Government need to face it – youth offending is out of control

29th May 2018

We are in the grip of a youth crime wave and the government are turning a blind eye.

Sadly, within the last month two fatal crashes have occurred. On the 19th May a car carrying 4 teenagers and a 21 year old was reported stolen and seen speeding and a Police pursuit followed as the car failed to stop. The car crashed, and a 15-year-old died as a result. It was discovered he was traveling in the boot.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/104042593/teenager-killed-in-car-involved-in-police-pursuit-had-been-in-the-cars-boot

Sensible Sentencing Trust Youth Advocate Jess McVicar said she is very concerned about the youth offending “Because of the irresponsible actions of the group, a young lad has lost his life; what a terrible heartbreak. The government and youth agencies need to face up to the fact there is a problem with the high rate of youth offending, and if they didn’t before, surely after this latest tragedy they will?”

Jess said she feels deep sadness for the family of Bailey Patmore. And now we must examine the reason as to why he was in the car. “Why had they stolen the car in the first place? Why didn’t they stop when the Police tried to get them to stop? What was their intention? Why were they not at home? Apart from the 21-year-old, they are all apparently still considered youths.”

Just yesterday another fatal crash involving two youths occurred, resulting in the deaths of a young girl believed to have been a 12-year-old, and a 15-year-old male driver. The Subaru the young people were driving was reported stolen, police saw the vehicle and signalled for the vehicle to pull over and the driver failed to stop. The Subaru continued driving, travelling onto Pioneer Highway and crashed into a ditch hitting a power pole at the intersection of Shirriffs Rd, Palmerston North.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12060253&ref=NZH_fb

Jess said “within a 2-week period we have another horrific and very sad end to youth offending. The driver was believed to be breaching Bail conditions! At 15 years of age, why was he not at home with someone making sure he was sticking to his Bail conditions! How did he get the chance to break his Bail? Who is supposed to be monitoring these youth offenders? Who is making sure they are staying out of trouble? It appears like no one is helping them stay on track. Unfortunately, it is left up to the police, who do not have the numbers to monitor all youth under their monitoring care.”

“The government are currently patting themselves on their back for the apparent drop in youth offending, yet when something like this happens, you don’t hear a thing from them! There is a major problem with youth offending!”

“Now there are grieving families who have lost their children too early in life, it is such a tragedy. We don’t know the reason for their offending, but this is something we need to get to the bottom of!”

Sensible Sentencing Trust say the government need to focus on the actual events that are happening, and not their statistics of who is going through the youth justice system.

Jess went on to say “A lot of the young offenders have no respect for the law and are bored. I believe part of that comes down to how kids are parented, and parents should be held more responsible for their kids actions than they currently are.”

“To truly understand why the offending is happening we are going to have to admit there is a problem and face up to it before another young person is killed or injured. If we continue to tip toe around the harsh realities we will never solve this problem, and we will be reading more reports of fatal accidents involving our youth.” ENDS

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