CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

The Herald reports Auckland University Associate Law Professor, a Carrie Leonetti, saying she’s never seen any evidence to suggest banning gang insignia and consorting had an impact on gang membership and violence.

That’s about as logical as me saying I’ve never seen Carrie, therefore she doesn’t exist.

The article included a photo of the Associate Professor, so I trust she doesn’t get any ideas about rectifying the situation and looming up in my Wellington office, a frightening prospect from an aesthetic point of view.

In the same article common sense came from Massey University’s Law Professor, Chris Wilkins, described as an expert on drug markets and organised crime, who said there is merit in the policy.

If Carrie doesn’t believe crime responds to punishment she should read up about El Salvador. Inside two years it has gone from being the most dangerous nation in the world with the globe’s highest murder rate, to one of the safest and lowest murder rates, simply by locking up all gang members.

Its severity has drawn international condemnation but with one exception, namely the country’s citizens who have reflected their gratitude at the polls, returning the government with a landslide victory.