IS THERE not a vexing snapshot of our sick and brutalised society in the report tonight of an East Lancashire pensioners' bowls team being plagued by teenage bullies - so much so that some of the old folk are now becoming too frightened to play?

The list of nastiness makes depressing reading.

Threats, foul-mouthed abuse, thefts and repeated vandalism are taking place - against a background of the spot being used for drug and alcohol abuse.

But is it not a sorry state of affairs when old people cannot enjoy a quiet game of bowls in a public park any more?

Yet, it seems, the pensioner bowlers at Green Park in the Ewood area of Blackburn are victims of a trap that is all too typical of present-day society - that of such harassment and nuisance being regarded as a minor matter and the cowardly perpetrators of it being free to conduct and continue their nastiness because of that attitude.

See, for instance, how these bowlers have complained to the police, the council and the town's MP - all to no real effect.

In desperation they come to us, in the hope that publicity might make some of the young thugs' parents keep tighter control over their children.

But do they not deserve far more than that slim hope?

After all, they have a right to their leisure without being preyed upon by malicious young scum who exploit the age of their victims.

It is time for the police to adopt the "zero tolerance" stance that treats all crime as serious - just like in New York where it has been pioneered in policing methods.

Because the police there no longer ignore minor crime and nuisance by giving higher priority to serious crime, the result has been that all crime has been significantly reduced.

The situation that these pensioner bowlers are confronted by is an ideal case for such a response.

And it could easily commence by them being lent a mobile phone by the police, allowing the force to respond promptly and effectively the next time these young thugs strike.

In short, rather than them being dismissed as minor nuisances, they should be collared by the police and hammered by the courts.

For they are the symptoms of a society that is brutalised in many cases because the brutes have been allowed to become a tolerated feature of society rather than its outcasts.

It is time for decent folk to hit back and for the authorities to back them - right down to the level of old folk being allowed to play a quiet game of bowls in peace.

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