REPORTER: David O'Shea It's late afternoon in Otara, South Auckland, and the streets are filling up with restless youths gearing up for a big night. BOY: With these two tools it can get you a living. REPORTER: Doing what? Doing what? BOY: Good things. Good things. Good things? These two tools will get you in a pursuit with two cop cars, maybe four if you are lucky. This boy tells me that when he spots a car he wants, he just takes it. BOY: What you do straight after that, you put this in and boom, you are gone. Many of these boys belong to the Killer Beez, one of several dozen new gangs creating a law and order nightmare for the police in South Auckland. REPORTER: What's it like being round here? BOY: Being round here, it's beautiful. This is what we call our gangster paradise. Around here is just fun, crazy. REPORTER: So do you go to school? BOY: No. REPORTER: How old are you? BOY: 16. REPORTER: When did you leave school? BOY: Last year. Reason why, just because the way we live out here, we like to steal cars, we like to creep and crawl, rob people. Reason why, because we got no money. But now we are looking like this, got gold, got the money, you know. REPORTER: So you're not worried about getting in trouble, getting arrested? BOY: Get the police in here? The police always looking for us. The want to chase us, they try to chase us but they can't catch us. BOY 2: The police, the police. This is all I gotta say to the police. INSPECTOR JIM WILSON, AUCKLAND POLICE: We've always had youth gangs in Auckland but nothing to the magnitude as what we're seeing at the moment. A lot of these youth gangs are basing themselves on the LA gangster scene, and we'd estimate across Auckland at the moment there would be in excess of 2,000 youth gang members. We have profiled 1,500 of those. SULLY PAEA, YOUTH WORKER: It's only just now that we're beginning to realise, hey, we got a problem. But I think that recognise it and do something about it, rather than trying to hush-hush and keep it quiet "No, we don't have a problem." We are in a bad way because I guarantee you further down the track we will reap the consequences. New Zealand is already reaping the consequences. These kids show no fear of the police. Most of them are high, either from sniffing petrol or taking methamphetamine. BOY 3: I thought you were selling it. What type of drug are you on, man? One boy not even in his teens is carrying a knife. And then I feel a hand dart into my pocket. REPORTER: Hey, what have you got? Come on then, what did you grab? I realise later that they stole some of my camera equipment but I decide it's safer not to make a fuss. BOY: If you stay tuned till tonight, if you are here till tonight, you are going to see a lot of fascinating action. It's like a movie around here. Just stand here, you're gonna see, you're gonna see you are gonna see, you're gonna see cops chasing cars. Why? Because probably one of us is gonna be in the cars with someone's handbag. And, look, we got the money, you know. And you might see some fights around here. The fights get ugly. See this? Who do you fight? Who do you fight? We fight, like, our rivals, like people that hang on our turf. People that hang on our turf. GREG NEWBOLD, CRIMINOLOGIST: The youth gangs of today would come mainly from economically deprived areas, formed for the same reason. A lot of them come from dysfunctional families where there is no central male figure in the family, there is no structure in the family, and they drift into the gangs, which are really just copycat versions of what they see on TV and on videos. And they're trying to mimic these kinds of images because they have nothing else.
SPEEDY: What Killer Beez is all about? Yeah. I don't know, love for the block. Like a family sort of thing? Yeah, it's family, it's brotherhood. It's brotherhood.
This is Speedy, he's second-in-command of the Killer Beez. SPEEDY: You want to see the gangster side of me? Yeah. I am a motherfuckin' Killer Beez Speedy, guns, what? You want meth and E? Motherfuckers know what's up. Those aces represent this motherfucker. You the man. You the man. So I rob to survive. I motherfucking rob to survive. Yeah, every day you see me on the Oh, no. REPORTER: So, can I ask, why do you look to American rap culture? SPEEDY: American? American? Everyone says that we are trying to be like America, America want to be like us. RON MARK, NEW ZEALAND FIRST MP: Our view is that they should be banned. Gangs, just as terrorist organisations, should be seen for what they are they are our domestic terrorists, they are the people who terrorise our communities who prey off of people, who commit crime in order to better themselves, their own lifestyle and to satisfy their own need and greed. We should be simply outlawing them and making it illegal for anyone to be a member of any named gang. Gangster-rapping juveniles like the Killer Beez are a new problem in New Zealand but ethnic gangs are not. This is the traditional face of New Zealand's gang culture. Dennis Makalio is from the Mongrel Mob and he thinks he knows why new street gangs are springing up. DENNIS MAKALIO: People are bored, you know, kids are bored. I mean, they're not just gonna sit back because someone else has got a vision saying, "That's naughty" or "That's bad," or whatever. They are fucking bored. And if they can see rappers from overseas that can be the baddest of the baddest and become multimillionaires, oh, you know, maybe that's their dream. REPORTER: Why not? DENNIS MAKALIO: Why not? You'd be silly not to go there, eh? Or you can go around to grandma's house and watch her do the knitting all fucking day. Go, go, give it! Give it! Faster! Dennis has invited me to the Mongrel Mob's clubhouse in Porirua, not far from the capital, Wellington. DENNIS MAKALIO: Now headbutt it, now, bro. Go. When someone proves he has what it takes to be a 'Mungie' or a 'Dog', as the gang members call themselves, he is "patched up" entitled to wear the gang's emblem on his clothes or tattoos.
