Join a gang, get more time

Stuff reports:

National is promising to create tougher sentences for gang members, adding gang membership as an aggravating factor when handed down a sentence for an offence.

This is a good policy. Gangs are by their very nature criminal associations. Crime is not an accidental byproduct of a gang. It is how they get funded (that plus grants from Labour). Someone who joins a gang is making a choice to join organised crime. Not all criminals are in gangs, but almost every gang member is a criminal.

However, the Green Party and Labour both say National’s proposal is already happening and “really redundant”.

They are wrong. In National’s release, they noted:

Note to editor: National will explicitly add gang membership as an aggravating factor in the Sentencing Act 2002, so when a gang member commits a crime they are likely to receive a stronger sentence than they otherwise would have. While participation in an “organised criminal group”, may be considered an aggravating factor if there is a connection between the “organised crime” and the particular offence, National believes gang membership should always be an aggravating factor when a gang member commits a crime.

I read a lot of sentencing notes. It is relatively rare, from what I have seen, for gang membership at present to lead to a longer sentence.