OUR HEROES NEED A BREAK

LIFE on the Gold Coast is no picnic for paramedics and police. Drunks, drug addicts, dangerous drivers and thugs seek cheap shots against our frontline heroes, who, for little pay, continue their role as custodians keeping our society safe.

Eighteen months ago this newspaper revealed that 165 Gold Coast officers are assaulted every year. That is almost one every second day. It does not take into account other frontline staff such as paramedics, fireys and council parking inspectors.

The Labor government got so sick of the cowardly attacks that in 2012 it doubled the maximum penalty for serious assault on officers from seven to 14 years.

Yet punch-drunk grubs are still not getting the message. Yesterday, a man walked from court ordered to undergo 200 hours of community work and pay $1000 compensation after he smacked a paramedic in the lip outside a nightclub. The paramedic was trying to help him after an incident inside.

As the Bulletin has reported multiple times previously, offenders are still contemptuous of the courts and police. We know this from the demeanour, both inside and outside courts, of people facing assault, drug, robbery and drink-driving charges. They often leave courts smiling or laughing, confident in the knowledge that, with the help of lawyers, they have only suffered a slap on their wrists.

Our frontline staff are not punching bags. They deserve our unqualified support.

Until the justice system lives up to the community’s expectations and shows our officers are sacrosanct, little will change.

They are the men and women in blue. They shouldn’t be that colour themselves because of mindless idiots who are chasing a cheap shot.