Punish one-punch attacks
The coward’s punch is just that, cowardly.
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In the past 15 years, more than 100 Australian lives have been lost due to one punch attacks. This senseless violence must stop.
Every week it seems like we see the same old headline “one-punch attacker granted bail”.
How many more lives need to be lost? How many more grieving parents will forever have metaphorical holes in their hearts after losing their sons?
It’s a joke, and the only way to reduce the number of attacks is to actually punish those responsible.
This soft, slap on the wrist approach from our justice system is pathetic, and it needs to change.
Recently, a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison was introduced for the perpetrators whose victims die from one-punch attacks.
However, a maximum sentence is almost never handed down, and to at least deliver some sort of justice, a minimum penalty must be introduced.
This is an opinion shared by legendary boxer Danny Green.
The former four-time world champion has put in endless work to try and stamp out this senseless violence, with some success. There’s only so much that he can do though.
Friends of these thugs can help prevent attacks from happening. Sometimes all it takes is being told to walk away to make you reconsider being violent.
Whilst a grown man should be able to control himself, apparently some can’t and in their cases maybe they shouldn’t be drinking, period. But they do. So, their friends, significant others, family members – whomever they may be drinking with – are partly responsible for calming these people down.
Some experts believe that rehabilitation is the way to go by forcing offenders to attend anger management classes and trying to teach them how to better deal with their anger.
While these initiatives are well and good when they work, this isn’t justice for the families of victims.
When a mother loses a son, the one thing she would want more than anything else is to know that another mum doesn’t have to experience the same loss. She would want the coward responsible behind bars.
If you punch somebody in the back of the head, you need to be made accountable for your actions.
In future, lace up some boxing gloves, find a sparring partner or a boxing bag and release that aggression in an appropriate setting.
Don’t kill somebody. Don’t ruin another family’s life.
Letting violent offenders walk on bail is getting us nowhere.
Personally, I’d like to see these criminals be forced to throw down in a boxing ring with someone of the calibre of Danny Green, but I’ll settle for jail time.
A minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment if the victim survives, 10 if they don’t. A coward’s punch is murder, there’s nothing accidental about it.
Nathan Wright, Kangaroo Flat
Hanson’s idea has merit
On the face of it, Pauline Hanson's idea of having specialised schools for the disabled looks unthinking and cruel.
I am no fan of hers, yet this now retired teacher believes the scenario is not black or white, with Hanson being in the black.
Think of the constantly screaming child, the constantly violent child, the constantly spitting child.
Teachers and students, for a very long time, have had classes ruined by such students; pushy parents, though, always got their way – regardless of the consequences.
Moreover, disabled students do not always blend in. Isolation is a key life characteristic of disabled students in public schools.