Making Gang Laws in a Panic: Lessons from the 1990s and Beyond

• Date: 01 January 2022

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MAKING GANG LAWS IN A PANIC:

LESSONS FROM THE 1990S AND BEYOND

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New Zealand’s most signi ficant legislative dr ive targeting gangs occu rred in the mid-

1990s. i s legislative p ush was sparke d by several seri ous incident s of gang violence

in two New Zealand cit ies. Although th is spate of gang viol ence was succe ssfully quelled

using existin g police powers, public an d political outcry resu lted in the introduction of a

range of new laws to ta rget gangs.

While some acad emic and legal comm enters at the time note d that the laws were poor ly

justified , and that many were me asures with lit tle or no focus on gang s, the perceived

threat presented b y gangs meant that they were pushe d through parliam ent quickly and

without significant debate.

is research exam ines the outcomes of these la ws, primarily by using d ata provided

by New Zealand Police . e results indicate that th ese laws have been largely ine ective.

e implications of this political and regulatory approach are discussed including factors

that should infor m future gang legislati on.

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New Zeala nd experienced a h igh level of ga ng violence in t he early 19 90s that

garnered s ignific ant police a nd politica l concern.1 I n 1996, t his ty pe of violence

erupted, v ia two unrelated g ang wars in New Zea land’s South Island, a nd provided

the sprin gboard for the mo st aggre ssive legisl ative thr ust aga inst ga ngs in New

Zeala nd histor y. While gan gs had been subje ct to governme nt intervent ions in

the past , they had never been s o signific antly focu sed on legisl ative chang e.2

1 Jarrod Gi lbert “Ga ng violence ” in Anna bel Taylor and M arie Con nolly (ed) Understanding

Violence: Co ntext and practice in t he Human Services (Cant erbury University Press, Canterbury,

2013) 181 at 181.

2 Jarrod Gilber t “Gangs: Th e Politics a nd Politic al Mana gement of the ‘Ga ng Problem’” i n

Elizab eth Stan ley, Trevor Brad ley and Sar ah Monod de Froid ville (eds) e Ao tearoa Handboo k of

Criminology (Auckla nd University P ress, Auckl and, 2022) 308 at 3 11.

* D irector of Cr iminal Ju stice, Univer sity of Cante rbury. This proje cted was fu nded from a gran t

provided by t he New Zealan d Law Foundation.

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In Chri stchurch , the South Isl and’s largest c ity, a new chapter of th e Road Knig hts

motorcycle club wa s establ ished; th is created t ensions and u ltimat ely a war wit h

the Epitaph R iders motorcycle club. The war inc luded a series of public shooting s.3

In April 19 96, the Road Knig hts fired a pis tol at a group of Epit aph Riders on their

motorcycles at a n intersection. The s hots missed their i ntended target s and instead

hit a nearby c ar driven by a couple and their c hild – the ma n was injured by gla ss

fragment s, while t he woman was s truck by a bul let that pas sed throug h her arm

and lodged in he r chest.4 It was, t o use Hu’s phrase ,5 a “catalytic event ” that helped

gain pol itical atten tion, not least becau se Ron Mark – an uns uccessful Labou r party

candidat e in the 199 3 election, who si x months a fter the sho oting was ele cted to

parlia ment as a New Zealand Fi rst MP – had a family mem ber unwitting ly close to

the danger : “But for 0.5 of a second either way, my daughter or her boy friend could

easily h ave been the person shot”.6 On its own t he event would have been enough to

garner publ ic and community conc ern but the close i nvolvement, albeit indir ectly,

of an MP meant t hat political concer n was heightened as the pro blem felt closer to

those in power.

That concern wa s to increa se. Just as heav y police press ure was helpi ng quell

the Chri stchurch confl ict, a second gang wa r starte d in Invercargi ll, New Zealan d’s

southernm ost city. In th at city, the Road K nights wer e attempti ng to stop t he

establi shment of a chapter of the Black Power,7 a patc hed street gang. For t he Road

Knigh ts, an al l-white club, t he establ ishment of an other gang wa s unaccept able,

especia lly one made of predomin antly Māori (New Ze aland’s indigenou s population)

members. Dur ing th is time the nu mbers of both g angs swel led as out-of-tow n

chapters joi ned in support a s warfa re commenced . A series of public sho otings, a

failed bom bing and braw ls occurr ed, which worr ied police and c ommunit y ali ke,

leading loc al police t o take up a rms.8 Wh ile the episode s of inter-ga ng violence in

1996 were very s erious, they were no more serious t han a number of past confl icts.

Despite th is, with a nation al election loomi ng, they were seized upon by pol iticians,

generating a hu ge political wave.9 This w ave led to a raft of legisl ative changes that

took shape i n 1996 and 19 97, and in t he process led to a si gnifica nt refra ming of

the gang i ssue in the publ ic eye; one which has l asted i nto the present d ay. While

3 Katheri ne Hoby “Urgent meet ing to discu ss gang cris is” e Press (New Ze aland, 15 Ju ne 1998).

4 Jarrod Gilber t Patched: e His tory of Gangs i n New Zealand (Auc kland Un iversity P ress,

Auckla nd, 2013) at 208.

5 Rona ld Hu “Denia l, Overr eaction, a nd Misident ificatio n: A Postscr ipt on Publi c Policy” in

Ronald Hu  (ed) Gangs in America (Sage Publicati ons, Newbury P ark, 1990) 310 a t 312.

6 (23 O ctober 1997) 56 4 NZPD 4969.

7 Dia ne Keenan “C hch link i n gang wa r; Inverca rgill po lice, mayor fea r furt her violence: 2 ed ition”

e Press (New Ze aland, 1 4 August 1996) at 1 .

8 Gi lbert, abo ve n 4, at 210.

9 At 2 06.