Age of innocence?
From Mrs Sam Jettubreck
Sir: Having lived in the same street for many years and seen the area gradually taken over by feral youths, I wonder what Peter J.M. Wayne might suggest I do to stem the rising tide of crime in my street? ‘These are children …for goodness sake,’ wrote Wayne in his review of David Fraser’s A Land Fit for Criminals (Books, 17 June). So that makes their vile insults, burglary and aggression to the community acceptable? When a 14-year-old boy next throws a brick at my windows, and smashes glass in the nearby park so that my grandchildren cut their feet, or when next I am confronted, taunted, spat at or abused, I’ll just remember their age, shall I? Is that supposed to console me?
Mrs Sam Jettubreck
London W6
From Jim Trimmer
Sir: Everybody but Peter J.M. Wayne seems to be agreed that we need more prison places to keep people who would otherwise do us harm out of circulation for longer.
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