Madam, - Our society is suffering increasingly from what civil and public servants loosely describe as "anti-social behaviour". The behaviour complained of is definitely anti-social and the term covers a multitude of acts - drinking in public, taking drugs, having sex in public, defacing property and committing acts of vandalism. All are crimes.
The mayhem and misery inflicted on communities throughout the country by such crimes is immeasurable. Yet our policy-makers and public service providers continue to talk about "anti-social behaviour". They do this because it diminishes the scale, nature and effects of the problem - but only, of course, in the land of officialdom.
If we do not face up to these problems and call them what they are - crime - every effort to rid ourselves of such menace will be wasted. It is time for heads to be pulled out of the sand. - Yours, etc,
Cllr TOM BRABAZON, Grattan Lodge, Dublin 13.