Prime Minister Christopher Luxon believes that the teenage girls who allegedly assaulted a shop owner at Westfield Mall in Riccarton are the type of offenders who should be placed in the Government’s military-style academies.
As first reported by chrislynchmedia.com, the man was attacked by at least four girls after they allegedly attempted to steal candy from his shop.
He said they kicked and punched him.
In an interview airing tonight at 7 PM on Chris Lynch’s channels, Lynch questioned Luxon about whether these offenders would qualify for the boot camp programme.
“I want to address these serious young offenders exactly like that. We’re seeing this issue across the country. It started with ram raids, escalated with increasing retail crime, and includes senseless acts of violence like this,” Luxon said.
Police car outside Westfield Mall in Riccarton following the attack
“We need to get these young people off the streets to keep the rest of the community safe. But importantly, we must make powerful, targeted interventions in these young people’s lives because we know that if we don’t, by the time they are 20 or 25, they won’t be in a good place.”
“Everyone wants to give me grief about boot camps, and that’s fine, but I don’t care because we are trying to do something different here. We’ve learned from previous programs, Defence, police, and other community organisations. We’re launching a trial this month with 10 young people in a facility in Palmerston North. This will be a year-long program: three months residential, nine months reintegrating into the community.
“We’re giving judges the authority to designate someone as a serious young offender, which allows them to direct these individuals into military academies.”
FULL INTERVIEW WILL BE PUBLISHED ON CHRIS LYNCH MEDIA’S YOUTUBE AND FACEBOOK CHANNELS AT 7PM
