Group of ‘Children’ Responsible for Grandmother Murder

70-year-old Vyleen White went grocery shopping with her six-year-old granddaughter before heading home to bible study when she was accosted by a group of males who stabbed her in the chest killing her, stole her 15-year-old Hyundai Getz, and presumably took the car for a joyride. It didn’t last very long because the car was found dumped just 20 minutes later. One-hour prior to the attack, it’s alleged the individuals stole alcohol from a bottle shop, drank it in an abandoned house, before walking down into the underground car park and attacking the grandmother.

Thankfully, all the individuals involved have been arrested, and they’re all children. A 16-year-old boy has been charged with her murder, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, and stealing. Two other 16-year-old boys and a 15-year-old boy have been charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle, while another 15-year-old boy has already faced court, charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle. He’s already out on bail and has to reappear again later this month. During his court appearance, the media were blocked from attending because it would be ‘confronting’ for the child. You know, hanging out with murderers, driving stolen vehicles, that’s not very confronting, but having some media in the courtroom might upset the poor lad.

The media and police are reporting that this was not gang-related. Well, I think that’s an argument in semantics. Gang: A group of young people, especially young men, who spend time together, often fighting with other groups and behaving badly. Nah, these guys weren’t a gang. They were just a group of troubled youths wandering around shopping centres, stealing alcohol, carjacking people, and killing old ladies. Nothing gang-like about it!

They have been described by the media and police as being of African appearance. Of course, this isn’t a reason to tar the entire African community with the same brush, but these youths didn’t do their community any favours. It’s not like they just yelled some profanities at the grandmother. They murdered her. And of course, people will react emotionally to that, especially in the state of Queensland where youth crime has been on everyone’s mind.

President of the Queensland African Communities Council, Beny Bol, said he was “very shocked” by the tragedy, and that “no family should ever go through that pain”. He said, “When things like this happen, some people take advantage of the anger and the emotion to create more division based on race and religion. We understand the anger, but in the end, does that help? No. We need to work together to get to the bottom of why some of these kids are behaving in the way they behave, and what we can do to prevent it happening again in the future.”

The fact that the perpetrators were children, I hope this doesn’t result in overly-lenient sentencing. I don’t think the people of Queensland would accept that. This wave of crime has been going on for far too long, and now the violence has come to a head with the death of Ms White. If the murderer gets off easily due to his troubled childhood, or his experiences with racism, or inter-generational trauma, or whatever, I don’t think the public will accept that, and the government better be prepared for an angry revolt.

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn