Penny Simmonds: Violent crime in Invercargill happening far too often
Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds says she’s deeply concerned at the amount of violent crime that is happening in the city.
“Violent crime is happening all too often in Invercargill and I’m worried that it could end with the loss of a life.
“Most recently, the Collingwood Foodcentre in North Rd was targeted on Monday night, when a man wielding a knife demanded money from the sole staff member.
“Shockingly this is the second time that this foodcentre has been affected by an aggravated robbery, in the past 3 years, along with another theft, and it’s been really tough on the team out there.
“I contacted the owner of Collingwood Foodcentre last year, and this week I have reached out again.
“People are just getting fed up with the violent crime that we’re seeing here in Invercargill, and indeed around the country, and it’s the local dairy and shop owners in our city that I’m concerned about.
“The Government has sat on its hands for too long and allowed crime to get out of control, now even places like Invercargill are being affected.
“In the past six months in our city we’ve had ram raids at Found My Way in Windsor, NZ Safety Blackwoods in the Bill Richardson industrial area and True Grit clothing store in central Invercargill, while there have been aggravated robberies at the Centre Street and Crinan Street Dairies and the BP Elles Rd service station.
“This is not what we want for our city. We need to make our streets safe again, unfortunately a soft-on-crime approach means that more shop owners and their staff will be victims of this crime wave.
“It’s time for the Government to get tough on crime, and it should start by adopting National’s plan to back police and tackle gangs, and our plan to combat youth offending.”