Tim Dower: How many deaths is it going to take for Govt to recognise the facts of the situation?

We all heard the warnings; someone's going to get killed if we don't crack down on the ram raiders and brazen dairy hold-ups. And this week it happened. Eight in the evening at the end of another long day at the superette providing a convenience service in Sandringham. One of the locals who spoke to the Herald at a gathering of 200 or so said this ‘the whole dynamic of Auckland is changing now’. Say that again. Spin the numbers whatever way you like, but what's obvious to anyone is there's a significant wave of this time of crime right now. Just before five this morning I heard a businessman talking with Roman about how his operation and those of his friend have been hammered. Some places have been hit over and over. Dairies, bottle shops, gas stations and jewellery stores. They're seen as easy targets and that I guess is why police were given that $6 million fund to help install fog cannons and bollards and the like. But to me, that's ambulance of the bottom of the cliff stuff, isn't it? Isn't it basically admitting the streets are now so lawless this is what you need if you're going to run a retail business. Frustratingly for the police, they have been catching offenders. Ccatching and releasing them because they're too young to prosecute. Only to catch them again a few nights later, another business ripped off, tens of thousands in losses and damage. What's it going to take for the Government to recognise the facts of the situation? More deaths? If so, how many? They are soft on crime and everyone, most dangerously that reckless group of offenders, knows it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.