Dregs of society pick on soft targets

3:17pm Friday 11th January 2008

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THERE are three stories in the news locally this week that sum up for me the world that we appear to have constructed for ourselves in these affluent times.

I would like to bet that nothing remotely comparable to any of them would have been reported a generation ago, when communities were not prevented by a pervasive "no blame" culture from nipping in the bud the juvenile misbehaviour that, uncorrected, can so easily escalate into much worse antisocial and criminal behaviour.

The first story concerns a lady in Bourne End whose response to having her laptop stolen is to offer a £500 reward' to the thief plus allow him or her to keep the laptop if her precious data is returned to her.

Mrs. Moore MBE has written some stories which she has been offering for publication in order to raise money for the charity she set up - The Disability Times Trust.

I share with you, dear reader, the idea of the kind of reward the crime actually deserves.

Then there is St Mary's Church in Princes Risborough which, while being renovated, has attracted the attention of mindless vandalism from roaming and uncontrollable youngsters whose ability to share their limited range of emotions can only be expressed by hurling bricks at the windows of a church.

This lack of imagination and moral bankruptcy is matched by their counterparts in Marlow who have recently subjected one of our prominent councillors to a similar barrage of bricks through the windows of his home.

The common factor throughout is that the victims are people and organisations committed to helping others and therefore soft targets.

It is hard for most of us to put ourselves in the place of the perpetrators and I am gradually losing any desire to do so.

In previous times of real poverty and lack of opportunity, decency was much less frequently a casualty than appears to be the case today.

And I would wager that when the yobs and vandals responsible are found, they will live in homes with satellite TV and central heating and will have spurned all the help offered to them over years by successive schools and others in the community.

How much more will we have to tolerate from the dregs of society before early learning becomes about something other than what you can get and what you can get away with?