The police promise to put an end to drug traffic

[Bassim]

Have I made any mistakes?

The police promise to put an end to drug traffic and other crime in the poor suburb, but the people are not convinced. They have been listening to the same promises for more than twenty years, but the situation has only deteriorated. They are angry at the local authorities as they have refused to open a police station in the suburb, despite many pleas by the locals. When they call the police, it take them about twenty minutes to arrive, which is often too late, because by then, the offenders have already vanished. The situation is best described by the old saying "When the cat is away, the mouse will play."

 

[Tdol]

Have promised? To drug trafficking.

In the UK? Seriously? I was astonished when I went back to the UK last year and stayed in a small town at the penetration of drugs into every street. If the police are making any such promises, things are very wrong.

 

[Bassim]

Tdol,

I wrote the above text just as an exercise. I know that the police feel powerless, and they are unable to stop drug trafficking. The same situation you describe in the UK I see here in Sweden. I am 54, and when I was a teenager, I didn't want to taste drugs or alcohol. Those things never interested me. But now when I walk through town, I am often approached by teenagers, who still go to a secondary school, and they ask me if I could go to an off-licence and buy alcohol or to a shop and buy cigarettes for them. And when I walk in the evening through a park or beside the river, I see them drinking. It is a sad sight, because they have already become addicts.

 

[Tarheel]

Bassim, the saying is:

When the cat's away the mice will play.

 

[Tdol]

PS suburbs