Andrew Dickens: National's gang policy is a dud

I was really disappointed that Christopher Luxon hung his hat on the patch banning gangs policy, mostly because the policy is not new. It's proposed every time a political party want to be perceived as tough on crime - and it has been discredited every time it's been proposed.And it has been tried before in Whanganui.  Michael Laws argues it was a success, and yes it kept gang patches out of the city centre for a while.  But it didn’t decrease gang crime.Embarrassingly for National, Chester Borrows, who was part of National at the time and argued for its use, stated in the Sunday papers that it never really worked.The former Court Minister and cop and MP for Whanganui passed a Prohibition of Gang Insignia into law 13 years ago.As National calls for a similar law to be introduced nationwide, Chester Borrows was quoted yesterday as saying it would be ineffectual and it's purely designed for big headlines.It's not the answer National makes it out to be.Even more confusingly it saw National Party members who have been critical of moves to regulate freedom of speech leaping in behind a law that curtails freedom of speech on social media and adds in a rule against freedom of association.  It is very questionable whether the proposed law complies with our Bill of Rights.Simeon Brown, I'm looking at you.It is what it is, a piece of dog-whistle politics that would achieve nothing except convince some shallow thinkers that National is, as they say, tough on crime.We deserve better than this. Not some reheated ancient policy that if it was so good would have been implemented years ago.Out police deserve better than this.  The continued mantra that the police are soft on crime is really offensive to the officers who are actually doing something about gangs.  It belittles campaigns like Operation Tauwhiro which has seen 1200 firearms arrests, nearly 1400 guns seized and a small mountain of meth captured in less than a year.And it completely misunderstands what gangs are.  You don’t join a gang for a patch.  You don’t join a gang for a motorcycle, obviously the spate of drive by shootings have been committed in cars.  It’s very hard to shoot and ride a two wheeler.You join a gang after generations of poverty, neglect and violence.  For quick money and for fellowship.If National want to be seen as good at dealing with crime they might consider saying something about that.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.