THE SAFETY OF THE STREETS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14933, 5 March 1912, Page 6

THE SAFETY OF THE STREETS.

The action of Mr. Cutten, S.M., in treating concerted attacks upon wayfarers in the street as deserving of imprisonment, without the option of a fine, will have the hearty approval and endorsement of thoughtful citizens. London, Paris, New York, Sydney, and many, other cities, are terrorised by gangs of lawbreakers, whose chief amusement appears to be the unprovoked assaulting of inoffensive passers-by. Possibly it is beyond the power of the police in great centres to cope with all the pests of society, particularly the pests which haunt favourable districts and are sheltered by their resemblance to the great multitude of industrious and peaceable young men. But there can be no doubt that in every city where he exists, the "hoodlum," the "hooligan," the "larrikin," the "apache," or whatever he is termed, has become an element only because he was originally tolerated. There ought to be no toleration for any tendency which introduces into our civic life the degenerate and cowardly system of brutally assaulting an individual, with the strength of an organised gang. Young men may not always ! be -controlled .and the law A very. J

wisely and justly, looks with considerable leniency upon offences which spring from youth and hastytemper. But there is absolutely no excuse for the cowardly and inhuman —not to say un-British and unsportsmanlikeconduct involved in the organised assaulting of one individual by many, and the offence is more than aggravated when the victim has given no provocation whatever. If our magistrates nip in the bud, by exemplary sentences, every exhibition of this tendency, we Shall. not have in tho future any "gang" evil with which the ordinary police force cannot effectively grapple.