First-hand views of someone who suffered abuse both at home and in
state care, and who has done crime and been in a gang <
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/state-abuse-survivor-eugene-ryder-on-abuse-gangs-and-his-kings-service-medal/IGIGU74S5FBPFGG3LYGU2OQG5M/>.
Nowadays, he tries to keep the next generation from making the
mistakes he made.
His point is simple: the right person for the job isn’t always the
one who shares your whakapapa. “Don’t think that you’ll get a
Māori kid and a Māori social worker and some f***ing magic is
going to happen because of the colour of their skin or the blood
in their veins,” he says.
Interesting there is no mention of culture in there, only genes.
Ryder’s father – also in prison – had a “very dark side”, he says.
A minister in the church, he was also an abuser.
As others have pointed out elsewhere, religions can be too much like
gangs, can’t they?
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has pointed out that gang members
make up less than a quarter of 1% of the population but are linked
to nearly 20% of serious violent crime. Ryder says that’s
misleading. “It’s not actually gang members – it’s people linked
with gangs. That could be father, older brother, older cousin …”
I’m not sure that’s a good defence. If just a loose association with a
gang is going to make you prone to commit serious violent crime, then
that makes gangs look even worse.
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