Think of the Vehicle Owners

I have an ancient vehicle that still goes well. Registration requires an annual check for serviceability and roadworthiness, which is fine. I want to stay with this vehicle because car theft in the NT (Including Hiluxes, SUV’s and flashy, expensive and new vehicles} is rife.

Over a short time, hundreds of vehicles worth millions of dollars have been stolen. If they are crashed, sympathy is heaped upon the thieves, especially if they are killed or maimed. Scarcely a thought is offered to vehicle owners, many of whom are still paying these vehicles off. The fact they are up against it, with insurance premiums hiked for claims and payments still due on damaged, trashed or burnt vehicles, matters not.

My ancient vehicle will do quite nicely.

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POLICE ARE LUMBERED

Without stating the obvious, it seems to me that our police force in the Northern Territory is increasingly lumbered with responsibilities to counter crime, which makes their load almost an impossible one.

They are increasingly responsible for domestic violence issues (which seem to be growing at an exponential rate), countering public violence, and managing what seems to be an increase in traffic violations. They are required to be aware of potential injury to people and wanton damage to property being levied against our community.

I have personally witnessed on many occasions how police do their jobs and do them well. I’m also well aware of how they are treated by members of the public, with insult, attempted assault, taunting, racial vilification of them in their work, and so on.

One of the difficulties for police is that they have to be so circumspect in the way they carry out their duties, lest they even minimally overstep the mark. It seems that perpetrators of wrongdoing have so many rights that their entitlements are violated by even the smallest policing misstep.

Requiring police to be doing evermore in policing and demanding they be ever more vigilant in terms of the way they react to wrongdoing, must be frustrating to the extreme. It is no wonder that many police leave the force.

I wonder too, whether it is wise for new police who have just finished their training, to be given first-up appointments to crime hot spots and remote areas around the territory.

I have a huge respect for our police force and that stretches back over decades in the Northern Territory. However for them to be disrespected, treated like baggage and have to minutely monitor every action they undertake lest they cause offence or impose upon the entitlements of those who are perpetrators of wrongdoing, is just not right.

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