Get tougher on car thieves
CALL it what it is.
I noticed that this year looks like a record year for car thefts in Cairns.
It seems that bored teens make up a good percentage of the offenders who illegally enter homes and steal keys to take cars on “joy rides”, often destroying the vehicle when they are finished.
This phenomenon is unknown in Malaysia and Singapore. So what are they doing that we here in Australia aren’t?
Quite simply, they deal with it as it should be dealt with.
If you steal a car there you are dealt with as a thief and punished accordingly.
No kid gloves rubbish like we have here.
If you steal things you are treated as a thief and that’s it.
So why do we have to put up with such a serious problem here and continually let offenders off, often to reoffend within days?
The answer is we have to toughen up and take a look at what neighbouring countries are doing because it works.
Get rid of the “softly softly, joy ride” approach and treat all car thieves the same and make the punishment suit the crime.
Do you honestly think that the victims of car theft feel any better when they discover their vehicle was taken by a bored teen and not a genuine thief?
So let’s get rid of the “joy-riding” tag and treat it like it really is.
Theft is theft no matter how you look at it. Jim Pacey, Atherton 1327: King Edward II of England is murdered in Berkeley Castle; he is succeeded by his son Edward III. 1832: Death of Sir Walter Scott, Scottish
novelist and poet, aged 61. 1922: United States establishes a
protectionist tariff. 1939: Premier Armand Calinescu of Romania is assassinated by the Iron Guard. 1949: West Germany comes into existence as US, British and French occupation zones are transferred to German control. 1964: Malta becomes independent state
within British Commonwealth. 1974: US film actor Walter Brennan dies. He was the first actor to win three Academy Awards and best known for his roles in westerns such as My Darling Clementine. 1999: An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale strikes Taiwan, killing at least 2321 people and injuring 8712. 2008: Qantas’ first Airbus A380 (above) touches down in Sydney after two years of production delays. 2011: Treasurer Wayne Swan is named Euromoney magazine’s Finance Minister of the Year, only the second time an Australian has won the award.