Not enough Aboriginal children are removed from their toxic families and communities and so they grow up and become toxic adults themselves.
Tiny menaces, helpless police and no solution
It’s 8pm in Alice Springs and a group of children are about to steal a car and lead police on a dangerous chase. After being caught they are immediately returned to a ‘responsible adult’, only to continue to reoffend.
It’s 8pm and the dust is settling across the ranges of Alice Springs when inside the town’s industrial area a group of kids arrive at the Pickles Auctions car yard.
They’re about to steal a car and lead police on a dangerous chase – an all-too-familiar scene here, where children as young as 10 are caught behind the wheel and immediately returned to a “responsible adult” – only to continue to reoffend.
Dozens of cars in the yard are protected by a 2m-high fence topped with razor wire, but the kids have their eyes on one in particular. It’s a Toyota Rav 4 they’ve stolen once before.
The first time ended badly – the car smashed up and ultimately hauled into the car yard, where it was written off by the insurance company.
But the car is drivable – and the kids still have the keys.
Jumping the razor wire fence, they climb into the SUV and drive it headlong into the heavy metal gate. It takes seven attempts to get through.
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Just before 11pm, the boys abandon the vehicle outside K-Mart.
“With precision and skill, police located and apprehended four youths, aged between 10 and 13,” police say in a statement the following day.
The two 11-year-olds and the 10-year-old are conveyed to their homes and “handed over to a responsible adult”.
The 13-year-old, who was charged with theft, driving a motor vehicle without consent and damage to property, appears before a court the following afternoon. It’s his first time before the court. He sits there, apparently bored, running his hands through his hair. He does his best to avoid eye contact with anyone in the room as a police officer stands beside him.
In applying for bail, the court hears there have been three domestic disturbances at his proposed bail address within the last month.
His family and another family are also having a dispute.
The following day, he withdraws his bail application. He’d rather stay in jail than live at an alternative bail address in a remote community far removed from Alice Springs.
On average, there were 39 vehicles stolen every month in Alice Springs last year. Many of these vehicles ended up abandoned in the desert after they had been taken for a joyride or used in a ram-raid – often at a liquor store.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/nations-heart-is-breaking-again-in-alice...Far from being the Stolen Generation, those Aborigines who h save been removed should be called the Rescued Generation.
Language matters. 'Stolen Generation' misrepresents and falsifies reality in 1984 - style NewSpeak.