Thursday, January 18, 2007

"Kia kaha, stay strong"

According to a NewstalkZB reporter those were the words called out to the 15 year-old accused killer of 77-year-old Doreen Reed. The family stood for the duration of his appearance and while there was much expression of sorrow from both parties there was seemingly none of shame.

Perhaps they do not believe their kid did it. Maybe he didn't. But is this how you would behave in their position?

Last night I heard he was out on bail and under curfew when he allegedly committed the crime. I see no reports confirming this. But if it is true, and he is the killer, then I can only go back to my post of just two days ago. Build the facilities. Lock them up. Stop the leniency. The first duty of a government is to protect its citizens. They are failing miserably. And it isn't just the direct victims and their families who suffer. There will be elderly people living alone unable to sleep at night. We can't keep on accepting the further erosion of our quality of life.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chances are this young criminal could be another member of the growing underclass created by the state's reckless welfarism.

Unfortunately, not the first, neither the last of these tragedies.

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Manolo, He was "unemployed". We can assume then he was on the dole. Even without knowing about his upbringing he is definitely affected by our "reckless welfarism". Young people shouldn't be able to get the dole. If the state insists on taking responsibility for covering the risk of unemployment they should operate a contributory scheme. If you haven't worked and paid taxes you don't qualify.