Law and Order is going to be one of the Government’s top priorities over the next three months - as part of its latest action plan which, like the last one, is a bit of an announcement of an announcement. 

Two of its action points, though, is to launch a military-style academy pilot for serious and persistent young offenders (14-to-17 years olds we’re talking about here); and introduce legislation to toughen sentencing rules to ensure what it calls “real consequences for crime”. 

Which is all very well. But I reckon the Government has left-out something that, I’m picking, is a problem for a truckload of people when it comes to crime. And it’s probably left it out because it’s in the too hard basket. 

This particular thing has been in the too hard basket for years and looks like it’s going to stay there.  

I’ve got a true story about something which happened in Christchurch just last week, which shows how much of an issue this particular thing is. Especially, when it comes to dealing with some of our youngest troublemakers.  

But first: the law and order announcement from the Government yesterday came at the same time as new statistics show that ram raids were down 83% in the 12 months to August last year; and that 74% of children and young people put through fast-track youth offending programmes haven’t been referred back. Which sounds like success to me.  

But, like most things, there’s a fly in the ointment. These stats relate to offenders 14 and older. Not the likes of the young creeps who turned-up at a person’s house in Christchurch one day last week and started causing a bit of a disturbance. 

They were throwing rocks at the house. Which isn’t on, of course, and so this person’s partner went outside and chased them off. 

That night, though, these kids came back —with a few more in tow— and this person I talked to said not only did they come back, and not only were there more of them, but one of them had a knife that looked to be longer than 30 centimetres. 

So they called the Police. And when the cops turned up, these kids didn’t even try to run away and the one with the knife started yelling “we’re only 13, we’re only 13”. Because they know the cops can’t do anything with anyone younger than 14.  

And, apparently, some of these ratbags were even younger than 13.  

So, this person and their family were terrorised. Left with a bill for repair to their house and a car window that there’ll be no reparation for. All because these kids are under-14 and know full-well that, because of that, they can pretty much do what they want and get away with it. 

The only crimes someone younger than 14 can be charged with are murder and manslaughter. Thankfully, we’re not talking about something as bad as that here. But I reckon if the Government is as tough on crime as it says it is then it would be taking this issue out of the too-hard basket and doing something about it. 

Because, as this person who was terrorised by these kids last week said, they even went to the central police station the next day to double-check that the officers who had turned-up were right. That they couldn’t do anything about these little monsters. 

And they were told ‘yep, that’s the law’. Even if a group storms onto a property, terrorises the people there, and threatens serious violence —even if one of them is carrying a huge knife— it is illegal but, if they’re younger than 14, nothing can be done about it. 

As you would expect, this person impacted by these out-of-control monsters in Christchurch last week thinks the law is nonsense, and these kids need to face serious consequences. And so do I.