Matthew Pantelis speaks with Frank Pangallo MLC on youth crime following the incident at Westfield Marion.
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What do we do rather with kids who spend more time playing call of duty than they do in the real world, and they can't distinguish. A shopping center is not the place to take up grievances with other kids they don't like. As you know, a fifteen and sixteen year old were arrested overnight. Police seized extendable battens and several thousand people in Marion shopping Center yesterday afternoon. We left traumatized. In the wake of the Bondai Junction attack. Countless such stories from shopping malls in the US would have been front of mine for people there. I imagine now brawls between kids happen all over the place. They shouldn't, but they do. I can recall a huge fight in rund or More one afternoon about fifteen years ago. I reckon it was now. It started around me, not because of me. I just found myself in the middle of it as kids came together and started throwing punctures. I got out of it pretty quickly. Police and security flooded in, the kids scattered, and that was that. But in the heightened world of twenty twenty four, and particularly after Bondai, these things initially take on a more sinister feel, and the police response was seemed to be anyway exactly what it should have been, given the lack of information, the fact that weapons were in the place and extendable battens. For goodness sake, I mean, how do you get hold of one of those? I wouldn't have a clue, but they had two of them, a couple of kids allegedly, and they've been arrested now to face court today. Frank Pangelo, Upper House MP on the line, Frank, good morning.
Yeah, good morning.
Make you youth crime? Where do we go with it?
Well, this is the issue now and I think this is something that needs to be addressed by the current government. There is a spiking youth crime around the country. We've seen it in the Eastern States and we are seeing it here. And you know, this brazen robbery attempt at a shopping center yesterday which led to the incident of shutting the entire shopping center down is worrying. And all credit goes to westl for what they did. They had no real choice, they had to react very quickly. They did. All credits to South Australian Police for getting there very quickly and being able to address the situation there, But it's the wider issue of youth crime that we need to start tackling, and tackling hard. Now, these two young or these teenagers today have been charged with allegedly causing the incident yesterday with a fray and possession are appearing before the youth court today. Now I'm just wondering whether the youth court is the appropriate place for these two alleged offenders to be appearing court. Well, when you consider the gravity of what happened yesterday, you know, two people, I mean, I know that's what the charges are. But when you consider that, you know, the shopping center had to be shut down to people were injured, people were panicked, they weren't sure what was going on. Businesses lost money as a result of that. And yet these two alleged defenders are just going to walk into the youth court. And as we know, Matthew, it's a revolving door. You know, they'll go in, they'll come out, you know, somewhere down the track, will get a slap on the wrist. Now, the possession of batons is an interesting one, and how did they get them? Well, quite easy, you just go online they're available online. You can buy them off eBay or Amazon or whatever.
They're legal here, aren't they. It's illegal to have one.
Yes, they're illegal around the country every state. They are a prohibited weapon and they carry a penalty of up to two years jail or twenty thousand dollars. Fine, well, let's see if they get into that in the youth court. And you know, if they found guilty of that. Again, you know, it's the control of that weapon that needs to be looked at as well. Look, there are many things that can come out of this now after it's reviewed. But again, as I was saying, youth crime is getting out of control around the country and particularly in South Australia. We know that it's on the way up and something needs to be done there. The penalties in the youth court. Should it have gone to the youth court? Not sure it should have. And also the position of these prohibited weapons.
Can kids. Can somebody make a decision in our system that a fifteen and sixteen year old can be tried as an adult. Can that happen?
Well, Look, there are provisions in certain areas, certain crimes that you can do that. In this case, it's probably because of the nature of what they were charged with that makes it difficult. But again I think the Attorney General needs to have a hard look at that. And as I said, this is the way that youth crime is rising in our state. We need to get tougher on these kids, not start pussy footing around about whether we should lift the age of criminal responsibility from ten to fourteen. How about the ones that are already past that age and have continued on a life of crime that need to be cracked down upon.
Yeah, indeed, all right, Frank, So will you be lobbying the government for any of that.
Well, we only have one sitting day this week, which is on Thursday, because they're going into estimates, but I'll certainly be throwing the question at the Attorney General this week.
All right, thanks for your time this morning.
Thank you, Mathie.
Frank Pangelo, Upper House Independent MP. The teams arrested now and charged over the incident at Marion Shopping Center yesterday. Fifteen and sixteen year old from Mitchell Park and Adelaide. We're arrested, charged with a salt Frey aggravated robbery. Police seizing two expandable battons which are illegal, A Frank says they come with the financial penalties and a prison term attached, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.