Sugar and spice and all things nice.......

Girl thugs 'on the prowl for people to beat up'
08 August 2006
By MERVYN DYKES

Groups of young girls are prowling the inner-city streets of Palmerston North at night looking for people to beat up. That's accoording to Street Van coordinator Lew Findlay, who says anyone who appears vulnerable is fair game.

His comments follow an incident on Friday night in the central city when a young mother was attacked by a teenage girl.

The woman was laughing and chatting with friends one moment and lying bleeding on the ground the next. She doesn't know the person who hit her. She doesn't know why she was hit. But what happened to her was fairly typical, according to Mr Findlay.

'They go out of their way to pick fights,' he said. 'They are quite nasty. They are vicious and they know exactly what they have to do to create a fight.'

In the case of the Friday night incident, hot chocolate was thrown at the woman while she was talking with friends outside the Main Street entrance to Downtown Cinemas. She asked what the two girls thought they were doing and the answer was a punch from one of them that sent her to hospital. Yesterday she was still nursing a badly bruised black eye.

Police, the Palmerston North City Council and agencies such as Palmerston North Street Van acknowledge that there is a problem, but they are struggling to find a solution.

Mr Findlay says it's difficult dealing with girls as young as 13 who are hopelessly drunk or rendered virtually mindless by drugs. Chances are that when Street Van delivers them to their homes, staff will be yelled at by the girls' parents.

'Parents,' asks Mr Findlay, 'do you know where your children are at night? Are they really staying over at a friend's house? Call and find out. Are they really in their rooms asleep?'

Police said the girl thugs in some ways are more dangerous than the boys, who tended to bluster and posture before resorting to violence. The girls give no warning.

The upsurge in violence by girls was first noticed 18 months ago, said Mr Findlay. Most of the girls were 12 to 15, but some (as in the Friday night attack) are as old as 17. 'Very little reason is needed to fight,' he said.

Perhaps they look around for people who appear to have more than they do - such as designer label clothes. 'Quite often there appears to be no rhyme nor reason - the hot-chocolate tossing was fairly typical.'

Mr Findlay said many of the members of the group are now known to Street Van workers, although there is a 'lot of coming and going' and new faces appear all the time. 'The police are trying really hard to solve the problem. They are really making an effort,' he said. 'Sergeant Peter Knight (Youth Aid) in particular is doing a brilliant job. He is one who goes and talks to the parents.'

CityHeart team member John Brenkley said that there was a spike in violent incidents in the Central Business District last month. However, the trend has been a gradual decline in monthly figures since a high of 32 in July of 2003. However, the reports do not specify whether the violent acts were by males or females.

Haha. This reminds me of my #2 thing not to say in NZ....

'Wow, the women are really bossy here'


#1 is 'Can I get the All Blacks jersey in another colour? Like gold or green? ?-- please don't change the font size. This is a hidden little trinket that I want people to work for ?

It sounds like the authorities need to do more than take them home to their parents, like charging them with assault & battery. Responsibility for one's actions and all that. Let's just hope they don't start picking on the sheep, or they'll have the Wooly Avenger (aka James) to deal with.