Steve Price: Teenage thugs are laughing at us as youth crime worsens

Restrictive laws around youth crime mean we’ll never see the faces or learn the names of the teen offenders terrorising Victoria. No wonder they laugh at us — and at police — but how dare I ask what kind of parenting is going on.

Victorians disgusted and afraid amid our youth crime wave have had enough.

Forget the pathetic come-to-Jesus moment on bail from Premier Jacinta Allan – days out from last weekend’s disastrous Werribee by-election. I’m convinced that’s not nearly enough.

Our legal system is broken, our magistrates and judges are captured by the weak, don’t-lock-anyone-up approach from our politicians who appoint them, and we are living through something no one reading this has ever been through before.

Let me take you back to Monday night in suburban Croydon east of Melbourne at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges. It was, according to a police media release, about 9.25pm at a service station on Bayswater Rd. There was an alleged attempted aggravated burglary – for context, that’s a serious crime with someone entering a building without permission, committing a burglary, while armed – where the offenders were disturbed and fled.

Police will allege there were five offenders driving a stolen Land Rover Discovery. The next alleged target was another service station on Dorset Rd five minutes later and cigarettes were stolen.

Five teens were arrested by police after a wild chase through Melbourne’s east. Picture: 7News. Picture: 7News

Ten minutes later, more cigarettes were allegedly pinched by these armed thieves on Mount Dandenong Rd. Three service stations, five alleged offenders, two successful cigarette heists in just 15 minutes with terrified station attendants thankfully avoiding injury.

These Monday night exploits, however, were about to get a whole lot worse. The Victoria Police Air Wing – at great expense to us taxpayers – was called in. They tracked the Discovery from Croydon to Mount Waverley where Operation Trinity police and uniformed officers got involved.

The five then allegedly dumped the stolen Discovery in Wantirna, about 11.15pm. Next, things turned from terrifying to violent, with the driver of a Ford Focus threatened with a knife, demanding he hand over his keys. At this point things could have turned out very differently but sensibly the driver felt his life was worth more than his Ford Focus. He was not injured.

Our five alleged offenders then took off towards Mont Albert North where police deployed stop sticks and the five fled on foot before being arrested a short time later.

The boys were allegedly spotted in a stolen Range Rover around 11pm. Picture: 7News. Picture: 7News

Now, not so long ago the next detail in this typical Monday night crime spree in Melbourne – the world’s one-time most liveable city – would have shocked law-abiding normal Victorians. Sadly, not anymore. Four of the boys were from the southeastern suburbs, aged 13, 14, 15 and 16.

So, let’s pause there for a second. Restrictive laws surrounding juvenile crime means we will never learn their names. We will never see a picture of any of these five or any other accused or convicted criminal of their age. No wonder these rampaging, often violent teenage thugs laugh at us and the police.

One year ago, the Victorian government announced that all Children’s Court criminal matters would go to a dedicated Children’s Court. In simple terms, no more fronting up at an adult court with all the daunting history of an institution and atmosphere of a place where bad people go. No, let’s, at great expense, set up four suburban children-only courts.

And the court’s explanation for all this? These changes ensure that children and young people are not detained in adult custody cells, will not have their cases determined in adult courts and, God forbid, will not have to travel to multiple court venues.

Melbourne now has four stand-alone children’s courts in Broadmeadows, Dandenong, Melbourne and Moorabbin.

Stop sticks were deployed to catch the group of teenagers in Box Hill. Picture: 7News

Many of these changes, especially the idea that children should not be detained in adult custody cells, has been driven by the government-established Yoorrook Justice Commission which held an inquiry back in 2023 into the levels of indigenous youth being jailed.

Back to our accused five charged over that alleged service station rampage involving an alleged knife wielding car-jacking.

Some simple questions from me: Where were the parents when – allegedly – five teenagers not old enough to drive are alleged to have stolen a large four-wheel drive from Elwood and then days later used it to steal cigarettes from terrified petrol station attendants before forcing an innocent driver to hand over their car.

Did mum and dad wonder why a white Land Rover worth around $80,000 had turned up in their driveway or why on Monday night – a school night – their 13-year-old wasn’t in his bedroom doing homework, or their 14 or 15-year-old didn’t turn up for dinner?

Get set for the howls of horror for someone even asking these questions – how dare I wonder what sort of parenting is going on here and why it is any of my business how these people think it acceptable that their children are committing these crimes. And if, inevitably, they get bailed, will mum and dad set some new guidelines, a night-time curfew maybe or a ban on leaving home after dark?

The youngest alleged offender was only 13 years old. Picture: 7News

The 16-year-old appeared in court and was described as a promising basketballer. The magistrate freed him because he had no police record and slapped a curfew on him between 7pm and 7am.

As legal aid does its job and bail is again granted, as it has been to hundreds of repeat offenders with at least one recidivist rolled back into the street at least 50 times, what about bail in Victoria costing the parents of these children actual money and assets?

If they reoffend while on bail once, the parents are then warned next time you will have to stump up a financial bond that you will lose the next time this happens.

Repeat the crimes or allow your children to terrorise people again and the bail bond goes up and eventually we will take your cars and then your house. After three offences knowing we can’t ID your child if guilty we will identify them. Oh, and legal aid dries up after two offences and you can pay for your own lawyers.

Tough? Not if you are waking in the night scared by a noise in the driveway. Tough? Not if some badly raised feral from a family that doesn’t care snuck through your doggie door and pinched the keys to the Mercedes you worked for 10 years to buy.

Tough? Not if your youngsters and wife are so traumatised they find it hard to get to sleep.

This has been going on since the end of Covid and as far as I can work out isn’t happening in comparable capital cities like Sydney.

The Liberals now hold the seat of Prahran, won from the Greens over law-and-order issues.

Law and order as an issue is, after the cost of living, now second on the issues worrying people. The challenge for the conservative side of politics – because the Left/Greens won’t do it – is to have the guts to do something real to fix it.

We are fed up.

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Originally published as Steve Price: Teenage thugs are laughing at us as youth crime worsens