‘Gangs wear patches to scare Kiwis — so we’ll jail them for it’

As a dog handler in the New Zealand police force’s armed offenders squad, Mark Mitchell spent years on the front line tackling gangsters with his German shepherd, Czar.
“I’ve witnessed the harm they do: the gang rapes, the drugs, the violence, the burglaries. But they are a lot worse and more violent now,” said Mitchell, who is now a National Party MP.
More than two decades after leaving the force, and following an alarming surge in gang membership and violent crime, Mitchell, 56, is taking on the outlaw gangs again as police and corrections minister for New Zealand’s centre-right coalition government.
An early focus will be on what gangsters are wearing, whether it’s the Mongrel Mob’s British bulldog insignia or the clenched fist of their rivals, Black Power. Targeting gang insignia is one of the key measures in the Gang Legislation Amendment Bill, which is due to receive its third and final reading in parliament this week.
It will become a criminal offence, punishable by up to six months in jail or a fine of up to $5,000, for gang members — the majority of whom are Maori — to wear their colours and patches in public.
Under the new regime, which is expected to come into force in November, police will be given new dispersal powers to stop gang members gathering in public and prevent specified gang members from associating with each other for seven days. They will also be able to hand out anti-consorting orders banning certain gang members from meeting or communicating, in private or in public, for up to three years.
Exceptions will be made for immediate family, even if they are part of the same gang. Gang membership will be made an aggravating factor in sentencing, which should mean longer jail sentences.
Paul Goldsmith, the justice minister, acknowledged that the new legislation limits freedom of expression. But he added: “We also think there is a fundamental human right for people to go about their business free from fear and intimidation.”
The coalition — made up of National, Act and New Zealand First parties — has a majority in parliament so the bill is expected to pass despite opposition from the Labour party and Maori leaders, who have warned that the law will inflame tensions between police and the Maori community.
The coalition believes this is a risk worth taking.
• Tougher policing ‘won’t fix New Zealand gangs crisis’
Many New Zealanders are fed up with groups of men flaunting their gang colours, and riding in motorbike convoys that periodically take over roads even in quiet rural areas, typically to attend funerals or “patching ceremonies” for new recruits.
During the election campaign last year the progressive Labour government — led until its final months by Jacinda Ardern — was accused of being too soft on gangs and crime in general.
Opposition figures cited Labour’s flagship policy to reduce the prison population by 30 per cent, its focus on rehabilitating offenders, and controversial decisions to hand out out millions of dollars to help gangs establish methamphetamine rehabilitation programmes, despite such groups being steeped in the drugs trade.
Although the precise numbers are not known, the number of gang members on the New Zealand police force database has risen by roughly three quarters — about 4,000 — since the Labour government took office in December 2017 to 9,180 in July. If this trend continues, the government has warned they will soon outnumber frontline police officers.
Labour has pointed out that gang membership was already growing rapidly long before Ardern came to power, under the preceding National government which held office from 2008-17.
However, violent crime has surged by a third over the past five years, much of it linked to gangs. In the prison population, 37 per cent of inmates have gang affiliations.
The escalating violence has been blamed in part on Australia deporting hundreds of New Zealand-born criminals back home, including prominent members of feared Australian biker gangs such as the Comancheros and Rebels.
As rival gangs have expanded their trafficking operations and more drugs — most notably meth — have flooded into the country, the stakes have increased. Labour has ridiculed the government’s sartorial anti-gang strategy, describing it as superficial and a waste of resources.
Labour’s police spokeswoman Ginny Andersen said: “Frontline police are stretched already dealing with criminal behaviour, so we have to have to look at what is the best use of their time. It certainly isn’t being the wardrobe police.”
But Mitchell believes the new powers will enable the police to make life more uncomfortable for gang members and deter potential recruits. “It’s a great tool for police to continue to harass and police the gangs, and it sends a clear message from us in the country that we’re not going to tolerate it any more.
“They go out in numbers wearing their patches to scare and intimidate people. A big part of what we want to do is reduce that criminal presence and visibility to the public.”
Countries around the world have taken drastic steps to crack down on gangs, with the Dutch government in 2019 becoming the first country to ban the Hells Angels motorcycle club.
New Zealand’s new legislation is modelled on laws introduced in Western Australia in 2021, which have been described as the toughest in the country.
Police in Western Australia have hailed their anti-consorting and insignia laws as a success, claiming they have disrupted outlaw motorcycle clubs while making it more difficult for them to recruit new members.
Although there is no evidence the legislation has actually reduced crime, the laws have made gangs less visible. They have also arguably made gang life appear less glamorous, with one heavily inked senior member of the Rebels motorcycle club charged and fined for flaunting his gang tattoos at a birthday pool party at a hotel. New Zealand’s government has stopped short of copying Western Australia by making it a criminal offence to show off gang tattoos in public because of the importance of tattoos in Maori and Pacific Islander cultures.
In the first two years since they were introduced, 93 “bikies” in Western Australia were charged with offences after showing off their gang tattoos in public, and police issued 436 dispersal notices, which ban members of outlaw motorcycle clubs from associating with a nominated person for seven days.
Three of Western Australia’s most notorious gang members have received anti-consorting notices, banning them from having any contact with a long list of fellow gang members for three years.
But Mark Lauchs, an expert on gangs and a senior lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, said the jury is still out on how effective these tactics actually are.
He said: “New Zealand and Australian police are getting extremely good at finding and intercepting drug smuggling. Maybe they should just focus on that. The New Zealand government should consider whether it’s the best use of their limited resources and police time to fill up the courts with blokes for wearing gang patches.”