A savage crime – and we stand by and watch it

I was shocked and sickened to read reports last week about how, in broad daylight, brazen thugs stole traffic warden Charlie Weston’s moped while beating him and stamping on his head. As you reported, this savage attack is the latest shocking example of Wild West Britain.

Adding insult to injury, bystanders filmed the attack on mobile phones.

What particularly horrifies me – and I’m sure many of your readers – is not just the increase in crime generally but the gratuitous violence, particularly from young offenders.

I’m sure this frightening escalation is down to Government cuts in the numbers of brave police officers on our streets.

Until we see more police on the streets, law, order and justice will fall by the wayside and criminals will take the law into their own hands and go on crime sprees. David Courtney, Weston-super-Mare

I was absolutely shocked to read about the traffic warden who was punched and kicked in the head by a gang of masked thugs in Birmingham. This is precisely the kind of behaviour that deserves to be treated incredibly seriously.

But with the cuts to policing it is no surprise that it happened. What’s more, I was disgusted to read that a number of people filmed this sorry incident instead of contacting police. What on earth is this world coming to? Margaret Jones, Cardiff

Yet another horrifying assault on the streets of one of our major cities. There really seems to be no end to these sorts of attacks. A. Freeman, Surrey

The attack on the traffic warden was bad enough but I was just as dismayed by the fact that people stood around filming it. Where have all of our have-a-go heroes gone? If enough people were brave enough to intervene, these types of crimes would surely be reduced? J. Barnes, West Sussex

Each day I read with horror of the stabbings and killings in our country. The situation, I think, is beyond the capabilities of any police force.

In my town, two cash machines have been stolen this year and there are problems with drug-associated crimes and robberies. We have an Army barracks on our doorstep, so why not put the soldiers to good use? They have been trained, after all, at the taxpayers’ expense. Christine Housden, Saffron Walden, Essex

The UK does not have enough police – or prisons, hospitals and schools for that matter. It’s rapidly becoming almost a Third World contender. But still we hand out our hard-earned money to whoever shouts loudest. It’s an absolutely scandalous treatment of public money. Derek Stocker, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex