Transcript
FLORENCE SYME BUCHANAN: There is widespread shock at the moment flying the recent serious stabbing of a security guard outside a nightclub. And I have seen the security guard's wound and it is a very serious wound which required stitching inside the wound as well as the wound itself. He was told by doctors that had he been a smaller man the knife which had been plunged with considerable force would have would have punctured his lungs and possibly his heart. So he is very fortunate that he is a stocky man. But there is widespread conceern here that it has come to this, of course there is always the small fights outside nightclubs but for this to deteriorate to a weapon being used and the fact that there are outright brawls now happening outside nightclubs when they close, is very worrying for people, especially parents of young people who frequent these places.
DON WISEMAN: Police have reacted fairly strongly. They are promising a crackdown.
FSB: Police have promised a crackdown and they have reacted very quickly to this be getting their official Tactics Unit up and running again. They did not give an explanation of why they stopped the special unit from operating. One would have thought that over the Christmas period and during the festive period would have been an important time to be operating, but there was no reason given for that. But just looking at the wider picture people on Rarotonga are still trying to come to grips with the triple homicide - the double murder and self inflicted gunshot wound by the gunman in October last year. And then homeowners and small businesses have experienced a real spate of burglaries and are reeling from that, loss of possessions and cash. And then there have been reports of sexual predators trying to get into homes and preying on women in nightclubs. And all of this has made people start to think that the face of Rarotonga seems to changing and changing for the worst. Is our island becoming unsafe and what should we be doing about it, and of course, it is terrible for our tourism industry.
DW: With the police announcement that they are going to get tougher, how are they going to go about that, what are they doing?
FSB: Well they haven't really given any detail about what they are going to be doing, apart from patrolling the nightclubs. They are going to install CCTV outside two of the most poular nightclubs on Rarotonga - that was announced today, as a joint effort by the government and the nightclub owners, and to have lights in the area so that they are well lit, but there are still other places that young people go to and congregate, where there is no real ability for police to monitor them, unless they double their force in the weekend and they haven't said that they would do that.
