I am ap­peal­ing to the au­thor­i­ties to please ad­dress the grow­ing crime sit­u­a­tion in the Pe­tit Val­ley area.

There is a group of young boys who are bent on ter­ror­is­ing law-abid­ing cit­i­zens. It is said that the old­est mem­ber of this gang has not reached his 18th year.

The po­lice know who they are but are do­ing noth­ing to ap­pre­hend these men­aces. A few weeks ago, the own­er of a veg­etable mart in the area was se­ri­ous­ly beat­en and robbed. More re­cent­ly, a drug­store was at­tacked. The de­scrip­tions of the per­pe­tra­tors on both oc­ca­sions sug­gest that it is the same gang op­er­at­ing in the area.

To com­pound mat­ters, these young of­fend­ers were seen parad­ing them­selves in the Star­lite Shop­ping Cen­tre right op­po­site the po­lice sta­tion. Where are the moth­ers and fa­thers of these boys? It is time that the State en­acts leg­is­la­tion that would hold par­ents re­spon­si­ble for the er­rant be­hav­iour of their off­spring.

If they com­mit a crime, both par­ents and child should do the time.

The penal­ties should in­clude com­pen­sa­tion for the vic­tims, manda­to­ry coun­selling, as well as com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice. Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gibbs, please do some­thing. You are be­ing paid hand­some­ly out of tax­pay­ers' hard-earned tax dol­lars. We need to see some re­sults. We need to see more pa­trols in the area.

Clara Ben­jamin

Pe­tit Val­ley