A man has been arrested and charged after allegedly making death threats to Pakuranga MP Simeon Brown.
Police say the 25-year-old man was arrested without incident at a Lower Hutt property on May 7.
The accused was due to appear in the Hutt Valley District Court on May 13 to face a charge of threatening to kill.
Brown says he received death threats after speaking out about Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson meeting with the Mongrel Mob.
Davidson met with and spoke to the gang members at their headquarters in Hamilton, Waikato, on May 1.
Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt attended the gathering and addressed the gang members also.
After the meeting, Brown, who is the National Party’s police spokesman, took to Twitter to criticise Davidson for attending the meeting.
“Why was the Minister of Homelessness talking to the Waikato Mongrel Mob today?” he wrote.
“For someone who hasn’t delivered a single Cabinet paper addressing homelessness it seems incredible she has time to pay attention to people who deal meth and cause misery in our communities.”
Davidson is the Associate Minister for Housing with responsibility for reducing homelessness, as well as the Minister for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence.
She described the gang meeting she spoke at as a “fabulous community event for justice, hosted by Waikato Mongrel Mob” on social media.
Brown says he received threats following his public criticisms of Davidson and the gang.
“I took the threats immediately to the police,” he told the Times.
He says he’s continuing to do his job while taking “additional precautions for the safety of myself and my family”.
He has two young children with wife Rebecca Brown.
Brown says the Mongrel Mob is trying to present an image it’s trying to reform and become a community betterment organisation, but the fact he’s received death threats after criticising the gang shows “that they’re anything but”.
“A minister of the Crown [Davidson] going to their gang pad not only gives them credibility, but emboldens them in terms of what they trying to do in our community.
“I find that absolutely shocking.
“What she’s doing is giving credibility to the Mongrel Mob gang, which peddles meth on our streets, who haven’t given back their firearms after the [Government’s] gun buyback in 2019, and cause enormous amounts of misery.
“This is frankly unacceptable. These people should not be given the time of day from a minister of the Crown.”
News media reported Davidson spoke to reporters about the issue on May 4, saying: “For some years now I’ve been engaging with the women who are affiliated with gangs and their desires to see healthy, violence-free lives for them, their mokopuna (grandchild) and their whole whanau (family).
“It’s vital that we talk to a range of communities and I was happy to accept their [the Mongrel Mob’s] invitation.”
Wellington Police field crime manager, detective inspector Darrell Harpur, says: “I would like to acknowledge the outstanding work of our staff from both the criminal investigation branch in Counties Manukau, where the original complaint was received, and the team in Lower Hutt, who located the alleged offender.
“They worked closely together under urgency to get this result.”
