Mongrelism
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- The Mongrel Mob carved out a reputation for brutality in the later stages of the 20th century as it became the largest street gang in Aotearoa New Zealand. Since then, the Mob has shown increasing sophistication, with the help of powerful allies inside and out of government. Yet the gang retains its interests in street crime, and continues to make headlines with acts of extreme violence. From the start, the Mongrels sought to shock mainstream New Zealand. This was facilitated by a press eager to publish lurid stories of depravity, spreading the Mob's brand far and wide. Soon, a presence had been established in most of the country's towns, able to overwhelm more established rivals by sheer mass of numbers. One of the few that did survive was another new creation, "Black Power", and to date the two remain New Zealand's foremost street gangs.
In contrast to their rivals in the Mob, Black Power sought to project a conservative image of self-reliance, reflecting their close links to the Muldoon government. Although the Mongrel Mob was less explicitly political, it did elbow its way into protests against the 1981 Springbok tour, which sought to force Muldoon into cancelling rugby matches with a segregated South African team. In an unlikely coincidence, a body was found near the local Mob pad in Wellington the day before a scheduled march. The corpse was discovered to be that of chapter President Lester Epps. Police charged members of the Eastern Suburbs rugby league team with his murder, having apparently found forensic evidence linking them to the crime. A particularly important breakthrough was the discovery of a piece of wood used in the attack that had been kept, for some reason, by one of the suspects.
Found guilty of the murder, the league players received 18 month sentences for manslaughter, and are yet to have been the victim of Mob retribution. On the face of it then, it appears unlikely that they were actually behind the crime, and instead were used to take the blame for whatever machination of gang politics that saw Epps beaten to death. It should be noted that the Mob's growing sophistication took place after the murder, with the gang incorporating a work trust three years later that was funded by the neoliberal Fourth Labour Government.
A key figure in the Mob's turn to politics is Harry Tam, a longtime member who was convicted of domestic assault in the 1990s. Tam escaped jail time and was hired soon after by the Ministry of Youth Affairs, and later the Department of Corrections, to work as a policy adviser. Building on the foundations of the 1980s, this period saw the gang form the "Rent a Bro" labour hire company as well as the "We Against Violence Trust" charity. Both were found to have engaged in illegal practices, and have since shut down. Yet this paled in comparison to the rape and murder of Mallory Manning in 2008, an act of violence which shocked the country.
For years the case went nowhere, despite evidence tying the murder to a property owned by the Mongrel Mob. With public outrage mounting about the brutal death of a young woman, the police suddenly announced that they had a suspect in custody. A junior Mob member and likely patsy, Mauha "Muck Dog" Fawcett, had confessed. He was soon convicted, bringing an end to public interest in Manning's murder. Even a subsequent announcement that Fawcett's sentence had been thrown out and a retrial ordered would fail to reignite the concern, especially due to the scant attention given to this development by the media.
Instead, the press seems far more interested in platforming the Mongrel Mob's claims to be enacting positive change in "their" communities. Most recently, this has been through an alliance with Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki, who has formed his own quasi-gang. Although "Tu Tangata" is presented as a positive alternative to gangs, they appear to be closely tied to organised crime, particularly the Mongrel Mob. During a rally outside parliament to advocate for Tamaki's "Man Up" program, patched Mobsters were clearly visible among a sea of Tu Tangata. The show of force was part of a wider campaign to pressure the government into funding Man Up, which was publicly rejected. What is less known however, is that taxpayer money was already going to the Church via a range of sources, including Whānau Ora, also the principal funding agency of the We Against Violence Trust.
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For more about the Mongrel Mob,
plainsightprod.medium.com/mongrelism-e2a82bf029f3
Article about Black Power,
plainsightprod.medium.com/black-power-ae73462ef55a
Who would really want their kid to join a gang? I mean it is so sad and the lowest form of existence. NZ guys are proud not criminals without respect.
Have recently skim-read a copy of "Patched" by Jarrod Gilbert, three things jumped out at me. The first is Gilbert's bias towards established gangs such as the Mongrel Mob, which are positively contrasted with what are described as "L.A. style street gangs"
The second is an obvious refusal to address either the Mob or Black Power's ongoing ties to the state, likely reflecting Gilbert's own material position in facilitating this as a supposedly impartial academic.
Finally there is a brief mention of the surprising fact that the Mob passed information to the police in their early days, something that is rationalised as them not knowing the "rules" of organised crime but is likely based in their previously mentioned links to the government.
That is because he is basically a poor journalist. He write such rubbish in the press. He thinks he is cool because he was a tourist and likes to think he is hard. He comes across as a bit of a pathetic individual because he excuses brutal and vile behaviour.
Basically wanna be American bikers.
American bikers are all PUSSY compared to these Maori on NZ
Mongril mob my brothers nartsey
its nazi and nazis are evil