Is the humble hooded sweatshirt responsible for NZ's serious crime problem?

Your Views often posits questions related to the findings of one study or another reported on by the Herald, taking advantage of the controversy that certain types of research can incite. “Is it best for fathers to stay away from the delivery room?” made for an amusing debate; with the suggestion of a French obstetrician that a father's presence at their baby's birth could be potentially harmful causing the users of Your Views to react with anger, confusion and as always, hilarity:

Retox (Forrest Hill)
Woman = hospital
Man = Pub
What happened to tradition? I say return to the good ol days. Call me a pig but hey, tradition is a great thing.

Other such research findings-based Your Views threads include “Are you thinking about becoming a vegetarian?” (yes, you guessed it, full of meatheads triumphing meat) and “Does eating too many sweets make kids violent?” (some saying yes, sweets are the partner in crime to the evil media, and some crying out “PC nanny state don’t try and tell me what I can feed my flippin’ kids!”)...

But this morning, waiting with bated breath at the potential dawning of a new Your Views topic, came the question: “Is crime a serious problem in NZ? Is it bad where you live?”, based on findings from a Victoria University study which found that a large number of the participants surveyed felt that crime was an issue in other areas, not their own. What a question! Especially the second half of it, which invites the moaners and groaners of the world to take centre stage...

Rahmat Ali (Manukau Central)
Yes -crime is a serious problem in NZ. Three cars broken into recently- One car door glass broken- after a month another car 3 door glasses broken- After a week another car door lock broken . Police took the complaint, but we have had nothing from them so far- Only report was sent to claim insurance.

I like it how Rahmat considers both questions, but answers the first question, a sociologically complex one at that, directly and succinctly in order to get it out of the way and detail his own experiences. Some of the responses resemble letters to the Independent Police Conduct Authority.

Mercy (Mt Wellington)
It was a very violent country before the new people started to arrive in 1810 or so. It is a lot less violent now, lets celebrate that and don't expect that New Zealand will ever be like a northern European country with an homongenous culture, they don't even have that distinction any more. The law works even if its slow and the prisons are full. At least the criminals are off the streets for a while.

An opinion that is both misinformed and racist! Top marks Mercy.

Indie Gooch (Newton)
This is a nation founded on the wholesale theft of land by threat of genocide - why would anyone be surprised that crime is a part of NZ's culture?

That’s more like it. I’d love to see Indie Gooch and Mercy battle it out in a game of New Zealand-themed Trivial Pursuit.

Jona (Katikati)
Yes crime is a big problem. I live in the country and avoid the pitfalls of urban crime, where the 'pond-life' walk around and commit opportunistic theft and vandalism. However there is still a lot of rural thieving in my area, but at least I am spared the 'hoodied up scum' sloping past and eyeballing my property advertising their intentions, as I recall from living in Whakatane. They are so obvious to watch, they can keep their heads straight ahead, but the eyes are swiveled hard to one side of the head. Another giveaway is they walk up and down past the property several times. And what's with the hoodie on in summer? A disguise? You can't disguise their knuckles dragging on the ground!

Wearing a hoodie in summer – that’s the real crime. You can’t disguise fashion crimes!

But seriously, Your Views, if you wanted to construct the perfect set of questions to incite enough rage amongst users to mobilise them to form vigilante crime-fighting communities, then you might just be on the money with this one.

I want to ride my bicycle vs. I love my car

The battle of cyclists versus car drivers is currently raging on Your Views, after an incident involving a car and four bicycles on Auckland's Tamaki Drive prompted them to ask the question: What can be done to make cycling in NZ safer?

Michaelauknz (Mt Eden)
Look New Zealanders are always being hijacked by minority self interest groups and these guys are no exception -
Now they want to have cars even doing 40km 24/7 (some cyclist travel faster than that) and have the road widened so they can continue riding 4 abreast laughing and joking and acting in an often abusive dominating way towards motorists.
I have very good video footage of these guys riding 4 and 2 up in the middle of the actual road in busy times.
Put them back on the footpath, their time is over and from the attacks given here toward motorist by themselves no change will be coming from there attitudes, they got away for far to long being threatening and dysfunctional-
More accidents will happen.No lesson has been learnt here.
Sadly the only thing missing now is the place, date and time.of the next one.
NZ is currently 27th going to 35th in the OECD ranking of the top 25 developed countries and is suffering from the impact of the smart ones who have left.this proves my point.

I can just see Michaelauknz engaging in a vigilante-style surveillance operation, complete with binoculars and camouflage gear.

Halkelorno (Northpark)
What can be done? very little, considering its Auckland. Why ? Just think about a little.
20 or so years ago, Auckland was a relatively safe place to drive,however what successive governments have done is allowed almost unfetted immigration from a huge variety of Pacific Island countries, Asian and African and Indian countries where the majority of the people did not own or drive a car or have any road user experience. The then come to New Zealand and the previous stricter road rules and license tests were conveniently lowered to fit PC rules, no English tests needed and feel free to use an interpreter. What would you expect to happen on the roads. More drivers, totally unskilled, no road sense plus no real knowledge of how to drive a car. Remember when you had to Drive a Manual Car in order to gain your license ? Not any more, this would be too hard and very UN- PC. Now we have the visible evidence and unenviable Road Toll results.
Now we have all the nodding heads, the plaintive outcry's "Something should be done", all in vain because the real answer is too Un PC and we as a people have long lost the guts and fortitude to do anything to rectify the problem.
We will tinker!

There is always someone who names immigration as the key determinant in any problem you throw at them. You might not have seen a link between cyclists, road safety and immigration but ah-ha! Halkelorno has made it as clear as day.

Pepe Perez (Birkenhead)
Nothing will be resolved with the rather emotional motorist vs cyclist debate that is being played out in this forum.
There is a simple answer. Motorists must obey stop signals - which is so rare these days that I wonder why we have the regulation at all. (Which is another debate) Cyclists must stop for red traffic signals - which is so rare . etc etc. Then the existing westbound Special Vehicle Lane (Bus Lane);that is about to turn into a T2 Transit Lane, is extended back into Mission Bay and be made 6am to 10am Monday to Sunday. Should there be a similar Special Vehicle Lane eastbound for the morning and evening peaks for the same reasons. Not my call, but worth thinking about.
In the end, cyclists and motorists need to and can live together without conflict - but each has to show respect to the other; not easy to find in the society we live in today. Finally, we all need to respect and obey the laws governing operation of a vehicle on our nations roads to ensure we keep this sort of accident to a minimum.

Pepe Perez doesn't see the "emotional" discussion in this thread as resulting in any concrete resolution, and instead proposes everyone sticks to the road rules. Commonsense prevails? Cyclists and motorists travelling together in harmony. What a beautiful way to end the post.