Comment on ‘Something doesn’t add up’: the small Queensland town united in its fight against speed camera fines
rainynight65@feddit.de 7 months ago
Knuth said his constituents are “ropeable” about two issues: juvenile crime and speeding fines.
I get that the Katters have youth crime as one of the biggest topics they run on (I also suspect they don’t have any sustainable plans to address it). But how much youth crime can there possibly be in a podunk town of 811 people? Don’t conflate two distinct topics to score political points.
abhibeckert@beehaw.org 7 months ago
As someone who grew up in Malanda… not much crime there as far as I know.
But other towns only slightly larger in the same area are out of control. I’m talking nuisance crimes - such as a kid smashing in the windscreen of your car with a baseball bat or spray painting a dock on your shop sign for no reason other than they think it’s funny.
Even with insurance, you’re still out of pocket a few hundred bucks and when it happens again three days later, and then again a week later, and nobody is ever charged…
rainynight65@feddit.de 7 months ago
I have zero doubt that youth crime is a problem in many places, and I am certain that a lot of speed enforcement is purely revenue-generating. I simply bristle at reductive statements from politicians like Knuth who only have complaints and no plans. Both of these issues are non-trivial to address, but nobody wants to hear about complexities, because that means change will take time. They just want things to change now, and that’s not happening.
abhibeckert@beehaw.org 7 months ago
Yeah see that’s exactly what gets everyone worked up. Youth detention centres are so overcrowded it’s almost certainly a breach of human rights to send any kid there. And the crimes the kids are committing are even more unacceptable than that.
This absolutely should be dealt with now. The people in those towns want the state premier (not just a random politician from a minor party) to drop whatever she’s doing and deal with this. Now. Right now. But instead we get speed cameras that don’t even work properly.
rainynight65@feddit.de 7 months ago
So what do you imagine the state premier and government can do to address the problem right now, that will bring meaningful change in a short time?