A recent spate of crimes committed against seniors by young Australians has been raising some concern this week, as more incidents begin to surface.
Earlier this week, two teenagers aged 18 and 19-years-of-age were charged with serious assault for crash tackling an unsuspecting 72-year-old woman in an unprovoked attack on a Sunshine Coast beach.
Police believe that the pair were part of a large group of young men on the beach in Alexandra Headland who observed the 72-year-old woman going for her usual morning walk.
One of the males then tackled the shocked an unsuspecting woman while being encouraged by another young man who filmed the incident.
While this incident itself is highly disturbing, the fact that nobody within that group of men had the want or ability to put an end to the idea before it actually took place is worrying.
The fact that they had the audacity to film this incident is also a testament to just how far removed from reality some young people are.
People will literally film themselves doing anything these days for internet fame and notoriety amongst friends, and this poor woman was looked upon as an opportunity to get some ‘likes’ and laughs rather than a person with value.
The 72-year old victim had nobody with her at the time of the incident and was highly distressed by what took place.
Although she only sustained minor injuries, the ramifications of tackling an older woman from behind could have been horrific, and the accused men aged 18 and 19 were clearly old enough to know better.
Unfortunately, this was not the only incident in which a young person attacked a senior this week, as an 11-year-old girl also made headlines for the wrong reasons.
The young girl from the Northern Territory was arrested and accused of striking a 77-year-old woman in the mouth with a butter-knife in an attempted robbery on Sunday.
The young offender approached the elderly woman as she walked towards her vehicle in a car park in Palmerston and demanded money while brandishing a butter knife.
Upon refusing the demands, the 77-year-old was struck on the mouth before her young attacker fleeing the area on foot.
The victim suffered some minor injuries but was physically ok, despite being shocked and distressed by the incident.
While both of these incidents were minor in terms of physical damage, they occurred on the heels of a teenager being arrested for murdering a 71-year-old woman in Perth last week.
Police believe the then 17-year-old and an accomplice broke into the home of 71-year-old Odette Fiege in the early hours on Thursday, October 31, 2019, and began ransacking the home.
Tragically, Mrs. Fiege was viciously assaulted by the teen during the burglary and she died as a result of her injuries weeks after the burglary had taken place.
Statistically, Australian teenagers actually appear to be committing less crime than ever before, which some experts actually attribute to more teenagers wanting to stay home and watch Netflix and use social media.
Although crime statistics have traditionally suggested that people over the age of 60 are less likely to be the victims of violent crime, it is widely understood that many crimes against the elderly go unreported.
While all of these incidents have their own varying degrees of severity and circumstance, the common thread among these crimes is the fact that the elderly victims were viewed as easy targets.
Let’s just hope that these recent attacks are actually a horrible coincidence rather than an indication of things to come.
