Young thugs need to stop burying head in the hand

A FIGHT breaks out between two young women in the middle of a Gold Coast bus. An older man steps up and restrains one of the women to diffuse an escalating situation.

In front of the bus is a heavyset 19-year-old who seems to be leaving the bus. He mutters inaudible words, turns, wades through the people in the aisle and assaults the older good Samaritan.

Next, we see the same 19-yearold leaving the courts where he is confronted by a reporter who asks whether he regrets his actions. His response was silence punctuated by the finger. We don’t know what kind of defence he put up to get 120 days of community service for unprovoked physical violence, but obviously it didn’t change his contempt and aggressive attitude.

I’m pretty sure he presented an entirely different personality when he faced the magistrate otherwise why would he get only 120 days community service for an unprovoked assault in a public and confined space where others were also put at risk by his actions?

You are left wondering if the sentence was enough to encourage him to change his ways or if the courts have given him the opportunity to reoffend.

Only time will tell. His future is in his hands, hands he should put to good use while considering that his contemptuous finger will be remembered should he ever face a magistrate again.