This awful case of the 17 year-old killed in the security van throws up a number of culprits;
The killer and any accomplices obviously, the seventeen year-old whose own actions landed him in the situation, the security guards for his placement, and last but not least, the youth justice system.
Parents Ian and Lorraine said they had no confidence in New Zealand's youth offender system and wanted him to experience prison after a series of "minor misdemeanours".
"In an attempt to stem any escalation of a more serious nature, they officially charged Liam with the theft of their vehicle," the family said.
These are not the first parents to find they have no effective back up from the police or court system. The approach to youth offending is to keep them out of court until it cannot be avoided - hence only 17 percent of offenders end up there.
Now one could argue if this kid had been kept out of court he wouldn't be dead. Fair enough. But his offending would have escalated. At least that's what his parents believed and they knew him better than I do.
Unfortunately his age also killed him. At seventeen he was too old for the youth court, although I seem to remember reading somewhere a district court case could be referred to the youth court for a seventeen year-old.
The problem is kids know the law is soft. Parents struggling to control them get no assistance.
Just check out a NZ Yearbook. Youth offending is categorised under social services. Adult offending under crime and the justice system.
My heart goes out to his parents who were doing what they believed was the best by their son. What a tragedy. What a travesty.
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5 comments:
There but for the grace of God go I. We had similar experiences with the system with our teenager. I remember be counselled/lectured by a police officer on how to bring up our wayward one over an "acquired" wallet. It was not until I said I wished I had thrown the wallet in the bin that they took us seriously.
We had to resort to drastic action in order to try and stop the rot. As with you our hearts go out to the parents as they were doing the best they knew at the time.
The righteous ones who blame the parents should consider thenmselves lucky not to have been in the hard decisions department because it is not easy with some kids!!
The parents are morons. What did they honestly expect would happen to a jumped up boy-racing white boy like that in prison?
Fair enough in having him charged. But getting a judge to deny him bail?!!!!!!!! Well there is strong discipline, and there is complete and utter stupidity, and what they did falls into the latter category. You reap what you sow and I have no sympathy for them at all.
Are you a parent Blair?
To have no sympathy for their loss, the 'if only we hadn't' hell that must be tearing them apart, is beyond me.
The parents TRIED to do something. If the wheel hadn't spun a 00, it might have worked.
Let the blame fall squarely on the scumbag that did the murder, with some lesser ( but still significant) culpability for the agency responsible for the victim's death.
After reading the transcript of the court hearing, I now have considerable sympathy for the parents. It pisses me off that the media can get away with lazy reporting such as a) failing to mention Liam's denial of bail was as a result of past breaches, and b) failing to mention the numerous other charges he was facing. Nope, we were told he took a car without his parents permission and that the parents wanted him jailed for it - no context. When are we going to get some decent journalism in this country?
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