Police Minister Mark Mitchell Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi's description of a police raid on gangs in the east Coast on Wednesday "state-sponsored terrorism" was ridiculous, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says.
Rawiri Waititi Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The police say they seized drugs and firearms, as well as $800,000 dollars of assets, in a raid targeting the eastern Bay of Plenty Mongrel Mob.
They also said they prevented a drive-by shooting at a marae. All up, 28 people were arrested after search warrants were executed all over the North Island.
Waititi said there was no consultation with the local iwi, te Whakatōhea, and he wanted evidence the raid stopped a shooting.
He has also questioned the legality of the police actions.
"They can execute search warrants but you go for the people who have committed those crimes. It shouldn't be the people on the peripheral.
"We're talking about kaumatua. We're talking about mothers breast-feeding babies at the same time as those cops entered those homes. We're talking about children returning from school. We're talking about the continuous violation and predatory behaviour by state sponsored terrorism."
Mitchell said it was "a very emotive and ridiculous statement" from Waititi.
The country had a world-class police force who wanted "to get on top" of organised crime that had increased substantially over the last five or six years.
Gangs such as the Mongrel Mob were causing havoc in the communities along the East Coast.
"This has been an operation that has been running for 10 months. It's been very effective They've done an outstanding job."
There had been a massive increase in organised crime and "we've got to get on top of that".
He believed police took a sensitive approach to the presence of mothers and children during their raids. However, they were targeting gang members involved in organised crime who had firearms and drugs.
As well, in the latest incident officers had "stopped two planned assassinations".
"The amount of intergenerational harm that we've seen in this country that we relate completely back to the gangs in my view is completely totally unacceptable. ... everyone should be motivated and make sure we deal with that."
Mitchell who has met the iwi in Ōpōtiki said iwi members did not want the gangs controlling the town and did not want to be known as a gang town.
Everyone from the iwi to the mayor was taking the opportunity to "do a reset" to try and remove the gang's influence on the town "and all of the social harm that is associated with that".
