THERE is a surprising amount of traffic on the roads at 2.30 in the morning.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
There are still a lot of big trucks and shift workers on the move in Katherine in those wee hours.
Four silly kids chose that time earlier this month to terrify an innocent attendant at a 24-hour service station.
Hardly criminal masterminds but frightening all the same, the kids picked up some rocks and a small metal pole to terrify the attendant.
This person responded to the threats the way most of us would, not with violence but appeasement.
All the while being recorded by the CCTV camera, the youths, aged between 13 and 16, ran off with some change and a little bit of junk food.
Northern Territory police neatly did the job they are paid to do and picked them up soon after and then charged them with aggravated robbery.
The justice system quickly processed the youths and directed them to the Katherine Youth Justice Court just a week later.
And that’s where the trail grows cold.
There are obvious and well understood media restrictions on reporting cases from children’s courts.
If it is a first offence, they’re young and stupid, and we don’t know whether our gang of four “had form” or not, their rehabilitation is uppermost in everyone’s mind.
Last chance before they hit the adult “big time”.
This newspaper later pursued the case with court officials to be told there were more than 60 cases that day and without their names, there was no chance of learning what had happened to them.
Of course, we were not allowed to have their names. Classic Catch 22.
NT Coroner Greg Cavanagh last week said policing and punishments were not the answer but he was talking about domestic violence not petty crimes. A very separate matter.
These crimes must have consequences, and the public needs to know what they are.
The public, the friends of these little crooks, the attendant, mum and dad taxpayer, Katherine’s already jumpy citizens, and frustrated police – they need to know these kids will be properly punished.
Ask most parents, if there is no penalty for bad behaviour, nothing is learned and there is nothing to stop a repeat of that behaviour (or others from following suit).