In Winnipeg, Canada, “a group of teenage car thieves took a joy ride to a court-ordered counseling program aimed to keep them away from stealing cars“.
It seems the teens “were attending the counseling program in the Canadian prairie city as part of a court order relating to previous auto thefts”. Some of them “are level four offenders, the highest designation for chronic auto thieves in the city”.
Gee. Gosh. Let me get this straight.
You have chronic repeat-offender car thieves . . .
You continually release them on bond, bail or probation . . .
You attach no real inconvenience or cost to their punishment . . .
AND YOU EXPECT THEM TO BEHAVE THEMSELVES IN FUTURE???
(Bangs head heavily on desk, tears of frustration in eyes.)
I just don’t believe this. I really, really can’t believe the comment that “the city has introduced a program where high-risk offenders are called as often as every three hours to ensure they are not out stealing cars”.
To add insult to injury, the local newspaper suggested that “the teens had stolen the car because it was ‘too cold to walk’ to their court ordered training program”.
Too cold? Really?
My heart bleeds for the little buggers.
O ye custodians of the Winnipeg criminal justice system, have you lost what passes for your minds?
If you want to stop thieves from stealing, put them where they can’t steal any more.
In other words, LOCK THEM UP!!!
Or is that too much to comprehend?
Sheesh . . .
Peter
No one, outside of the USA, wants to spend (their) money locking MORE people up.
Is this sensible? I don’t know. I wish someone would answer the question – what additional proportion of the population would need to be locked up before their peers decided that they need to change their behavior?
“Too cold? Really?
My heart bleeds for the little buggers.”
What I am about to say does not change the fact the system is messed up and these people are idiots and criminals:
Winnipeg in winter can reach -40 (celcius and farenheit are the same at this temp.) or colder. Body parts freeze at that temp. Inside a stolen car is only -10 and has no windchill.
Still, it is much warmer in jail – atleast 20 degrees.
Roger, it’s not so much the proportion of the population that needs to be locked up. It’s the fact that you and I, upstanding citizens, are required to have our possessions remain at risk of theft rather than lock up some teenage doofus who might steal them.
If there’s a more effective way than jail time to stop someone stealing, I’d be very glad to support it. Regrettably, there isn’t.
All I can say is, if my transport were deliberately held hostage to a politically-correct juvenile justice system which expected me to allow my vehicle to be stolen rather than punish hardened perpetrators . . . I’d be doing something about it.
As for the cold in Winnipeg, Anon., I hear you – but as you say, it’s warmer in jail. Heck, if they’re cold when arrested why not make them run all the way to the jailhouse? That’ll warm ’em up!