LINDSAY MITCHELL: Sound decision from Becroft

In August last year, on the issue of banned gang patches, I wrote:

In what appears to be a first, District court judge Lance Rowe has decided to return a patch to its convicted wearer.

He came to the decision using the concept of tikanga or kinship. The court reporter detailing this decision says it "may yet be appealed by the police."

In a sound judgement High court justice Andrew Becroft has decided that gang patches cannot be returned.

Stuff reports this morning:

After the Government banned gang insignia in public places in 2024, there have been a series of cases in which judges ordered police to return seized items after a conviction - usually because they held significant personal or cultural value.

New Zealand Police appealed two of those cases to the High Court, and a judge has now ruled in their favour.

“Forfeiture is automatic and absolute,” said Justice Andrew Becroft in a decision published on Thursday. “Upon forfeiture to the Crown, a defendant irretrievably loses their insignia.”

Becroft's involvement intrigues me for an additional reason not touched on by the Stuff reporter.

Andrew Becroft was previously Principal Youth Court Judge (2001-2016) and said:

"An overwhelming majority of boys who I see in the Youth Court have lost contact with their father... Many have no adult male role model – 14, 15, and 16-year-old boys seek out role models like 'heat-seeking missiles'."

And later, that 83% of youth offenders he sees are male and 70% come from single parent families.

"Not every solo parent breeds a criminal. Nor am I making judgments about separation. What I’m saying is that most serious young offenders lack a positive male role model.”*

His speeches were widely promulgated at the time by those of us trying to raise awareness about fatherlessness - people like the last effective Children's Commissioner Laurie O'Reilly, Governor General Sir Michael Hardie-Boys, Bob McCoskrie, Muriel Newman, Eliot Ikilei to name a few. Sadly, anxiety about fatherless children seems to have been overtaken by concerns over social media harm.

Back to the topic at hand. Becroft is a sensible man. For all his knowledge about gang etiology and despite any sympathy he may harbour for gang members' backgrounds, in the final analysis he was exactly correct to state that, 'Parliament’s intent to reduce the ability of gangs to intimidate the public was explicit.'

It is Parliament that makes the law.

*I have been unable to verify this quote which was cited by Big Buddy.