With reference to your front page news ("It's a Fair Cop", Wednesday, April 16), concerning the policeman who parked in a mother-and-baby space, this article infuriated me as no doubt it infuriated others.

I agree that the policeman should not have parked in this space but would your reader Rob Booth have taken a picture if the offender had been an old age pensioner or disabled driver?

Has it never occurred to him that the policeman browsing the aisles of the supermarket might have been on his break, may have been on shift all night and, because he is trying to make our town a safer place to live in, had only just got time to get something to eat?

Did he go up to the policeman and ask him any of this? Did he ask him how many hours he had worked since having a break? (Bearing in mind it was Sunday morning and he could have been on the night shift having to cope with all the idiots from Saturday night drinking).

Mr Booth says he was angered because he had failed to get a response from the police after reporting vandalism. How petty minded playing tit-for-tat. Did he think to take pictures of these vandals? I think not.

These ordinary people just like you and me are putting up with abuse, putting themselves in danger against guns and knives, attending to fights, having to go and see some poor member of public who has been beaten and mugged living on their own, too frail to defend themselves.

Can you imagine what seeing these things can do to a soul, but still these officers go out and do their job? Some work 10 and 12 hour shifts because they have to complete a job before the knock off. Some may only have time for a quick snack, not a full break like we do.

If you have to wait an hour or two because they have priorities, be patient. Where would you rather they be, looking at your fence or attending something a bit more important.

What's a fence compared to a life? You need to get your priorities in order Mr Booth. Do something useful and work with the police, not against them.

Mrs S J Booth Morris Green Bolton