Don't let the tidy, nice young man look deceive. Hayden Wallace, Karl Check and Ranji Forbes are members or associates of the Mongrel Mob. And just a few moments ago, they were found guilty of the murder of Jhia Te Tua, barely 2km from the Inventory whare in Wanganui. And that is welcome news indeed.
Wallace, on the left, was a Mob prospect under Check's "tuition". Check (in the middle), a patched Mob member, ordered Wallace to do the shooting. Forbes, a Mob associate drove the vehicle from which Wallace fired the shots. This was not a random act. It was a planned retaliation.
Jhia's father Josh Te Tua is a patched Black Power member. In Keeping Stock's considered opinion, that makes him no better than the animals who shot his daugher - because the bullet was meant for him.
There are no winners from the scourge of gang violence in Wanganui or anywhere else - everybody loses. Jhia's mother has lost her daughter because of her partner's gangster life. Josh Te Tua was involved in a drive-by shooting at the Mongrel Mob pad a few months before - having sown the seeds, he has to reap the harvest - the direct result of which was the shooting of his daughter. The community loses its sense of safety and security. The list goes on - and all the while the Dogs and the Blacks continue their feud - here in Wanganui and elsewhere.
There's a sense of irony in that these verdicts have been passed down as Parliament begins debating National's get-tough-on-crime agenda. If Parliament can make progress towards some REAL and EFFECTIVE action against gangs, Jhia Te Tua's tragic death may not have been totally in vain.
4 comments:
You mean those big tough men shot a little girl of three?
How Clever, How Brave.
Nice prison with their homies, where no doubt they will receive all the sympathy they need to make this act of mind-numbing cowardice sound like 'just one of those things'. I'm sure they have already managed to lay the blame for their own actions on the head of the kid's father, so in a way, the little girl deserved to die.
That's the risk yo take when you mess with big, tough, brave men like these.
Change the law.
Being a member of a gang, a terrorist, a unionist, or a labourist,
should mean that your assailant has an absolutely defense to murder or assault charges.
End of the problem
IV2
I must say I do enjoy reading your posts of restrained outrage in response to the outrageous crimes which are an affront to our society.
Cheers SMTC - I guess that this case is different, given that it occurred so close to home. I drive along Puriri Street, past the house where Jhia was shot, every day as I return from picking up the mail. I know some of the Black Power guys. I play golf with the whanau of one of the accused.
Lee - with regard to Jhia's father - he is on remand awaiting trial on charges of using a firearm against a police officer. The Blacks did a drive-by on the Mob a couple of months prior to the shooting of Jhia, and shots were fired at a police car in the resultant chase. You reap what you sow.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/wanganui/news/article.cfm?l_id=322&objectid=10521649
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