WHERE DID THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE FALL OFF THE WAGON WITH ADDRESSING YOUTH CRIME?

Don't believe the spin that you hear on the TV, or see in any "daily newspaper" in Queensland, which makes any attempt to make you believe that the Palaszczuk government is genuinely doing anything pro-actively and willingly, without being pushed, and basically bludgeoned by various media outlets, to address spiralling youth crime across the entire state. 

Because Palaszczuk herself, and the justice minister, Shannon Fentiman, the two people in the government who hold all the aces as far as giving the courts, giving judges and magistrates the powers to properly punish juvenile offenders, continue to kowtow to the poor Johnny fraternity, and a pile of leftist lawyers, who of course are anti anything which aims to make juvenile offenders just as accountable for their heinous crimes, namely homicide, as an adult offender. 

Do some research, a lot of these leftist lawyers I mention are keeping a seat warm in parliament, on both sides of the house. But Labor is the party in power, not the LNP, and it's the party which has let youth crime spiral out of control since Palaszczuk came to power in 2015. 

Police in Queensland must surely be at their wits end. Two words - beyond frustration. So many of them have every right to be livid, even angry, to see all the hard and thankless work which they put in to make juvenile offenders front up to court, only to have errant and out of step magistrates and judges let them off the hook completely, and most of the time, without any custodial sentence whatsoever. 

Juvenile offenders in Queensland think that they can do anything they want, and get away with it. Because the fact is - they can.

They can violently assault somebody, and instead of getting at least 12 months in jail like they should, they typically get 100 to 200 hours community service. Ball park figure.

But that's close to the mark, and most notably, the spectre of going to jail doesn't figure in the equation. So many of them are laughing as they leave court, while police prosecutors must surely want to cry. 

Of course there are those in "legal land" who hate police and would be aghast at any prospect of juvenile offenders being treated the same as adult offenders in the eyes of the law. 

Well, I got news for them - they should be. At least for 16 and 17 year olds. For offenders 15 years and younger, which you can only hope are not that common at all, the imposition of any form of custodial sentence should not be mandatory, but discretionary.

Yes, a line needs to be drawn in the sand, to differentiate between a 13 year old and a 16 year old. One is a big kid, and one is a little adult. 

Kids don't belong in jail, but if a 16 or 17 year old kills somebody, bashes somebody, loots somebody's property, sexually assaults somebody, deals in narcotics or commits any other serious crime that lands anyone else over the age of 18 in jail, then they should be in jail as well. 

For the most serious offences under the criminal code, 16 and 17 year olds should not be treated any differently to what 18 year olds and over are. 

Except for the most extraordinarily heinous crime,the maximum sentence that a judge in Queensland right now can hand to a juvenile under the age of 18 for murder, as an example,is 10 years. For an adult over the age of 18 - it is 20 years (which is classed as life imprisonment). 

Why should, for argument's sake, a "man" who is aged 17 years and 3 months of age, get a whole ten years less in jail for murder, because he is still "technically" a juvenile?

On past and present form, no Queenslander could have any great hope that the Palaszczuk government is going to start putting juvenile offenders on the same page as adult offenders, and put a stop to the revolving door of them being granted bail time and time again, and re-offending. But miracles do happen. Jokes jokes!