If I owned a dairy, I might think very differently. But I don’t and, maybe, that’s why I can’t say that I agree with what the Dairy and Business Owners Group is calling for.

They’ve had a gutsful of what they’re describing as “14-year-old ratbags” getting away with nicking stuff and ram raiding their shops. There’s all the violence involved too.

And so they’re saying that, if the kids are getting away with it because they’re not old enough to be charged, then attention needs to turn to the parents of these kids and they should be made legally responsible for what these ratbags are getting up to.

Now I agree with the dairy owners that something has to change. Because they don’t need to tell us how much they’re at their wits end. Who wouldn’t be after not only the extremely violent cases of retail crime we’ve seen, where dairy workers and owners have lost their lives, but also the tedious relentless attacks. Whether it be ram raids, armed hold-ups or just general shoplifting.

But even knowing how desperate these people are for something to change, I don't think it would be a good idea if we started charging parents for crimes committed by their kids.

If we did start making parents liable, it would do nothing to teach these kids about consequences. They’d just keep on doing what they’re doing because they’d know that Mum and Dad would carry the can. Mum and Dad would carry the blame.

And just like not all of these kids will be rotten to the core, not all of the parents who would be targetted by this approach would necessarily be bad and to blame for what goes on, either.

Sure, there are plenty of hopeless parents out there who have no qualms about their kids breaking the law. They were probably the same when they were young. And, for some parents, it will just be what they’ve known for as long as they can remember.

But not every parent of a misbehaving kid is a drongo. Some parents are at their wits end trying to understand why their kids are doing what they’re doing, because it’s not what they’ve been used to in their lives.

I remember talking to one guy whose wife was terrified that Oranga Tamariki was about to come and take one of their kids away because they were really young and getting into all sorts of strife, and being brought home by the police time-and-time again.

This guy just didn’t know what to do. He had no answers and he couldn’t understand why his kid was behaving the way they were. How could you justify charging someone like that for something their child gets up to? He was providing a loving home environment. He was trying

his absolute best to get his child back on the straight and narrow. What was he guilty of? Absolutely nothing.

Yet the Dairy Owners Group would say that, because his kid is too young to be charged, he should be the one facing consequences.

What’s more, if these kids can’t be controlled now, how would charging their parents make any difference? It wouldn’t.

If someone has such low respect for authority and such disrespect for their community, that they’re fine with their kids out running amok committing crimes, then that attitude’s hardly going to change if they have a few charges thrown at them, is it?

And if a parent is doing everything they can to get their kid under control - and by doing that is showing that they do have respect for authority and respect for their community - then why should they face charges? They shouldn’t.

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