Editorial: Simple solution not the answer

OPINION: Last week the last of the thugs who attacked three disabled people in Blenheim in July were sentenced.

Two of the victims had intellectual impairments and another was in a mobility scooter.

They were attacked by six people, two adults and four youths who demanded money and cigarettes but when refused, set upon their victims, kicking and punching as they went. One of the disabled men was thrown in the Taylor River.

The savagery of the crime seemed a new low for Blenheim.

Another new low also seems to have been reached in Australia.

A New Zealand youth may be deported back here after joining his mate in an assault on a man in a wheelchair at a Sydney railway station.

The attack lasted five minutes and video footage shows the man being pulled from his chair, cornered in a lift, stomped and hit repeatedly and beaten with an iron rod.

Both these cases would try the forbearance of anyone trying to resist more punitive measures in our justice system. There seems no excuse for either attack apart from greed and hatred. The sister of one of the Sydney attackers had a cursory attempt at mitigation, suggesting her brother was attacked first by the wheelchair-bound victim. If it wasn't such a deplorable incident that would be laughable.

The 15 year old sentenced last week was given home detention to stay with his Southland family. But that seems to be returning the youth to the cause of the problem. It is not much of a punt to say this teenager did not pick up his attitude to life from school, mates, music or television. It would have come from the same family with which he has been sent to serve his sentence.

Last week there was another story in a newspaper about violence. A fiery mum was pictured in all her glory showing how she had "slugged" her daughter's boyfriend when she had caught him staying overnight in her daughter's bedroom.

The 19 year old had gone to the police to complain. Weeks later he took part in the robbery in which an Auckland liquor store owner was murdered.

There was no "it's not okay" anti violence message to this story. In fact it seemed to be hailing the mum for her aggressive approach to parenting and controlling what went on in her house. She's the poster parent for whacking as a means of earning respect and the punch line is she has no regrets. Domestic violence, it seems, is to be glorified in some circumstances.

The newly formed Law and Order Party New Zealand is calling for tougher sentences, harder prisons and more police resources to counter crime. This is just more simplistic solutions for complex social problems. But given the hard-out soulessness of what is happening today, many New Zealanders can't be blamed for turning towards them.

- The Marlborough Express

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