READING about that poor man who may be blinded for life (Bury Times, Apr 7) and about how much damage is done by thoughtless young hooligans who believe they can escape conviction because of their age, it made me think what a laughing stock law and order has become.

I have great respect for the police who have to work in such difficult conditions, apparently doing a futile job of trying to provide justice for the persecuted.

I recently stopped my car to post a letter at the bottom of Spring Street, Bury, when a young lad started to bang on the bonnet. Stepping out I politely asked him to move away and I had only just got back into the car when a stone smashed the windscreen.

I consider myself fortunate that it was a bonded window, otherwise I would have been showered with glass. Indeed, I might not have been writing this letter today. The boy concerned just laughed and ran off.

Such behaviour ought not to be tolerated in any decent society. Nobody in their right mind can tell me that someone in their teens doesn't know right from wrong. I was doing a full-time job at fourteen!

No one in those days carried guns or knives or took drugs. It's time politicians did something about it instead of squabbling.

PENSIONER