Wairoa mayor Craig Little has called the gang brawl on Saturday after a rugby match, which saw multiple people injured, “an embarrassment”.
Talking to TVNZ Breakfast this morning, he questioned the leadership of the gangs.
“Where is the leadership? They should have just jumped in there and stopped it.”
Little knows some of those involved in the incident over the weekend, even working with some of them.
He said they were playing to the stereotype the current government was trying to portray.
“It really plays into the hand of what the government is saying. Like it or not, you put a patch on somebody and it creates bad behaviour, and it did on Saturday, so it just has to stop.”
Plans to talk to gangs
The mayor is planning on working more with the local gangs after this “one-off” incident.
“If you’re not talking with them, you’ve got no chance on cleaning it up. This is a one-off I believe - we haven’t had anything like this in a long time. We had little scrimmages as every town does but this one’s a shocker,” he told TVNZ Breakfast host Jenny-May Clarkson.
The Wairoa community was “embarrassed” according to Little, who wasn’t at the game nor near it due to prior commitments.
“They’re really embarrassed and shocked and in disbelief actually, that these guys think they’re above the law, “[with them putting] young ones at risk, old ones at risk, putting people [who are] innocent bystanders at risk for their own gang, whatever it is.”
The incident happened at 3pm on Saturday at Hunter-Brown St, with police calling it a gang-related incident. Weapons were allegedly involved but firearms weren’t.
Wairoa police response manager Senior Sergeant Scott Leighton called the incident “extremely disappointing” given the week before people were celebrating the local teams.