Kate Hawkesby: Having a pow wow with gang members isn't going to solve anything

I see gangs are now ruffling the feathers of Wellingtonians. It was only a matter of time.Ask anyone in Auckland, the Waikato, the Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay, Northland.. gangs are a scourge at the moment so no surprises they’ve started to upset those in the capital. One Wellington Councillor was reported calling it “unacceptable” and “scary.” Well yes it is. And it’s something we’ve been banging on about for a while now.Wellington’s incident involved a shooting in the inner city. Not just one, but two shooting incidents, two people wound up in hospital critically injured, and Police arrested seven people.They’ve said there may be even more arrests.So this Wellington City councillor has asked a great question - why is there gang warfare in central Wellington? Well I can answer that for her; because there’s gang warfare everywhere in this country these days.Her solution? She wants to get the gangs round the table in some Jada Pinkett-Smith style chat fest.And while I’m all for trying to hear people out, I really think we’re at the stage where we need more dooey, less hooey, actually.We just need some consequences, some boundaries, some enforcement of rules, some semblance of expectation around acceptable social norms and behaviour.Because it feels like we’ve lost a lot of that. It feels like we’ve lost the plot a bit on gangs and ram raiders and trouble makers in general. And for all the people offering to chat with gangs and hear them out, and have them as part of the solution, has it ever worked? Are we in any better shape? Plenty would argue gang crime and culture is currently the worst it’s ever been. It doesn’t help to downplay the seriousness of what they’re up to either. And there’s been plenty of that over the years.. oh they’re harmless, oh they’re about community, oh they’re just one big family, they’re doing a lot of good stuff it’s not all bad stuff.Well, actions speak louder than words. It was disappointing to hear Wellington’s Mayor Andy Foster try to take that line of dismissing the seriousness of it. He put on his best optimistic voice and called them ‘isolated incidents’. To be honest, that’s irrelevant. It's still two shooting incidents in one city in one weekend. I think it’s disingenuous to put your head in the sand on it. Foster did accept, however, that more needs to be done. But alongside the hopeful Councillor, he also thought sitting around a table talking to gangs would be useful. I just don’t believe there’s much merit to that at all. I think we’re way past pleasantries and polite chat with these thugs. Let’s see it for what it is, and call it what it is.Intimidation and thuggery, on our main streets, in our CBDs, on our motorways, in front of our children, and at an increasing and I’d say alarming, rate. If you think a pow-wow with these guys around a council table with some instant coffee and some round wine biscuits is going to solve anything, then I think you’re dreaming.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.