Robbed Again!

In the near future, Rosemarie Thomas' petition for extra police will be considered by the Law and Order Select Committee at Parliament. Having struggled out of bed on cold winter mornings to get signatures for the petition I do hope the committee and Minister look kindly on the report.

Last week the crime stats came out - both sides of the political divide trumpeted how these proved how well, or how poorly things were in New Zealand. But regardless of where you stand all crime should be treated seriously and the perpatrators caught and punished.

Today, after putting in an honest days toil at work we arrived back at Waterloo Station to find someone had broken into the car. Not an unusual occurance as this is the fourth time in the past two years. (Being the fourth time we've been broken into, naturally we've learnt not to put anything of value in the car.)

Now, as nothing was taken (so no need to claim insurance) there is no point wasting twenty minutes at the Police Station reporting the crime, for it to be filed as an unresolved report. And it's not exactly news to the Police that cars at Waterloo Railway station get broken into.

What pisses me off is that the lack of resources means 'petty' crime is never punished unless the criminal is 'caught in the act'. But what pisses me off even more is that politicians are set to wring hands over the problem or go for populist statements or argue about Police policy but no-one ever actually puts police where they're needed. Any increases in police numbers get sucked up into dealing with traffic, or violent crime, or paperwork - but never in the community to deal with petty crimes like car break-ins and tagging.

It's about time some politician had the guts to say "no more uninvestigated petty crime".