YOUTH CRIME PROBLEM
THE article on state youth crime and the out-of-touch waffle accredited to state Police Minister Mark Ryan (CP 14/1) will be of no comfort to the increasing numbers of victims of crime across the state, particularly in the Far North.
On face value, Minister Ryan’s politically motivated diatribe could best be described as delusional and totally out of touch with reality and the status quo.
For Minister Ryan to claim the current Youth Justice provisions are “tough, comprehensive etc etc” shows no understanding at all of the impact the current revolving door arrest/court/release/nil deterrent sequence of the juvenile crime reality that Queenslanders have to endure.
Check most juvenile court cases decided or current under the court system and you will quickly see this pattern.
Citizens call the police to investigate. Police make an arrest. The alleged young crim goes before a court.
If the youths are given bail conditions, police officers might check on the youngster’s whereabouts, but after they leave, the youngster more often than not joins the long list of recidivist juvenile criminals who damage and inflict other measures on an increasing number of people and property across the state.
But Mr Ryan is not alone in the current state government cohort.
If you check figures from the QPS website on a location by location basis (after deducting traffic, weapons and drug offences), you will learn that the Far Northern electorates currently occupied by state Labor’s “Fabulous Foursome”, namely Pitt, Healy, Crawford and Lui, and it will be revealed that these four electorates are among the worst numbers of offences per 1000 residents anywhere in the state. And yet they remain silent on juvenile crime and state Labor’s revolving door legislation that makes most young crims untouchable.
Barry Simpson, Mareeba