DENNIS MAKALIO: Couple of the old presidents here, Old Blue and Okeydoke. Dennis has been in the Mongrel Mob for more than 30 years. Eight of them he spent in jail for a range of violent crimes. DENNIS MAKALIO: A lot of these fellas are old now, either have passed away or have moved on. The Mongrel Mob and their archrivals Black Power have always instilled fear in New Zealanders. DENNIS MAKALIO: The indigenous people of New Zealand. GREG NEWBOLD: These big gangs, the Black Power and the Mongrel Mob, are very much like the old Maori tribes. And the way they fight, the way they war with one another simply because you belong to a different banner is just the way the Maori tribes used to fight in the past. Criminologist Greg Newbold spent five years in prison for dealing heroin in the 1970s, and he met many gang members in jail. GREG NEWBOLD: That was a bad day. It turned out well. He is now an associate professor at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. GREG NEWBOLD: The mob is less threatening than it was before because a lot of its leaders are making money out of enterprise, probably drug dealing, mainly marijuana or amphetamine and the leadership don't want the hassle that will interfere with their profits. The police accuse the Mongrel Mob and other adult gangs of using youths like this to carry out their criminal activities. INSPECTOR JIM WILSON: One of the concerns that we have with the youth gangs is that they are tied in to the adult gang scene, the ethnic gangs.. REPORTER: The older traditional ones?
INSPECTOR JIM WILSON: The older traditional gangs, the adult patched gangs. We're aware that they are being used as a fertile breeding ground for recruitment into the adult gang scene.
There's now a lot of tough talk about cracking down on gangs in NZ. MINISTER: Please will you throw some of them out. The parliament is discussing new anti-gang legislation which would extend police powers and increase prison terms for gang members. Leading the charge is Ron Mark, an MP from the conservative New Zealand First Party. He thinks gangs should be banned outright. RON MARK: Once you have that law in place, the police have the power to arrest anyone who is wearing gang paraphernalia and professing to be member of a gang, and you lock 'em up and you start to knock it down that way. GREG NEWBOLD: The idea of banning gangs or banning patches is ridiculous. It could never, ever succeed. What would happen if you singled out a gang and outlawed the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, they'd just change their name, Hells Angels Pony Club. That'd be the end of that. It's ridiculous. They don't have public membership lists, so ban their patches. So, big deal, ban their patches then you don't know who they are, it makes the police job harder. DENNIS MAKALIO: I mean who is going to gain from banning the gangs. It's brownie points, you know. I mean, who really gives a fuck? If you ask the people of New Zealand themselves, as long as we are not involved, who gives a fuck? REPORTER: He said people find you intimidating, frightening and that you are in involved in criminal activity and he wants to see an end to that. DENNIS MAKALIO: How many people in New Zealand do you think find the police intimidating? You see it every day. What a load of fucking shit. Chasing our kids. But while the political debate rages around the capital, back in South Auckland, practical steps are being taken. Tia and Johnson are youth workers who drive around the hotspots in Otara trying to make friends and offering positive role models to vulnerable kids. JOHNSON, YOUTH WORKER: How was school alright? BOY: He got us into a fight. JOHNSON: With who? BOY: Fourth form, cause they came up to me and hurt me so I turned around and he came and cheap-shotted me. JOHNSON: What's his name? BOY: Nathan. John smashed him, the guy. JOHNSON: They gone there? Although they've had some success with certain kids, as we drive around their beat it feels like they are losing the bigger battle. TIA: The area we have just passed there has been a lot of violence, a lot of gang confrontation. JOHNSON: So they left and then the other side left too. TIA: This is where it all happens. If you want to keep your camera low, bro. Yeah. The gangs have turned several of the houses around here into drive-through drug supermarkets. JOHNSON: Particularly this green house and the next one, and this one on the left. And now we are turning left so it is pretty dangerous. TIA: You are going to see all the sellers, the McDonald's drive-through. REPORTER: So don't film that no? JOHNSON: Cause they are looking, so you can see the boys there. Tia and Johnson are part of a government-funded group called Youthcore 274. Their headquarters is a drop-in centre on an industrial estate. It's a safe place for kids who want to have some fun without getting mixed up in gangs. It was started by a man who has spent 30 years trying to rescue the lost boys of South Auckland. SULLY PAEA: As the community of Otara we have to rise up and ask some questions, some serious questions for in 10 years time are we going to face a worse problem? If so, what are we going to do now to make sure it doesn't, to stop it happening?
