THE Americans claim that Britain is more violent than the US.

Well perhaps they may have a point.

We have come under the American influence in so much of what we do, that it was only a matter of time before we also took on the reputation of becoming an increasingly violent nation.

The sad fact is that, apart from murders, we do have a higher crime rate here.

Next month's figures will show a 20 per cent increase in violent crime.

We know only too well of estates where violence, theft and drug dealing are so prevalent it's almost considered normal.

Some places in our big cities are no-go areas even for police, never mind the rest of us.

Friday and Saturday night town centres are full of drunken yobs whose idea of a good night out is a lot to drink, a curry and a ruck. We are far too tolerant of crime and criminals. Nobody will tackle them for fear of persecution.

We tolerate huge levels of theft and only report cases because we can't claim on the insurance otherwise.

And we tolerate bad behaviour in the street with hardly a remark.

As we are heading to become All-American we should adopt their policy of zero-tolerance.

Police here spend more time on out-of-date tax discs than they do violence.

The Mayor of New York cleared the streets of lowlifes with zero-tolerance.

We could do that here too.

C Henson,

Moorcroft Road,

Woodthorpe, York.