Cayla-Fay Saunders cayla@thesun.co.nz www.sunlive.co.nz

We need to chat, New Zealand.

Specifically about this ‘lynch mob' mentality we seem to have developed of late.

It happened to Grace Millane's alleged killer when he was taken to court late last year, and it's happened again this week with our British visitors.

Going through comments on Stuff's Facebook page is like being teleported back to the Salem witch trials of the 17th century.

'Get out of our country and STAY OUT!”

'Why are they still here!? Lock ‘em up in a cupboard at the airport ‘til we can send the f*****s home!”

'Shame, a family of disgraceful mutts. Be gone with y'all.”

'What a foul lot they are. Get them out of our country now.”

'Piss of out of our country, don't come here and cause trouble, its people like you that make our country look bad. DON'T COME BACK!!!!!”

And then there was the comment: 'Can we get a lynch mob for Hamilton District Court?”

What shocks me is this is coming from the country that, devastatingly, has held the record for the highest youth suicide rate per capita in the developed world – 2018 saw our highest youth suicide rate ever.

We are forever telling our children to speak out against online bullying, but then adults grab their digital pitchfork and jump online to do the very thing we are telling our kids not to. Adults have been spewing hateful cyber-bullying content onto public forums like Facebook, for children as young as 13 to read. Adults have been disseminating memes about this family; a popular form of online humour that youth engage with.

We have even taken to making fun of a boy who surely can't be older than 10. A country of adults is poking fun at a child.

We are just setting an excellent example – and yes, that was sarcasm in case you didn't pick it.

We have made a national sport out of personally attacking them, and along the way we've made plenty of assumptions. We assumed they were from Ireland, whereas the New Zealand Herald has reported they are actually English citizens, holidaying from Liverpool.

We shudder in our gumboots and stubbies when we are accused of being Aussies; we scream absolute bloody murder. So it's okay to assume the nationality of others based on the way they sound, but we can get snotty when our accent sounds Aussie to other people? Sounds like a Tui ad – ‘yeah right!'.

'They are not bloody Poms, they are from Ireland, they are called pikey, the worst of the worst people that are allowed to live in the UK,” said one commenter, further proving my point.

Really New Zealand? And these are just the comments we can publish without printing more stars than letters.

Oh, but it gets better – or worse, in my opinion. There was a Facebook event dedicated to giving these tourists a ‘proper send-off' at Auckland airport.

The event: 'Give the gypsy travellers a good old Kiwi send-off 18th Jan” has since been removed from Facebook, but prior to its removal, people were eager to get to Auckland Airport from around the country and see the visitors off with a wave of abuse. I sincerely hope we don't give this kind of ‘good old Kiwi send-off' to the All Blacks or other people that we actually like.

And we're not just attacking them blindly on news articles or the comments section. No no, Kiwis have taken to finding these visitors' personal Facebook pages and commenting on their photos.

'More gypsy tinker pikey scum. Don't bother coming to New Zealand, your filth isn't welcome.”

'Wrong country to mess with ya inbred trailer trash scum!”

'Try another country you're not welcome here. Disgusting disrespectful pigs”

Comments on wedding photos such as: 'Where's your fat booze gut, white singlet and red shorts you wore on holiday in New Zealand lol haha. How long were you there for before the country turned against you? Not bad, less than a week and five million people hate you and banded together. Fat useless gobshite,” and 'Surprised he could get near you with that fat guts of his… His guts will be smaller after a stint in jail in New Zealand!”

One particular thread of comments on their personal Facebook page that made me feel sick to my stomach was on a post regarding the death of their Nan.

'She's spinning in her grave right now. Signed, a disgusted Kiwi.”

'And seconded by another disgusted Kiwi - good riddance to bad rubbish you pack of losers!”

'Make that three trailer trash scum.”

Have we really stooped so low to comment on a post about a dead relative?

Please don't read this as me excusing what they have done or how they have treated our lovely country and people. I am just as outraged at the way they've come here and allegedly trashed our beaches and stolen from out restaurants and eateries.

But do read this as a scathing review of our disgusting attitudes. I am all for defending what's yours and for standing up against what's wrong, but personally attacking these people, calling them names and dishing out threats is so below us as a nation - or so I thought.

Go ahead and say that their behaviour is disgusting; that stealing and littering will not be tolerated here, but calling them 'fat gypsy scum” is just abhorrent and unnecessary. Why are we stooping to this level?

We pride ourselves on our tourism industry; on being hospitable and ‘clean green New Zealand', but what really needs a clean-up is our attitude.

One commenter got it. One. In the hundreds of comments I read.

'This family is definitely an embarrassment to their country of origin. But these comments are also an embarrassment to New Zealand.”