Editorial: Brave men - but this must stop

Sukhjinder Pal Singh (right) and his 61 year old father fought off two armed robbers.

If you haven't seen the CCTV footage of the father and son owners of Te Awa Dairy defending themselves when armed robbers enter their store, then you should have a look at it on our website.

Manmohan and Sukhjinder Pal Singh are two businessmen trying to get on with their lives and make a living.

What the footage shows is that they are also very brave and not prepared to allow anyone to disrespect them and rob them.

The two robbers who walked through the dairy's door are probably regretting it because 61-year-old Manmohan and his son, Sukhjinder Pal, were not at all intimidated by the claw hammer and crowbar the thugs were wielding.

They defended themselves with a hockey stick and table leg and, at one point in the footage, the elder Mr Singh actually managed to get the crowbar off one of the robbers and use it on him.

Now if you think that I am condoning violence or encouraging vigilantism, I am not. But I am acknowledging two men who refused to stand by meekly while their livelihood was robbed.

It would appear many of our readers agree with me, with quite a few comments on our website and Facebook page congratulating the dairy owners.

The police are quite right when they say that robbery targets should not put themselves in harm's way and should comply with the demands of the robbers. But this incident went beyond that. I reckon the two victims reacted instinctively and went into survival mode.

While we applaud the actions of these dairy owners, they should not be put in these positions.

Our community leaders, the Government and police need to come together and work out a plan to get offenders like these off the streets.