Machete case: the Youth Court might be okay for an impish lad caught pinching a few apples but….

What namby-pamby judicial nonsense is this?

Alf is choking on his porridge after reading that…

Police will meet the 14-year-old boy accused of being involved in an attack on a police officer with a machete near Taihape, to see if his charges will be elevated to the district court.

Meet with him to do what?

Indulge in chit-chat over a cuppa?

It may well be that talking with this young feller is obligatory for reasons that have not been explained in the Stuff report.

If that be so Alf will be talking with Simon Power about changing things so the buggers accused of being involved in cases like this in future can be flushed into the open without ceremony.

The lad has not come to police attention for something inconsequential like pinching a few apples from a neighbour’s backyard orchard or tugging on the plaits of the lass who sits in front of him at school.

Nah. The offences with which he has been charged are much too serious to entitle young defendants to be coccooned by a system of youth trials and family conferences.

New York judge puts the brakes on boy and girl racers from the tender age of four

Wonder if I'll need liability insurance.

Ever been run down by a brat on a bike?

Victims (or their relatives) know how to deal with the little buggers in New York. They can sue sue them.

Alf missed this gratifying news at the time it was published – 28 October last year – but he has found it among the best-read items of 1010 now being highlighted on the NYT”s web-site.

And it says – oh joy – that a judge has ruled a four-year-old can be sued.

Those hand-wringing tossers at the Children’s Commissioners’ office and other assorted wankers would ensure such a thing can’t happen in this country.

A case for locking up the parents, too

(as dictated to Mrs Grumble)

What about the bloody parents?

Alf was driven to ask that question on learning from the NZ Herald that –

A 15-year-old girl has been sent to a youth justice facility after being convicted of drink-driving three times – twice when she was 14 and pregnant.

The girl was appearing in the Whangarei Youth Court for a review of an earlier sentence and to be sentenced on charges of driving with excess blood alcohol and driving while unlicensed.

In June, she was sentenced to community-based supervision on two charges of driving with excess breath alcohol, four burglaries, one aggravated robbery, resisting police, driving while unlicensed and giving false details to police.