The Mongrel Mob has been making headlines lately. And some of those headlines have been what I think most would say “strangely out of normal”.

First, they offered to guard mosques after the Christchurch terror attack. It was a strange act of charity in that it was offering a threat of violence to protect vulnerable people. But that said, some people gave them credit for joining the unity movement that New Zealand used to react to the outrage. For an organisation that is usually outside social mores, it was, to some a pleasant surprise.

Then the world's biggest Mongrel Mob organisation, the Mongrel Mob Kingdom, told us that they were doing away with their Seig Heil greeting. A greeting that was sourced from Nazi Germany. A greeting that was always slightly ironic after all it was the ultimate white supremacists who coined it in their pursuit of Aryan purity. The mob started using the greeting 50 years ago not because they shared the Nazi’s goal of racial purification by because it posited them outside society. It was basically a big finger up to the post-war generation of New Zealanders who were shocked at the sound of it.

Then this morning I woke up to an opinion piece by Jarrod Gilbert, the University of Canterbury sociologist who has made a name for himself studying and writing about the gangs.

It’s headlined 'Boss taking Mongrel our od his mob', and it talks about the Mongrel Mob Kingdoms president, Paito Fatu, better known as Sonny.

Sonny’s kingdom is 400 strong and based in the Waikato. Sonny and his sidekicks, Griff and Sarge have started preaching a lot of homely values to their mob. They’ve been throwing around words like compassion and family and the importance of looking after children. Sonny Fatu says the stance is part of a transition to a new cause, away from violent crime, domestic violence and drug abuse, and focusing on empowering whānau, women and children.

Now the thing about Sonny and other leaders of the Mob these days is that they’re old men. Old battle-scarred men who are also very bright. You don’t survive that long or rise to the top without some smarts. So they’ve learnt some harsh lessons and they’re passing the lessons on to the young crowd. A young crowd who have grown up since the day they were born with the gang. But it was one of those young ones who told a reporter that dropping Seig Heil was weird because it was just their version of gidday. He also had no idea about Nazi Germany.

So Jarrod Gilbert’s opinion piece ponders whether we’re seeing a changing point for gangs because of older wiser heads. He says if the gang is still up to their old tricks we can still police them but even in a worst-case scenario and they are dealing drugs there would be a positive if they’re not engaging in violence at home.

He hopes we’re at a crossroad.

I’m not so confident in fact, I’m actually more worried by the gang after this PR blitz. It is the fastest growing chapter in New Zealand, with more than 400 members locally. And it’s going global with 200 members around the world, including Canada, Russia, France and the Solomon Islands.

To me, this seems like the gentrification of a crime organisation. Like the mafioso who start wearing nice suits. At least in the old days, they spent more time beating each other up than ripping society apart. I’m sorry to be negative but leopards never change their spots. Nor do Bulldogs