THE thought of a proud old lady being forced to watch on as teenagers rob her blind is enough to make you want to cry for a year.
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On a Sunday afternoon this month in broad daylight, three young teenage boys waltzed into the Mount Austin unit of 80-year-old Necia Graham and brazenly plucked her prized possessions from under her nose.
It is the latest jarring example of how a lawless, morally bankrupt few are holding our city to ransom.
Every break-in makes a victim of someone.
Every break-in robs victims not only of possessions, but of their trust in human nature.
Even by those standards, this break-in was particularly cold-hearted.
For starters, the gutless halfwits responsible targeted an aged-care facility.
They honed in on an elderly, bed-ridden woman, whose only mistake was to tell them she was unable to move.
They then callously rummaged through her possessions as she looked on in paralysed horror, fleeing with an iPad and jewellery.
Trembling with fear as she recounted the story to The Daily Advertiser, Mrs Graham said she may never be the same again.
Imagine the incandescent rage burning inside Mrs Graham’s loved ones when they hear that? Imagine if it was your mother, your grandmother?
Crime and deviance are part of any community.
And where there is disadvantage, as there is in many pockets of Wagga, crime will breed.
No doubt these young offenders come from broken homes, where positive role models are thin on the ground and addiction, family violence and hopelessness are entrenched.
In many ways, they are victims.
That does not give them commission to victimise others, especially in such an egregious manner.
The courts and police are compelled legislatively to give young offenders more chances than an adult.
But in life, as in Monopoly, the “get out of jail free” card shouldn’t last forever.
Teenagers know right from wrong and sometimes, punishment is the only corrective measure left.
It’s high time the law recognised that inescapable fact.