Juvenile crime in the spotlight
Niamh Áine Ryan & John Barry
Claims that parents of juveniles who break the law should be sanctioned and court mandated came under fire this week.
Fine Gael Cllr Damian Boylan this week asked councillors to call on the Minister for Justice to examine the efficacy of the Juvenile Liaison Officer system and if this system is not effective, then the minister should be asked to introduce a more robust and effective method for the control of juvenile crime, “including sanction on the parents of the offender”.
He said: “Responsibility with children must rest with the parents or guardians. Where children break the law, parents should be court mandated for their course of actions which should include a sanction on the parents or guardians. These children are the minority but they are being troublesome. There is an element that seem to be out of control.”
However, this didn’t sit well with some councillors during Monday’s meeting of Cork City Council.
Sinn Féin Cllr Thomas Gould felt it was unfair to sanction the parents.
He said: “I know parents who have done everything for their children but unfortunately whether it’s for personal or mental health issues or that they are uncontrollable at their age, the parents just can’t do anything.
“So if a parent has a 14 year old son or daughter who they can’t control, should they throw them out of the house? We should be using prevention measures to stop children going down a bad road.”
Independent Cllr Thomas Moloney and Fianna Fáil’s Tony Fitzgerald said this type of motion should be brought up for discussion at the Joint Policing Committee meeting next month.
“It’s a good place where it can be debated because issues like this need to be discussed,” said Cllr Moloney.
Fianna Fáil Cllr Colm Kelleher described it as “regressive” to tackle the parents of troublesome parents.
After the debate, Cllr Boylan said he would omit “including sanction on the parents of the offender,” from his motion which councillors were happier with and agreed to.
Foiled raid
His motion came several days after armed gardaí were deployed to the city centre after a message circulated online calling for youths to participate in a looting of JD Sports. The message suggested meeting at McDonald’s on Winthrop St, dressed in black with ‘bally (balaclava) and gloves’. The message also said ‘don’t come in uniform’ suggesting the message was circulated among students. Up to 100 youths were reported as assembling on Patrick's St on Friday, some of whom engaged in anti-social behaviour. The group were dispersed by gardaí patrolling the area.
The looting was set to take place on the same evening as robberies at stores in Stoke and Croydon in the UK. Several other locations in Europe and the UK had already fallen victim to looting or planned attempts.
The craze swept across Europe following a racist incident in a JD Sports store in Liège, where a store manager was recorded addressing employees with discriminatory language.
No arrests were made, and gardaí are continuing their investigation.