If you Google Greater Manchester Police and "News"

There is a bloody page full of appalling stories. Man with learning difficulties tormented to death, GMP failed dead woman murdered by her ex boyfriend, GMP one of the worst performing forces in the country et al. Tell me something I don't already know.

Over the past few months, ranting on here and reading blogs by other police officers, I'd found myself starting to mellow and I felt that some of the stories told by officers made me feel sorry for them - their job seems difficult at times and they appear to be hamstrung in certain situations. But when an innocent victim dies because they have been failed by the police, then I'm sorry, but you deserve every bit of bad press you get.

You are all human beings - when did you stop to actually care?

I had to smile to myself as I watched last night's news. A spokesperson said that GMP are great at dealing with "serious crime" but not so good at dealing with "low level crime".

Now I don't profess to be a fucking genius, but I'm bloody sure it doesn't take Aristotle to work it all out - if I've managed it, I'm sure the so called bright sparks at GMP can give it a go. Ahem:-

• Children being badly brought up
• Neither parents nor children are dealt with on any level (I'd put social services in the frame here also)
• Said children become perpetrators of "low level crime"
• Said children are reported to police by people like me, time after time
• People like me are ultimately dismissed as cranks by the police, told to get a grip because this is "low level crime" (I'm beginning to warm to that expression - makes one think the world is not so bad after all.....)
• Children get bigger and dafter and the incidences of low level crime become a bit more serious
• Police officers start to take a bit more notice of these feral yobs - (shame they didn't listen to me in the first place really - I'm not such a fucking imbecile after all...)
• The low level crime becomes serious and before you lot know it, you are arresting the little bastards for all sorts of stuff.

So, in essence, you police officers have now created your own work load for the future. By allowing these little fuckers to get away with all sorts from a very early age, you are now reaping what you have allowed to be sewn.

In 2007 I wrote to Michael Todd - this is an extract from the letter I sent:-

What is your policy on this kind of behaviour? I seek a definitive answer on this point, because I am constantly given conflicting advice from different officers.
Are you prepared to deal with this situation to my satisfaction? I know it may not seem like such a big deal to you, but being constantly disturbed by hooligans at all hours of the day and night is causing me untold stress.
I am told you have funding problems – far be it for me to criticise, but you seem able to find funding for expensive commercial campaigns to combat the use of mobile phones whilst driving, speeding cameras, etc – do you not consider that law and order in this area is paramount also? Whilst speeding and reckless driving increase the risk of road traffic accidents, why do these often victimless crimes take so much priority over crimes perpetrated by young thugs and vandals? Perhaps it is because the drivers can be used to generate funds, whilst any action taken against the thugs costs money?

In the past few months, I have begun to understand why many people have considered vigilantism. When the very police force that is supposed to protect the law-abiding and tax-paying citizens fails them, the average person will not accept that they must sit back and take what the criminals throw at them. The British have always been taught that they should fight back against oppression. Whilst I do not wish to sound dramatic, these youths that plague the lives of my family and I are, in effect, oppressing us. When they behave as they do, my strongest desire is to meet them head-on. However, I am not willing to fall foul of the law myself. I wish to address this issue in the correct way, by allowing the police to perform their duty. I hope, above all hopes, that with your intervention the local police will be spurred into action. Please do not forget that by turning a blind eye to the actions of these delinquents, society is preparing them for a life of crime – they may be committing what are considered petty crimes now, but their complete lack of respect for the police will only lead them onto worse crimes. I even suspect that some of these youths are already involved in theft, burglary, assault, etc. If they are not taken to task now, the Greater Manchester Police may be responsible for generating its own workload for the future.

My reasoning behind contacting you directly is due to the indifference expressed by practically every official involved, at every level. So, it is with regret that I find myself having to go over so many heads, to ask you directly for assistance. I would have preferred not to have to do such a thing, but I feel that I have been forced to act, for the safety and wellbeing of my family and myself. I would hope that my next step is not to be a letter to Parliament to explain how I have been forsaken by every law enforcement official in this region. I expect that you are a reasonable enough man, with a family of your own, who will understand my predicament and who will wish to do everything in his power to resolve what is really a small issue (in relative terms). I would be very disappointed if you were to treat me with the same disregard that so many before you have.

Please accept an invitation to my home on any night you should choose, so that you may see for yourself just what it is that my family and I are subjected to on a daily basis.

I look forward to receiving a reply from you and I hope that you can help to bring this issue to a satisfactory conclusion (for both parties).

It probably comes as no big surprise to find that after about 3 months I received a reply from one of his side kicks - a bigger load of bollocks you couldn't have wished to read.

So, I guess it has all come full circle. It appears to me to have been proved beyond doubt that the "service" I have come to expect from GMP is absolutely no fucking service whatsoever. I work in professional services - if I treated a paying client the way I have been treated, I'd lose my job.

Far be it from me to say "told you so" but if my letter of 3 years ago had been taken seriously, perhaps GMP might have been getting some better press today. But no, I was dismissed as a lunatic and here we are.

They can get as much bad press as possible for me, serves them fucking right.