Letter: Landor Road: a street ruled by drugs and crime
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: I read with interest your second-section cover story 'The street where I live' (2 November). I too have lived on this street for the past eight years and watched it deteriorate. It makes me more than a little angry to remember how the relaxed attitude and tolerance of the people living here has gradually been replaced by open hostility and fear. The more so when you consider how simple it would have been (and still is) to avoid the problem.
Drug-dealing is a commercial enterprise, and as such needs the basics of any modern business: premises, phones and good marketing. If you want to stop drug dealers doing effective business, hit them where it hurts. Keep them moving, make it more tricky for them to use the phone and tax them. Stop these idiotic raids, which rarely find anything other than recently used toilet paper, and which glamorise the drug dealers and make the police look like thugs.
Put the police stations where they are needed. If an area is in particular need of a police station, put one there. When it is no longer needed, move it. It doesn't have to be very big, say six or seven officers with a nice big window; and they don't have to do much: drink some tea, take a few photos. A highly mobile, community police station would make it virtually impossible for a situation like this to develop.
It's not that I am very keen on having a police station at the bottom of my road, nor (in common with many other Londoners) do I have anything against the informed use of drugs, it's just that I have got to walk home tonight.
Yours sincerely,
JOHN BROWN
London, SW9
2 November
The writer is using a pseudonym.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments