HEADINGGGGGBID TO SAVE KID CRIMS HEADINGG

UNCLE Wayne Parker Snr spends his nights patrolling Townsville’s streets, picking up indigenous kids as young as eight-years-old doing drugs, and fielding calls from the police requesting help with juveniles.

The Yinda Program organiser who takes troubled youth out to the country to teach them how to respect their community and help get their lives back on track, would receive calls every week from police officers.

“I’ve seen everything from eight-year-olds to 10year-olds on drugs doing MDMA, chroming, petrol sniffing or ice,” he said.

“I used to work closely with the rapid response group, they used to ring me and ask me where this young person was or who this young person was for a car theft, break and enter … or bashing people.

“It’s a really sad thing to see what’s going on, a lot of the young people are stuck in the system.”

Mr Parker is one of many respected indigenous figures in Townsville working in their own time and often unpaid, to break the vicious cycle and prevent children from becoming hardened criminals.

“These kids need 24/7 attention. I try take them to a relative of theirs, sometimes I even take them back

Advertisement to my place,” he said. “They’re couch surfing from place to place, they’re sleeping in a park, and then they’ve broken into a bottle-o or the back of a pub and taken alcohol.

“They’re looking for a lift, looking for a feed, a shower.”

Even catching kids in stolen cars and hauling them back to their parents after giving them a “clip” for trying to run away.

“There are a lot of good parents out there, and some bad parents where they lost track of their kids,” Mr Parker said.

He and other indigenous elders are calling for alternative sentencing options.

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