Property crime not impersonal, and can be deeply disturbing

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 15, Issue 690, 10 June 1997, Page 16

Property crime not impersonal, and can be deeply disturbing

By

Ruapehu Safe Community Co-ordinator Pat

McOnie The major threat to our quality of life at present is a result of the steadily rising crime rate. People can no longer leave their property unattended, their cars are stolen, their homes are burgled and no one who loses his wallet expects to get it back. Many people are frightened to go out at night and those who live alone are fearful, even in their own homes. The likelihood of being a victim of robbery or violence has created a pervading sense of fear that more than anything else is destroying our quality of life. Most people seem to believe that unemployment is to blame. It may be a factor, but it is not a major factor. The rise in crime has resulted from our abandoning the old standards of discipline as part of the new liberal era following on from the Second World War. We have relaxed our standards of dress, of behaviour and of good manners. We have come to accept a range of sexual abnormality as "alternative lifestyles". We have not set a very high standard of regard for other people or their property. It is no surprise that many young have progressed from higli spiritedness, to irresponsible vandalism and to criminal behaviour. This generation has left children fatherless in far greater

numbers than any war did. We do not seem to understand adolescence. Children, whether they observe the boundaries or not, need to know where they are. There' s been the child-saving mentality, children who offend are themselves victims and it may be true. But at some stage we have got to stop, we can't keep on making excuses for the damage that people do. Burglary is an example. It is regarded as a property offence and therefore less important. But burglary can be a violation of the most serious type, of your space, your personal life and effects, of things which may be of little value in a monetary sense but which can destroy things which have sentimental value and are irreplaceable. Marijuana, illicit substances in our schools is another. Mint a medal for those principals and boards who are unflinching in their efforts to flush the stuff out of their grounds. If school pupils are smoking it, I care. Something has to explain the drug's attraction to them. Soporific experience, the mischief of it, the derring-do of flouting the law or, worse, the fear of being thought afraid to flout it. Remove the element of defiance, they say, and young folk will lose interest. Maybe, but what then will they challenge! Behind every child is a parent. On every parent there is a burden of responsibility.