BROKEN SYSTEM NEEDS AN OVERHAUL

ELEVEN months ago the Bulletin welcomed proposed tough new laws for youths. The death of Jack Beasley on the streets of Surfers Paradise was fresh in the memory of angry locals who demanded action be taken. The state government responded with laws it said would make a real difference. So, what’s changed? Yesterday afternoon three young thugs were nabbed by police on the northern Gold Coast after a brazen multi-hour car chase.

Those behind the wheel were as young as 15 years old.

This came as two Gold Coast businessmen spoke out after their own brushes with young criminals

Will Hattingh caught two teens trying to break into his house last month.

Shortly thereafter, the same thieves allegedly went to Robert Brutman’s house down the street, where they stole a SUV and Ford Falcon XR8 from his garage.

They also took keys from inside the house, his wallet and a bottle of spirits.

All of this comes less than two weeks after Brisbane couple Kate Leadbetter and Matty Field were hit and killed by a car allegedly driven by a 17-year-old.

This raft of incidents follow those covered by the Bulletin in the past two years in its Kindergarten Crooks series. Fed up residents in some suburbs have already founded their own vigilante groups to protect their properties.

Everyone recognises there is a problem and that enough is enough.

Sadly, the state government does not seem to be acting in a matter which is consistent with the standards of the community.

Adding to this toxic situation is the usage of social media by these young people to highlight their misdeeds or to egg each other on. They are competing crimes and throwing it in our faces.

Social media for these young crooks is a cesspit of bravado which acts as a catalyst for even more outrageous behaviour.

An increasingly hard-line approach aside, there are other options that must be considered as a means of reforming young people who have got in with a bad crowd.

Today’s Bulletin looks at Ormeau charity Everything Suarve which uses a tough love approach to help troubled teenagers get back on the straight and narrow, rather than simply abandon them to the justice system.

This reform approach has seen results according to its founders and is certainly a more engaged approach than reviving the “expensive failure” of Newman Government-era youth boot camps.

Enough is enough, the carnage must end and the Gold Coast deserves an explanation from the government on how it will make a difference.