Kate Hawkesby: When did we just accept every social and mental health issue is fine to pour all over our streets?

I see one of the favourite holiday playgrounds for many Kiwi families, has been hit with a travel advisory over violence. ‘Fiji police to increase presence after reports of violent attacks on tourists’ read the headline. These attacks apparently include assaults, robberies and sexual assaults, mainly in Suva’s downtown nightspots. Fiji, one of the safest countries in the world, facing the same problem many CBD’s are facing these day;  increased violence. I mean if a safe haven like Fiji can end up with a travel advisory for New Zealand, the US and Canada to ‘remain alert in public places’ then god knows what the warning should be for tourists coming to downtown Auckland these days. It sort of seems unfair that Kiwis are being told to ‘exercise increased caution in Fiji’ - I mean that’s what I’d tell anyone visiting Auckland too to be honest. But every time I raise how dangerous Auckland is these days, people always contact me from other centres telling me crime is rampant there too. It’s not just the violence though is it, it’s the low rent factor as well. The social issues tipping out all over our streets. I was in two opposite ends of Auckland yesterday, and both places had barefoot beggars at intersections tapping on car windows asking for money. Some are organised with signs, some just wander aimlessly banging on car windows and waving their hands. Most of the cars I noticed ignored them, in fact all bar one guy in a Ute who wound down his window and flicked out a couple of coins. But who has cash these days anyway? They can’t be making much business out there at the intersections. It used to be window washers asking for money, but these days they’ve ditched the soap and brush and they’re just straight up asking for money outright. I often wonder how intimidating that must be for little old ladies alone in their cars, or young students on their restricted, nervous about why someone is walking through moving traffic banging on their car window. It’s actually dangerous, I saw one guy almost get hit. Cars had to swerve for him, I’m not sure how it’s allowed, but that’s the point. Nothing’s not allowed anymore is it? We’ve just come to accept that our suburban streets may look at times like downtown New York, minus the cops. Barefoot beggars wandering through traffic, and people on street corners yelling obscenities is somehow normal now. When did that happen? When did we just accept that every social and mental health issue is fine to just pour out all over our streets? A woman wrote to me the other day saying her son and a friend had been walking down Auckland’s Queen St last year after attending a gig, and a group of men in a car was going past yelling at pedestrians. The car then stopped, the men got out and attacked her son and his friend. Her son was tasered and stabbed in the chest, puncturing his lung, his friend was bludgeoned with a hammer, resulting in a fractured skull. No one was found or held accountable for the attack. but she said she found herself saying to her son after the Auckland CBD shootings recently, that he was lucky he only got stabbed. She said the fact she even thought that, far less said it out loud, was extremely sobering. It’s a telling sign of where we’re at isn’t it? The bar has sunk so low now, that we’re just grateful we didn’t get shot.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.