JUVENILES BEYOND THE LAW

JUVENILES BEYOND THE LAW: In a letter to Michelle Roberts Minister for Police on 4 April 2019 we referred to our letter to Hon. John Quigley, Attorney General & Minister for Commerce, in which we highlighted the disturbing issue of juveniles running amok out of the reach of the law causing major problems for small business owners with impunity, and also your response to us dated 21 March 2019, which is greatly appreciated and for which we thank you.

Whilst our previous letter was not only concerned with an incident involving a supermarket on Albany Highway in Kelmscott, it was also concerning many other incidents involving small supermarkets and delicatessens is an ongoing and a regular occurrence with impunity.

But, this deliberate, willful and malicious theft is not confined to food outlets such as small supermarkets and delicatessens, nor to members of the aboriginal community, it is much more pervasive.

Similarly, co-founder of Tentworld Jon Burrell told SmartCompany his business would now be eligible for the write-off if the $50 million revenue threshold was enacted, saying his business hadn’t used the scheme but would plan to now.

“If we do end up being under $50 million in revenue for next year, it’ll definitely be a nice benefit and will definitely speed up the ROI of any new capital purchases we make — making new capital purchases easier & more appealing to do,” he said.

Accordingly, we cite with authority an incident of at Jaycar, Osborne Park, whereby a member of our Board become aware that a theft had occurred and that it was two Caucasian youths who stole items from the store. Our Board member in discussing the theft with the Jaycar manager was told that the theft had been reported to the police who were provided with CCTV footage of the theft. He was also told that thefts occurred on a regular basis, two to three time a week and that those involved were approximately 50/50 of Caucasian/Aboriginal.

Notwithstanding, anecdotal evidence does strongly suggest that members of the aboriginal community are over represented in this unacceptable behavior, concerning which, as outlined in your letter, much is being done to address the situation, for which the Government is to be commended and which we acknowledge with approval.

It is therefore understandable when incidents are reported the police “investigate” but lay no charges as there is a total absence of effective laws to enable them to do so, or for that matter laws that prevent them from doing so. Whilst that we understand is indicative of reported incidents, conversely anecdotal evidence suggests that the vast majority of incidents, for those reasons, go unreported, as was the situation with a number of Jaycar incidents.

This reprehensible ongoing situation is further highlighted by a disturbing report in today’s edition of The West Australian newspaper under the heading ‘Violent teenage girls have caused havoc at Cockburn Gateway for weeks, workers claim’, that reported:The incident was reported to police but no one has been charged.”

Again, we say this untenable situation is a gross indictment on the Government, which in a civilised and supposedly law abiding society should not be permitted to stand, and on that basis we urge urgent steps to bring this situation within the law to protect small business from this totally unacceptable behaviour, which evidenced by the historical lack of action and your response is acknowledged as not being unlawful and is therefore lawful.

This matter is so serious it requires whole of Government immediate action, in particular, involving the Minister for Small Business, the Attorney General & Minister for Commerce as well as yourself.