On Christmas morning at around 3.30, a teenager was heavily beaten and left bleeding, unconscious, in the street in front of a popular Paceville club. The perpetrators were the three bouncers who were on duty, together with a fourth person, probably a colleague.

The teenager was probably thrown out of the club a few minutes before, as I saw him calling the bouncers names. He may have been drunk. But does this give four burly men the right to beat him up?

After a few seconds the police were called but instead of calling for an ambulance they carried him away, without even checking for broken bones! Not only did they not take action on what happened, but they did not even bother to question several witnesses who were gathered around.

My friends and I went to talk to one of the two officers who were in charge of the 20-odd policemen in front of a fast food restaurant just a few seconds after all this happened.

We tried to give details of what happened and descriptions of who did this, but the officer continuously interrupted us with "Come and show us who they were" (as if he wanted to say "Come and show the bouncer who you are and let him know you are making a deposition against him, so you can get your ration of beatings the next time he sees you").

Is this the way the police make sure that the streets are safe?