THE man who allegedly hit Daniel Christie is a disgrace. The king hit with which he has been charged was a despicable and cowardly act which has devastated the life of a young man full of potential.
Enough is enough. I cannot look another parent in the eye knowing that I have not done everything in my position to stop this madness.
The time for change is now. The cause of many recent violent assaults has not only been that the perpetrators were allowed out into the community after a previous alcohol-fuelled violent attack, but that they were then allowed to drink as much as they wanted.
It is time that parliament stepped up to protect the community against these violent acts by preventing them being in a position where they can occur.
King hits are a disgrace, but the bigger disgrace is that they follow a predictable and preventable pattern.
When we know a person is violent when they have taken alcohol, and if they are convicted of an alcohol-fuelled crime, how can we let them straight back on the streets with a licence to drink however much they want, whenever they want?
A multi-part solution must be deployed. First, all violent offenders who offend under the influence of alcohol must mandatorily have non-removable ankle bracelets fitted with GPS and alcohol detection devices - referred to as a Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor.
Second, they must be given a set range of places they can go to, which should never include bar or club districts or districts known to be hot spots for violence or alcoholism.
Third, they should be under curfew. Fourth, they should not be allowed to drink, at all. They must have a constant blood alcohol content of 0.00, for at least 20 years after their conviction for any alcohol-related violence. If they break any of these conditions, even once, their ankle bracelet will detect it and will send the police a signal to come to their current location immediately.
From that point, these offenders will be sent to (or back to) prison, much like people breaking their parole.
This is not being too harsh, this is being realistic.
When a person commits an alcohol-fuelled violent offence in NSW they lose the right to drink. They commit further crimes and they lose the right to go out at night when other members of the community are at their most vulnerable.
These teenagers or 20-year-olds are no idiots. They know what GPS is, they know that human portable devices are not toys. If they know they will go to prison even for the slightest infringement, they will not infringe. But even if they do, the police will have their GPS location, so that they can be immediately picked up and removed from the community before they can seriously hurt anyone.
Almost every second week we hear of another king hit. It is time to make sure that we cannot just send the perpetrators to jail - which is very important - but we must stop people who are likely to king hit other people in future from being given the opportunity to do so. The time to start programs to prevent this behaviour is now.
Read the full article in the Daily Telegraph here.
