Parents of slain Gold Coast teen Jack Beasley back LNP pledge for stronger police search powers
The parents of a slain Gold Coast teenager have thrown their support behind the LNP when it comes to getting tough on crime.
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The parents of a teenager stabbed to death in Surfers Paradise in a wave of deadly knife crime on the Gold Coast have backed an LNP election pledge to strengthen police powers to search people for weapons.
Brett and Belinda Beasley, whose son Jack was fatally stabbed in Surfers last December, joined Opposition leader Deb Frecklington at a media conference on Saturday at the Helensvale Hornets rugby league club, where the 17-year-old played.
The Coast has been rocked by five knife slayings over the past year, including last month’s fatal stabbing of a young Beenleigh father Raymond Harris, who was killed in busy Cavill Mall with what police allege was a ‘Rambo’ hunting knife.
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Ms Frecklington and local MP Sam O’Connor said an LNP government would increase search powers for police in declared knife crime ‘hot spots’ such as Surfers Paradise.
“We must give our police more powers to search so we can make our streets safer once again,” Ms Frecklington said.
Mr O’Connor said police were ‘crying out’ for stronger powers to combat a 40 per cent rise in knife crime statewide.
“There is no good reason that anyone should be taking a hunting knife into Surfers Paradise,” he said.
Mr and Mrs Beasley, who have started the Jack Beasley Foundation to lobby for stronger knife laws and educate teens about the dangers of carrying knives, said they supported the LNP stance.
“The laws have got to change, it’s as simple as that,” Mr Beasley said.
“Knife crime has got to stop, especially here in southeast Queensland and especially in Surfers Paradise. Something has to be done.
“How many deaths and knife crimes, having people die, before something gets done?”
Mr Beasley said the recent fatal stabbings made he and his wife relive the tragic death of their son ‘over and over again’.
“We feel for the victims’ families and we know what they’re going to go through,” he said.
Mrs Beasley said: “It’s a horrible thing … no family should have to go through it at all.”
Her husband echoed the exasperation of the Coast’s most senior detective, Superintendent Brendan Smith, who has said he’s ‘had enough’ of knife crime and called on social media media influencers to ‘use their power for good’ to discourage young people from carrying knives.
“This is not a video game, this is real life,” Mr Beasley said.
“You take a knife, you use a knife, there’s no coming back.”
Mr Beasley said laws also needed to change in relation to bail laws.
“These kids are getting the slap on the wrist – they’re doing the crime but they’re not doing the time,” he said.
Speaking on the Gold Coast, Labor Police Minister Mark Ryan said police already had powers to search people and confiscate knives, and used them “all the time”.
He said a knife culture was driving a small percentage of people to carry the weapons.
Gold Coast police chief superintendent Mark Wheeler agreed, saying knife crime was a complex problem.
“And when you’re confronted with a complex problem, you can rarely arrest your way out of it,” he said.
“This is about changing culture; this is about parents talking to their children, teachers talking to their children.”
Supt Wheeler said police had stepped up patrols in busy areas and were also increasing the use of metal detectors in a bid to combat knife crime.