First The Good News...

The courts have overturned Wanganui’s ill advised by-law banning “gang patches” from the CBD.

So firstly the usual disclaimers, I don’t agree with the illegal activities of gangs, nor do I find their generally life style attractive, however....

Like them or loathe them they are members of our society and should therefore be afforded the same protection under the law as the rest of us. More importantly an attack on the civil liberties of this group is an attack on the civil liberties of us all.

There is no particular difference between a gang member wearing his “colours” and me walking down the street in my team’s rugby jersey. They both indicate affiliation to a certain group and presumably identification with whatever that group represents. The only difference is that the council has decided they don’t “like” gangs.
Well over and over in history we have seen examples of groups deciding they don’t like other groups and it seldom works out well. This is why we tolerate others in society and among other things allow them to dress as they please. Admittedly there are limits to the dress as you please rule, not wearing enough could get you into trouble and wearing clothing that is regarded as offensive also but these laws apply to all not just to a select group. If you want to try and use these laws to pick on gang patches be my guest but passing a specific law targeting a minority group, no matter how much you might dislike them leaves me nervous.

The other thing that interests me is, How is this going to help? Nobody in their right mind would imagine that gangs will suddenly fade out because they aren’t allowed to wear their patches in Wanganui’s CBD. They are even unlikely to disappear from Wanganui. One of the reasons people join gangs is no doubt a sense of isolation or exclusion from society and this rule is going to reinforce this rather than change anything. There are now “youth gangs” in Auckland modelled on The Bloods and Crypts who do not have patches but they are still a gang.

If you don’t like gangs how about you work on youth employment or tackle family violence or whatever else drives gang membership. As I have opined before simply banning stuff doesn’t work.

The other sighted reason is that people find the patches intimidating? Really? Personally I find the people inside the patches intimidating and I am confident that they can be plenty violent and intimidating without the patch if they choose to be. This is another example of a silly idea up there with micro chipping dogs to stop them biting people, actually why don’t we just micro chip gang members that should sort them out.

So in words much sharper than mine

First They came.. - Pastor Martin Niemoller

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Now the bad news.
As I understand it the court said that the process in creating the by-law was flawed not that the council couldn’t do it. So stand by for a potential further attack on your civil liberties by the Wanganui Council. Or feel free to email them at wdc@wanganui.govt.nz and tell them you object.