Juvenile crime a disgrace

IT’S shameful what is happening with juvenile crime here.

For a while, we are getting people robbed in their houses, when they are there.

The kids who held up a bottle shop came back to a party and then tried to jump a neighbour’s fence.

But she was outside on the veranda, then they came and tried to rob my place, poking holes in my screen door trying to fish my keys out of the lock, and dropping things on the ground, which were not tested, which I found after I came back from my room.

I’ve had a few break-in attempts and one of my old neighbours had several break-ins in several months. I come up the main road today, and youths were playing football on the road, instead of a park, with traffic swerving dodging them.

The noise and commotion gets too difficult. I am often very sickly, and these things are beyond reasonable even for normal people.

It is coming to a point that things are getting so regular and bad, there will be home invasions and people will get desperately hurt as each side ramps up their behaviours.

What are we to do then? Our glorious socialist society is so broken, you can’t even talk to the kids or the parents much, as people think they have rights to do whatever they like and get prone to being offended at just gentle talk. The police also are reluctant to step in to prevent it coming to greater problems.

But, if we crack down on things too much, we risk becoming like America, where prisons desperately dent GDP, and things are so dangerous, police have to draw weapons a lot of days. What is required is a good balance, of training from school and community, of understanding and respect, and early intervention and follow up to reinforce the message

We have already seen over harshness in some laws and arrests for the littlest things, depriving people of a normal life.

A light criminal record should not be the finish of somebody’s life or career. It’s a matter of, are they trustworthy now, and will they remain trustworthy?

Pity we don’t have more people in politics who think like this.

Wayne Morellini, White Rock