AT long last, a real response to lawlessness and disorder. Senior police officers state that from now on it will be 'zero tolerance' to crime.

About time too that the murderers, hit-and-run merchants, burglars, vandals, drug dealers and rapists etc. know that the 'Boys in Blue' mean business, right?

Wrong! Because the dastardly law-breakers being targeted in this no-expense spared, no-holds-barred crackdown (give or take a few closed police stations and police canteens) are little old you and me. The drivers who zoom at one mile per hour over the 30 mile per hour speed limit.

This master plan unveiled by Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Paul Manning and backed by Home Officer Minister Charles Clark, makes it clear that it is a scheme for the police decorators to cover up the cracks and loopholes and whitewash the police failure to serve the community.

Faced with a massive accountability and credibility problem, they have clearly concluded that they need to shift the agenda away from the major crimes over which they have totally lost control and invent a 'New Menance' - the motorist.

Enter you and me, driving at breathtaking speeds of 31 mph and, according to our custodians of law and order, the real threat to children and old folk, as we mow down these innocents. The bonzos in blue actually expect us to believe that a housewife on her way to Asda is a far bigger threat to society than a drug addict desperate for a fix.

So, now, all you kiddies out there in your Noddy pedal cars, take it easy, as you might be the next victims of police intimidation in what is fast in danger of turning into a police state.

EVAN WILLIAMS, Carr Meadow, Clayton-le-Moors.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.