THE amount of violence that is seen daily throughout south Essex is really worrying.

How politicians can claim that is has nothing to do with a massive reduction in police numbers is beyond me.

It is obvious that having a few police officers around in busy areas when pubs and clubs close, a lot of potential trouble fizzles out before it even begins.

The figures may show the officers were wasting their time because nothing happened, but just by them being there, the more disruptive elements tend to behave themselves.

Instead we are letting horrific attacks happen, with the victims being left to fend for themselves.

The police then have to spend a huge about of time working out what happened after the event and tracking down the perpetrators, when if they were patrolling the town centres like they used to be the offences probably would not have occurred in the first place.

Add to that the huge amount of money that then ends up being spent on medical services for the victims, sometimes for the rest of their lives, along with court cases and more money spent on jail terms and loss of taxes from both the victim and the perpetrator if they end up in prison.

All because we apparently can’t afford to have a person in uniform standing in a town centre at night any longer.

We are constantly being told cuts are being made because of the state of the economy, but we are all still paying our taxes and some of these cuts don’t really save us much in the long run.

It’s time we started acting like a civilised society again.

JACK COWARD

Eastwood Road, Rayleigh