It was like a scene from the television series League of Gentlemen, only there was no humour in it.

The Northern Advocate is carrying a story about a police patrol coming under attack in Whangarei, the ‘capital town’ of Northland, est pop 41,000.

Men wielding spades and wheel braces and an object thrown at a patrol car forced police to abandon a pursuit through a Whangarei suburb because of safety concerns.

And objects weren’t the only thing hurled at police.

One woman gave them a mouthful of abuse, including racial slurs, as they moved in to arrest those allegedly wielding the weapons.

A woman at a William Jones Dr, Otangarei, address where police were trying to arrest the men hurled abuse including “you bloody clowns”, “bloody ignorant whities”, “we used to eat people like yous [sic]” and “we don’t need your English law, we’ve got our own Maori lore.”

The drama started about 7.45am Monday when Constable Aaron Furze started pursuing a Mercedes car that was being driven at up to 90km/h around the suburb, which has a speed limit of 50km/h.

“Mr Furze said as he followed the car along William Jones Dr a number of men from properties on the road came out wielding spades and wheel braces.

About the same time an object was hurled at the patrol car, hitting it and leaving a scrape along the bonnet.

“Half of the neighbourhood seemed to come out. They were doing it to try to help their mate escape,” Mr Furze said.

“They were running on the road and jumping in front of the [patrol] car. I had to abandon the pursuit at that point because of safety concerns.”

The Mercedes was located behind a nearby address and at least seven police vehicles then descended on the area as officers tried to find the driver and deal with the men allegedly causing the disorder…”

William Jones Drive was last month named as crime hot spot in a town that averages about 27 burglaries a week (108 a month)  The hot spots were said to be Kamo Rd, with 14 burglaries reported since the start of the year, William Jones Drive 13, Raumanga Valley Rd 10, Mill Rd and Park Ave 8 each and Corks Rd 6. See Crime stats page.

Whangarei was recently immortalised by poet Peter Larsen who caused offence to local pregnant teenagers when he wrote “Whangarei your teenagers are pregnant with the next generation of criminals“

According to the Northern Advocate he was “assaulted while reading his poem about Whangarei’s social problems and said the town had a culture of unprovoked violence.“ See “Ode to Whangarei”

We’d say that was a fairly good assessment, it comes to something when even the police aren’t safe to drive down a street. The region is certainly living up to its reputation as the ‘lawless north‘

For some other posts about lawlessness in Northland see “Kaitaia kids’ drunken night of rampage” and “New Zealand is a wonderful country, but be careful as it’s not so safe“