No Crime in Gisborne, It's Official

 Remember how the Palmerston North Wikipedia page was censored to remove references to crime because it making overseas investors and professionals shy away from moving to the town?;  and of how gangs are now euphemistically  called “groups” in some news reports?;  and how no police statistics are kept on racially motivated crimes in New Zealand?

Well now the police in Gisborne want to restrict the information released to the media and give the people in the town the warm and fuzzies.

The question is Is ignorance bliss, or are there other motives for clamming-up about the true extent and nature of crime in Gisborne? It smacks of censorship to us and history has proved that has never been a good thing. Surely it is preferable to create a safer, low crime community rather than mislead people into thinking that it is?

Don’t the public have a right to know what is going on in their own town and the actions their public servants are taking to control that crime?

What if similar decisions were taken elsewhere in the country? (it’s already been happening in Rotorua) you can kiss goodbye to a free press in New Zealand and say hello to a propaganda mouthpiece, covering nothing but cake sales and ‘feel good’ stories.

From the Gisborne Herald's website

Crime? What crime?

Christine McCafferty 24 July 2010

GISBORNE police have decided to restrict the information on crime they provide to media in a move to “make the community feel safer”.

Up until now, The Gisborne Herald has been given detailed reports of crimes attended by police, including burglaries, domestic violence and the arrests that make up our daily “Police briefs”.

But earlier this week area commander Inspector Sam Aberahama said comprehensive information would no longer be provided. He saw no benefit in “reporting all and sundry”. read the full article here

How people in Gisborne feel about their town isn't going to be influenced one iota by newspaper reports. They see what’s going on around them every day and they’re not stupid, you have to ask who the target audience for the new sanitised media reports is going to be.

Here’s just one of our recent posts about Gisborne to demonstrate the extent of the problems within the town:

Armed robbery and drugs, 80% or more smoke weed in Gisborne – 14 April 2010
“The rise in violent crime in New Zealand continues unabated today with three more armed hold-ups. The first was at the Balance Street Village pharmacy in Gisborne at 8pm yesterday…What’s causing this rise, could it be a massive increase in drug and alcohol abuse?
Drug and alcohol dependency are expensive habits to feed in New Zealand, substance abuse causes severe mental health problems that makes people to do irrational and dangerous  things
Here’s a look at what the residents of Gisborne think about their town’s drug problem and the effects it’s having on their once pleasant community. It may come a surprise to anyone thinking about emigrating to the town ‘looking for a better quality of life’ to find out that New Zealand has these issues and how widespread the problem is:

Marijuana and the lost generation
“I am writing with regard to the recent drug bust in Gisborne. I know that probably 80 percent (or more)of the town smoke weed, or think there is nothing wrong with it.
However, you just have to look around to see the effects of the generational abuse of marijuana and other drugs around our area.
Dilapidated homes, no one caring enough to do anything, the kids roaming around with no parents who give a damn, generations of welfare recipients, crime at all levels, car accidents, general apathy relating to just about everything.
The mental health issues, people who fly into rages and can’t handle everyday reality because of constantly being stoned. Kids at school stoned, or not at school at all.
The experience of taking my child to a public toilet where before us a school kid (in uniform) had been inside getting stoned.
Going to town with my young children and walking past carloads of people parked up smoking weed.
The young mother all of 17-years-old in a store so stoned she could barely speak with her passed out baby in her arms . . . no doubt they had just been ‘toking’ in the car, too!
I don’t personally know the people involved in the recent drugs bust no, but I expect they had children who would have been exposed to it. Their drugs would be sold to people who are already dependent, or maybe young people just starting out.
Home detention is a joke. Drug dealing is not OK, no matter how many times people try to justify it!
It’s about time people stood up and realised it, although I do know that in Gizzy it is a big call.
I know that we have other “evils” such as alcohol and tobacco, too, but I personally think that marijuana is one of our biggest problems by far, especially on the coast.“

another reader had this to add:

“Drug problem being handed down
Well spoken “Angry” regarding marijuana and the lost generation, The Gisborne Herald, March 24.
Most people have absolutely no idea just how much drugs in all forms are affecting a large percentage of our people right here in Gisborne.
If you know what to look for (most don’t) you will certainly see affected people all over the place, in the city, in supermarkets and at gas stations etc. As stated by “Angry” carloads sitting around smoking cannabis and “P” in public.
The saddest thing about this is that this behaviour is being handed down to children big-time.
If a couple have this problem then their four to six children will also and so to their children which collectively add up to about 24 persons and this has been going on for generations.
The money that is able to be made from drugs supports a large number of people in many ways right here in Gisborne.
The people I am talking about number in the hundreds and are so deep in the lifestyle that it is too late for them.
Far too much cheek-turning is going on and if this social tolerance continues, well who knows where it will end up?
But have a look at the lifestyles of the people who live in the ‘Bronx’ because that’s where it’s heading for sure.
Drugs, then large unemployment because of drug habits, followed by violence, along with all forms of abuse and family crises.
That’s where it’s headed.”

Related NZ State v. NZ Press stories:


Police Minister infuriated at newspaper’s test of security at Super 14s match – Reporters testing security at a rugby match weren’t pretending to be terrorists.

It’s official: Politicians can’t take a joke - “MPs may make fools of themselves from time to time but they want to ban others from doing it. Satire, ridicule and denigration of MPs using any television footage shot from parliamentary galleries is to be banned under rules proposed by the standing orders committee. The move on freedom of expression is not the only controversy the rules have caused. They also create anomalies between what television cameras can show and what newspapers photographers are allowed to show, giving television the advantage…”

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