Linda Hall: Punishment should fit crime

Linda Hall.

There are always stories about young people doing stupid things.

There's nothing unusual about that. I bet there aren't many people out there that can say they never did something silly, stupid or even dangerous when they were young.

But the majority of the stupidity is harmless especially to other people.

If you hurt yourself while doing something outrageous, that's okay.

But the latest escapade by some hoons at the Mangaroa Cemetery takes the word "stupid" to a whole new level.

These hoons not only knocked over gravestones they left part of their car behind.

Somebody out there must know who did this.You can't miss a car that suddenly loses its bumper.

How absolutely disrespectful can they get.

I would hope that they have never lost anyone they love, because if they have and they still don't give a hoot about tearing up a cemetery they need to be taught a lesson. A tough lesson.

When they are caught we don't want to hear any excuses. I can hear it now - "Oh we were doing burn outs and lost control. We didn't mean to knock over the headstones."

Too bad - you did and you caused distress to families who have already been through enough.

If you are really sorry, put you hand up and admit what you have done.

I couldn't help but compare justice systems recently when a man who admitted 47 charges of possessing child pornography was discharged without conviction in Wellington District Court.

His explanation to the judge, which was accepted, for downloading the objectionable material was that "it was fuelled by an obsessive-compulsive desire to collect and store images that were only rare and momentarily available".

Really? He was only caught because a USB stick with the horrible images was found on a bus. That lead to police searching his home and finding 2412 images and one movie.

It's not like he handed himself in and said "I'm really sorry I need help."

No, he was caught out and then had to make an excuse. The sad bit is that the judge accepted his excuse.

Then, on the other hand, there's the 21-year-old American student who has been sentenced to 15 years hard labour for committing "severe crimes" against the North Korea state. His "crime" was attempting to steal a political banner from a restricted area of the hotel where he was staying in the capital Pyongyang.

Now that is way over the top. If he had done that anywhere else he might have been reprimanded at his university and that would most likely have been that.

Punishments need to fit the crime, but I'm afraid, while North Korea needs to show more leniency, New Zealand needs to get tougher, especially when it come to our children.

There is absolutely no excuse to have thousands of objectionable images of children. The police must shake their heads in frustration when all their hard work is thrown out by decisions like this.

- Linda Hall is assistant editor of Hawke's Bay Today.