Immigrant had enough of Western Sydney

Hoodlum gangs terrorise owners
30 April, 2008, Blacktown Advocate:

DOONSIDE shopkeeper Tina (not her real name) doesn't know how long she can hold on.

For more than a year she has suffered ceaseless run-ins with groups of teenagers causing havoc in Doonside Crescent.

They set fires to bins, daub graffiti and smash walls, windows and signs and hurl abuse at her and passing shoppers. She said: "They do what they want. The problem here is very bad, because they're not scared. We can't touch them because we would get into trouble but they touch us they can walk away from it but no one helps us. They laugh at us and police, if they come." ...

Meanwhile, her resilience is fading.

"I am so tired, I am very tired," she said.

"You try to plan for your future and you've got heaps to do you've got mortgage to pay, you've got this, you've got that" ...

Cathy, another Doonside shopkeeper, said the situation had become so intolerable she was soon moving back to her home country in Asia, barely a year after setting up shop ...

Youth getting away with it
30 April, 2008, Blacktown Advocate:

IT WAS 8.30pm on a Thursday when a young couple parked in Westpoint and pulled a pram from the boot.

Before the 36-year-old Toongabbie dad could strap his baby into the stroller, a youth approached him and lifted his shirt, revealing a knife.

The teenager pulled the blade out, pointed it at the father's chest and yelled, "Empty your pockets".

His 32-year-old wife screamed, alerting security and the would-be thief ran off empty handed.

This is just one example of the brazen juvenile crime occurring in Blacktown every week. And according to the Bureau of Crime Statistics, the kids are getting away with it.

In 2006, the most up-to-date figures available, almost half of the 412 Blacktown youths who faced a children's court walked away with a slap on the wrist.

Just four per cent of the youths who fronted a magistrate were placed in a juvenile institution ...

Last month a report into trends in re-offending revealed juvenile offenders were far more likely to reoffend than adults two thirds of juveniles were reconvicted within two years.

Call to 'teach the parents'
30 April, 2008, Blacktown Advocate:

BLACKTOWN'S young people were "hurting" and the entire community needed to band together to help them, a retired Children's Court magistrate said.

Speaking to the Advocate this month on the problem of repeat young offenders, Barbara Holborow also said the juvenile justice system was floundering and that parenting classes should be compulsory.

Ms Holborow, who spent 12 years on the bench, said she and other colleagues agreed that young people from Blacktown attending a recent youth outreach session were "flat".

"Everybody agreed they were not responding," she said.

"So I'm wondering what is happening to the kids in Blacktown?"

Ms Holborow said lots of local young people were hurting and suggested all members of the community should try a different approach.

"(Nelson) Mandela says it takes a village to raise a child and I believe in that," she said.

"Ask yourself what you're doing to help."

However, she believes the best preventive measure against youth crime begins at home.

"It is the first three years that are important and you've got to get it right," she said.

"If you don't, you'll spend the next 27 undoing it.

"We need parenting classes with compulsory attendance.

"I don't care about the compulsory part it's in the best interests of the child."

"At least we may be able to prevent some of the deaths and cruel assaults happening because of lack of interest."

The courts were also failing our youth, she said.

"If I gave a young person bail, that meant you didn't reoffend between now and when you come back or 'bring your toothbrush because you're going in'," she said.

"Now they're reoffending three or four times and laughing when they come back.

"Who are we putting up to fail? The kids," Ms Holborow said.

"If you're going to put a child on a good behaviour bond, that is what it means. If you're going to allow kids to push boundaries, the kid has no respect for the law and, more importantly, for themselves."

Ms Holborow retired in 1994.

All hands on deck, diversity is failing. The energy is gone, the vibrancy is gone, the celebration is over - it's all gone 'flat'. Grab a kid and teach them something, anything, just do it. And don't forget to tell them they should be celebrating.

Parenting classes are an OK idea, for a while, until the community runs out of steam - and then what? There's hardly any white folk left in Blacktown now anyway, so Ms Holborow's good intentions are whistling in the wind. Again, eventually you're left with an autonomous immigrant community - kiss it goodbye. Hello no-go zone. All the efforts of the police, courts, and optimistic do-gooders fail under the weight of numbers. The immigrant/refugee intake is an unrelenting wave that swamps efforts to assimilate it (unless the immigrants are from a compatible source).

If we can't bring Aboriginal communities into line, then what chance do we have with African kids? Smart move, Cathy.