Roshan Nauhria
In politics, ‘Law and Order’ refers to demands for a strict criminal justice system, especially in relation to violent and property crime, through stricter criminal penalties.
These penalties include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, and in some countries, even more stringent measures.
It is a twofold path, the first being to curb and prevent the incidence of crime by working on the causes that lead to those conditions and second to provide the means to ensuring the crime does not get more violent and frequent by creating a tighter framework of bringing the right kind of punishment to the level of crimes.
Compelling Message
The international political demand for law and order was first made by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson between 1780 and 1790.
The New Zealand People’s Party strongly advocates a Law and Order Policy, since the current system has not been able to address the rising fears on safety issues.
Our Party has crafted a compelling message for voters.
Instead of ignoring the crime crisis, we believe that law & order is not a racist ruse, and that social programmes would solve the root causes of the current societal disorder. Such disorder is not likely to be solved by 2020.
Zero-tolerance towards criminals
Our Party is concerned about the rapidly deteriorating state of affairs.
“How long are we going to abdicate law and order? We will not tolerate anyone heaving a brick through your window, stealing your car, or worse, beating you brutally, or assaulting a policeman.
Some eminent New Zealand critics have documented how our Party has in place a persuasive message that argues that the current civil rights are contributing to societal unrest and that the current policies have rewarded rather than punishing the perpetrators of violence.
Our Party demands that the National government should promote respect for law and order and contempt for those who violated it, regardless of the cause and the communal background of the crime perpetrators.
If we are successful in the ensuing general election, we will start by appointing tough and conservative judges so that the law itself does not become a weapon against crime.
Prisoner numbers rising
The number of prisoners have tripled from 1980 to 2017.
Instead of building more prisons, convicts serving much longer terms, and high expenditure eating up tax payers’ money, we will employ 2400 more police officers.
We will also empower the Police to effectively deal with the rising crime, allow senior officers to decide when police officers can carry firearms, and make punishment more deterrent.
Strengthening the Force
The New Zealand Police are the heroes of New Zealand who work on the front-line every day to keep us safe. However, we are starving them of the staffing numbers they need. We have a world-class training facility in Wellington and additional resources help them consider future plans.
By creating at least 50 extra mobile police stations to cities and towns across New Zealand, we will create a higher ratio of one officer for 450 New Zealanders compared to the current 1:538.
Prevention is the most effective means of tackling rise in crime.
Soft approach to criminals does not help because it does not address underlying causes of crime. Getting tough on young people committing robberies and violence in our communities is important. We should provide more resources to the youth justice system so that offenders are dealt with mandatory sentencing guidelines and are not protected by the cracks in the system.
Self-defence laws
Self defence laws that protect victims of the crime are the need of the hour.
NZPP feels that there is a need to adjust the laws so that honest, hard-working Kiwis who find themselves victims of horrific crimes do not end up in the court themselves. This re-victimises people who are already suffering injuries or trauma. We will put in place a comprehensive Firearm Register and our Party will establish a long-term policy on the usage of these fire arms.
A corrections system that will reduce crime will be the step that needs to be taken first. We will end the cyclic existence of crime with a long-term strategy to reduce crime and minimise reoffending through rehabilitation outcomes.
This will start with the youngest offenders and with success roll out the scheme to other age groups.
Roshan Nauhria is the Leader of the New Zealand People’s Party based in Auckland.
