Tim Dower: How do you tackle Covid in the gangs?

Great to see the TV news last night, and clips of Auckland people so relieved to get out into the park and meet a few friends. Ordinary, working people finally getting permission to enjoy a sniff of normality. And for the most part, they're diligently doing all the right things; wearing their masks and keeping their distance. Meanwhile, the outlaw element has apparently been carrying on as normal. Today we can confirm that the index case in the Hamilton outbreak is a drug deal dealer, with a long criminal history and gang affiliations. There are suggestions they crossed the Auckland boundary to buy drugs, and then delivered those drugs in the Waikato. Chris Hipkins has publicly confirmed that - quote - "quite a number" of people in the latest outbreak are gang members. So, while people who just want to get on with making an honest living and provide for their families suffer, people with a contempt for that way of life just carry on as they please. Naturally, we'll pick up the pieces, as we always do. We'll provide the healthcare and social support to people who actively undermine our society. And once we get them well again will they thank us? What do you think? I guess most of us have no dealing with the gangs; we know they're there and we don't like them, but they don't impact directly on us, so we grumble, and we kind of shrug it off. Maybe, if lockdown extensions, or worse, a return to tighter restrictions end up being sheeted home to gang activity, maybe that'll change. Maybe we'll actually demand some serious action.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.