Pollies let down kids
A HUGE amount of correspondence is printed in the Bulletin from readers about crime in Townsville; I do not know what the average age of these criminals is but individuals as young as 10 have been reported as being involved in crime and not just for stealing a bottle of milk off the front step or the morning newspaper off the front lawn, but serious crime and in particular burglary, car theft and criminal damage.
Now the Palaszczuk-led government has been in power for five years, which means some of these criminals were as young as five years of age at that time.
Criminals from the age of 10 to 17, I would suggest, are a direct result of the way the Palaszczuk Government has completely mishandled youth justice. The inept Palaszczuk Government has seriously let the young people down in this state.
When it came into power the young individuals concerned were not necessarily destined for a life of crime but could see how easy and exciting it is to get involved in serious crime in Queensland without any serious repercussions so have gone and done so, creating havoc and even bringing cities to a standstill at times.
A slap on the wrist with a feather duster, bail houses, day trips out with a police officer, flowered shirts, staff at the youth detention centre must not wear blue uniforms (blue is too authoritarian and reminds the inmates of a police officer) treats and the debacle just goes on and on.
From all accounts the way the Youth Detention Centre is run is nothing more than a very expensive holiday camp with little or no repercussions if any of the detainees seriously misbehave.
If the government had taken command of the situation when it started to raise its ugly head and put in place harsh penalties for offenders, any would-be offenders now would have been deterred from going down the same path as their predecessors but no, the do-gooders, bleeding hearts, modern day academics got involved and look what we have ended up with – complete anarchy.
In the old days there was a saying, “spare the rod and spoil the child”. How true.
It is an indictment on the Palaszczuk Government that an 11-year-old boy is allowed to be out on the streets so he can commit 57 crimes in four months and he is not the only one who makes a whole mockery of the Palaszczuk Government’s response to crime prevention, and I use the word prevention loosely.
Something has to be done and soon, or do we the citizens just accept the situation the Government has allowed to flourish as a fait accompli?
DAVID THOUMINE, Cranbrook.