethnic or motorcycle gangs, or, perhaps more alarmingly, to create their own equally ruthless organizations. Dubbed the ABC gangs by police, who shorten their two- or three-word names...
...Last year the government committed $NZ10 million over four years for youth workers and services for high-risk youth. Police set up six-man "youth action teams" who speed to outbreaks of gang violence and arrest troublemakers. The aim is to get the youngsters charged with breaches of the peace with bail conditions that will take them off the streets at night. Says Inspector Jason Hewett, the policing development manager: "The goal is for zero tolerance." He is confident authorities are already having some success. "I'm being careful here-and homicides could happen in 30 minutes-but there have...
...evening with one of the youth action teams last month shows that police still have much to do to bring the streets to heel. Gangs of teenage boys are skirmishing over a 1-sq.-km patch of turf in south Auckland. In Electra Place, officers Ott and Stevenson find a bare-chested youth holding a blood-soaked cloth to a 3-cm slash above one eye; his friend is screaming about a gang attack. The victim says the knife wielder has run off into a house a few doors down the street. "The guy with the knife could still...