Re: Train vandals locked up

["David Bennetts" <davibenn@ozemail.com.au>]

"Byron Creek" <byroncreek@hotmail.com> wrote in message
sfLD6.7238$482.32454@newsfeeds.bigpond.com">news:sfLD6.7238$482.32454@newsfeeds.bigpond.com...
> Only six months???.........and in a youth holiday camp!!! I think six
YEARS
> sounds like a proper sentence!!! The 18 year old should go to jail, being
an
> adult and the younger one should be transfered to jail as an 18th birthday
> present. The article states that these morons will have to pay the train
> operators penalty. What about the $20,000 damage to the train? I am amazed
> at the stupidity of some of todays youth. When I was younger, I spent some
> time being bored and even indulged in a bit of underage
> drinking.......however, I did not feel the need to derail trains or
> vandalise anything!!!
>
> Byron Creek
> www.byroncreek.50megs.com
>

I think a lot of the problem lies with the system that allows underage
offenders to continually offend without taking into account prior offences,
that too many warnings are given and that punishments don't fit the crime.
The police have their hands tied so much in they can't use the number 12
boot in the backside like they did in the past.  It's my belief that a
relatively small percentage of youngsters are vandals and graffitists, but
those that are manage to get away with it too often.

Having returned from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, where graffiti and
vandalism is virtually non-existent, I wouldn't want to live in such
societies where opposition and free expression is not tolerated.  However, I
think our society has swung too far the other way, when offenders get legal
aid and victims can't, and justice is unaffordable for the middle income
earner, constituting the majority of the population.

Regards

David Bennetts