Brutal liquor store attack criminals have been identified!

A week ago four teenagers went into a liquor store in East Auckland and brutally assaulted the worker, just to get a few bottles of booze. They are all aged between 14 and 16 years old. This crime does not have its origins in perverts or lack of opportunity. It is a heinous crime that included terrible violence and resembled something that we see for overseas. There is going to be the usual discussion about how these kids may or may not have been brought up. Fingers will be pointed but we must look at the bigger picture. There are some 'absolutes' in this. What they did is wrong at every level and there can be no excuses for their actions; no justifications. They have damaged their own lives; that is if the 'Youth Court' takes their actions as serious. The public is going to demand a swift and hard response, because if they don't see that, a message will go out there that this sort of behaviour is somehow 'explainable.' Yes we know that these 'kids' need help, but initially they must take the consequences for their actions. None of us are safe when young people or anyone else thinks that they can go into a shop and enact such actions of deplorable violence. One would hope that once caught the law will take firm action and that massive efforts will go into turning the lives of these 'thugs'; around. I make no apologies for labelling them thus. I do however believe that we need to make the effort to change them. After all, they will come out of whatever institution' they are consigned to. one day and be neighbours a fellow-workers, because if they don't change, then the statement the police made about the perpetrators facing a long life behind bars will become a fact! www.authorneilcoelmean.com