IT beggars belief that the police are powerless to apprehend gangs of thugs causing mayhem in and around the 68 Centre ("Don't Go Outside", January 27).

I am a retired police officer. Back in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies, when the skinhead and teddy boy era brought social disorder, police officers in London and elsewhere were given instructions to deal severely with such disorder before it became out of hand.

Regular patrols in a van with snatch squads patrolled the affected areas, especially on evenings and after pub closing times. This operation carried on relentlessly until order was restored and common sense prevailed.

We had the backing of the community, magistrates and the parents of such miscreants. Indeed we had to restrain incensed parents from carrying out their own justice on their offspring, who had inflicted shame on their family.

This state of affairs no longer exists. Parents commonly take their child's part against neighbours, teachers and police officers.

Don't blame the police. Society reaps what it sows.

Kenneth Bowker,

Vesper Walk,

Huntington, York.

Updated: 11:13 Tuesday, February 01, 2005