THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9412290424
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SARAH MISKIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 113 lines
Craig Manukau was 10 years old when his father, in a drunken rage, kicked him to death.
David Gray was 33 when he went on a shooting rampage that left himself and 13 others dead.
And Howard Teppett was 79 when he died, after two young men looking for drugs broke into his home and raped his 78-year-old sister.
These cases may seem to be lifted from recent crime statistics in the United States but they actually happened thousands of miles away, in my home country, New Zealand.
In the two months I have been here, this newspaper has published many stories of crime and violence.
Most recently it was two teenagers who allegedly stabbed an 18-year-old on a school bus.
Before that it was a 23-year-old woman, Susan Smith, who has admitted drowning her two children in a South Carolina lake.
Before that, it was a 16-year-old who shot a pizza delivery man, then calmly ate the pizza while watching paramedics revive his victim.
And so on. And so on.
It would be too easy to believe that these crimes are confined to a country known for its gun and drug problems. Unfortunately, violent crime is becoming more prevalent throughout the world, even in a country we call ``God's own.''
New Zealand's gun laws, already fairly restrictive, were tightened in 1993 after the Aramoana incident of November 1990 when David Gray went on a shooting spree with an AK-47.
Gray, a gun collector, killed 13 residents of the small town at the bottom of the South Island before being shot by New Zealand's armed offender's squad. (New Zealand police are not armed, so a special armed unit has to be called when firearms are involved in crimes.)
Our law prohibits handguns but allows guns for collections, sport, or stock-control purposes.
Of New Zealand's 3.5 million people, 350,000 are registered gun owners. This is more than I had imagined but is a smaller percentage of guns per population than in the United States. Despite the law, weapons are still used in armed robberies and murders.
While we do not walk the streets worrying about those around us carrying guns, this may also have to change.
Like Americans, New Zealanders are concerned about the rising amount of crime in the community. In response to increasing violence among children, New Zealand's public television station removed from the air shows such as the ``Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.''
That station still runs, however, American television shows including ``Rescue 911'' and ``Cops,'' which attract high ratings.
Just like America, many of New Zealand's most horrific crimes do not involve weapons.
In November 1992, 10-year-old Craig Manukau, from a small town in the North Island, went to a school disco against the wishes of his parents - who had been drinking at a party all day.
When 29-year-old Carl Manukau came home to find his son had disobeyed his wishes, he drove to the school hall and marched Craig outside. Witnesses described how Carl started punching his son as he threw him into the car and drove off. Nobody intervened.
Once home, Carl beat and kicked Craig to death while his wife, 28-year-old Lavinia Manukau, cowered in the kitchen, blocking her ears and turning up the radio so she could drown out her son's screams and her husband's rage.
New Zealanders reacted in horror, haunted by the lost promise in Craig's school picture, which shows a boy with a winning smile and sparkling eyes.
We reeled again in March, when a jury acquitted two men charged with the October 1993 murder of a popular elderly doctor.
The murder case had seemed clear-cut. The men, aged 23 and 20, broke into Dr. Howard Teppett's home with the intention of stealing his briefcase, which they thought contained drugs. By the time they left the house, the 79-year-old doctor was dead, his left lung punctured by a broken rib. His 78-year-old sister had been raped by one of the men as she lay alongside her dying brother.
The pair was acquitted because the prosecution could not prove that the broken rib had been caused by a blow from the iron bar one of them had been carrying. Dr. Teppett was old and the fatal injury could have come when he fell during a scuffle with the men.
Public outrage at the result has been reflected in a growing call by New Zealanders for changes in a justice system said to fail the victims of violent crime and their families. In 1993, more than 300,000 people signed a petition calling for harsher penalties.
But our calls for justice can also be tempered by compassion. In December 1993, two 5-year-old boys were killed in a hit-and-run accident that left the public baying for the blood of the driver.
A week later, when the 19-year-old came forward, the frenzy of hatred changed dramatically when one of the boys' grandfathers, a minister, led the boys' families in embracing and publicly forgiving the young man, also a devout Christian. The story of why he ran from the crime is complex, based on racial tensions between Samoan and Tongan communities living in Auckland.
But the public went along with the families' pleas for mercy pleas, and the minimum 15-month sentence (with parole after five months) was accepted without a murmur.
Despite such attitudes toward justice and a restrictive gun policy (by American standards), we have yet to resolve the problem of violence. During a recent weapons amnesty, New Zealanders turned in 307 rifles, 79 shotguns, 35 pistols, 10 military-style semi-automatics, 9,648 rounds of ammunition, three bombs, six grenades, 1,058 detonators, 36 explosives and 42 airguns.
Calling this an ``impressive result,'' Prime Minister Jim Bolger, a North Island farmer, said, ``I wonder when we live in God's own in the South Pacific, why people have this arsenal under their beds.''
A good question for any country. MEMO: Sarah Miskin, a Fulbright Professional Exchange Scholar from New
Zealand, worked as a reporter for The Virginian-Pilot and The
Ledger-Star for three months. ILLUSTRATION: KEN WRIGHT/STAFF
by CNB