Sully Paea should know all about gangs. 30 years ago he was in a motorcycle gang called the Stormtroopers. But these days he doesn't get to ride his bike very often. SULLY PAEA: Get rid of the cobwebs. With Sully taking a spin around the block it gives me a chance to meet Sam a troubled boy that Sully has taken under his wing. SAM: I am just a little thug from Otara. REPORTER: a little thug from Otara? What do you do? SAM: Steal bikes, drinking. REPORTER: Bit young to drink aren't you? SAM: Smoking. REPORTER: Bit young to smoke, no? SAM: I don't smoke any more. REPORTER: How old are you? SAM: 10. REPORTER: What do you want to do when you grow up? SAM: A carpenter, homie. Yeah. REPORTER: Sam, you want to be a carpenter. Why is that? SAM: Cause my dad is one. REPORTER: Where is your dad? SAM: In jail. REPORTER: What is he in jail for? SAM: Oh, can't say. REPORTER: But he has been in for a long time. SAM: He has been in seven years. REPORTER: Do you go to visit him? SAM: No, don't know which prison he is in. REPORTER: And what about your mum what does she do? SAM: She tries to keep me out of trouble, looks after me and I look after her. Yep. Ah, that was good. SULLY PAEA: As long as he hangs around with us he'll be alright. He is part of us and we try and keep him in our circle as much as possible. Sam is a good kid, all of them are. They just need direction. The kids that come to 274 are given plenty of direction. If these dancers work hard they'll have a chance to compete in the international hip-hop championships held each year in Los Angeles. But the reality of life on the streets of Otara is never far away. Last week Sully's home was burgled and his son's life was threatened. SULLY PAEA: It was a home invasion. They came in knocked the door, the back door was not locked so they ran in. There were five of them and four went inside, and they didn't know my son was inside. They pulled a knife on him. His son has just spotted one of his assailants at the local mall. Sully and his team spring into action. SULLY PAEA: We don't want to make a scene about it, just undercover, we have already contacted the police about it. Did you get a look at them? I think it is only one. It's the main one, the one that pulled out the knife.
They realise the boy must have gone to the park. Part of the team fans out on foot and we drive around the other way, to stop them escaping. REPORTER: It's like a special forces operation? SULLY PAEA: Sometimes the police are busy, tied up. The thing that annoys me is they said to my son when he told them the police are coming, they said, "What can the police do?" REPORTER: So time to set them straight? SULLY PAEA: Yes. You need to be low-key. You pulled a knife on my son. You have just made a bad mistake. Did you know it was my house? Who told you it was my house? BOY: We just all went there with them. SULLY PAEA: OK, the fact that you pulled a knife on my son. BOY: I'm sorry. SULLY PAEA: You're sorry that you got caught, you weren't really sorry. You are only sorry because you got caught. There is still no sign of the police and as back-up arrives Sully is working on his own strategy to deal with the young hoodlum. SULLY PAEA: You guys have just made a very bad mistake. BOY: I didn't know it was your house. SULLY PAEA: Whether it is my house or somebody else's you've done a bad thing, and you are going to end up in prison for doing that. And now that I have caught up with you what do you think I should do? You tell me because right now I am angry. So you tell me what I should do right now. Eh? What gang are you connected to? BOY: I am not connected to a gang. I came out of boys home just a little while ago. SULLY PAEA: So who took my clothes? Where's my daughter's clothes? Who's the little guy that took the bag and stuff? BOY: Jordon. SULLY PAEA: OK, can you pass this on to him? OK, I'll get all of the best thing that you can do is the four of you to come down and see me. BOY: I'll get it all back. SULLY PAEA: And I tell you what I am going to let you off on condition you do this for me. You guys come down and make peace with me, OK? And you need to apologise to my son because he is small. But that's life in Otara. Right now I am angry and ready to pounce. REPORTER: You are showing remarkable restraint really, you know. Was that hard to do? SULLY PAEA: That was very hard but sometimes you have to figure out a plan because right now if I get the police involved and they take him away, what good does that do? Not all New Zealanders share Sully's compassion for troublemakers. All too many have just written them off.
RON MARK: I guess we have tried on many occasions, this country has tried to work with the gangs, to understand them, to assist them to change their lives. And frankly looking back on it all, it appears to have been a great waste of time. DENNIS MAKALIO: As far as I'm concerned, like I said before, they're just a group that needs loving. Majority of them most probably will turn to gangs. What else is there for them? REPORTER: What do you want to be doing in ten years? SPEEDY: Where will I be in 10 years time? What's the purpose of life anyway, where is the amazement in that? Honestly?
Feature Report: New Zealand - A Gangsta's Paradise
Reporter/ Camera
DAVID O'SHEA
Editor
WAYNE LOVE
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