Summarised by Centrist
A district court judge has returned a forfeited gang patch to a convicted offender, citing tikanga Māori, despite legislation requiring the patch to be destroyed or handed to the Crown.
Judge Lance Rowe’s decision marks what may be the first judicial refusal to enforce the November 2024 gang patch ban, which the National-led government introduced to assert law-and-order standards.
The judge accepted that the patch held symbolic cultural value under tikanga concepts like mana and whanaungatanga (family connection, kinship), which he said could justify its return.
Researcher Lindsay Mitchell writes that the outcome appears to run counter to Parliament’s intent. “In this judge’s application of the law, the very clear message the ban is meant to send has been muddied and weakened.”
Police Minister Mark Mitchell had stated, “The days of behaving like you are above the law are over.” Yet the judge’s ruling could be seen as doing precisely the opposite, says Mitchell: “He thought he’d get away with it. And he has.”
Mitchell cites court reports that say the decision “may yet be appealed by the police.”
The broader concern, she argues, is not just about the gang insignia ban itself, but about what this case signals for the New Zealand justice system. Mitchell points to the “increasing admittance of Māori concepts in New Zealand’s system of law, and secondly, their utilisation to counter government intent.”
For voters, the result may feel like their say at the ballot box is being diluted by judicial discretion.
