How Can People Act Like This With Impunity?

Mr Fitzpatrick’s attackers were described as acting like “a pack of wolves” by storming into the pub near his home in Dollis Hill.

Police said the killing followed an argument in the pub though some witnesses said it occurred after a dispute in a shop opposite.

Three people were arrested, including two 17-year-old men who still being questioned in custody today.

And who can’t be named, of course.

The victim’s best friend, Ricci Whiteside, 25, who was with him all evening said: “There was an argument in the shop opposite the pub at half-time. Luke wasn’t anything to do with it, but we all heard that something had gone on.

"A group of black guys arrived at the door of the pub with bats and knives and they were looking for someone who had been outside the shop earlier.

“People were throwing chairs at the door to try and stop them from coming in.

“There was a lot of confusion. They got Luke and dragged him outside. They were pulling him up the road.

“His dad was running after them. But by the time he got to Luke he was already on the floor. Bernie threw himself on top of Luke. He was trying to protect him, but it was too late.”

So how can this sort of thing happen, in England, in 2012?

Well, one clue to this is…it’s because they know they can get away with it:

A father told today how a fellow parent ambushed him with a claw hammer as he was picking up his daughters from a dance class — and that police took more than 24 hours to respond.

Paul Dilworth feared he was going to die as he tried to shield himself from the blows the stranger aimed at his head.

And what started this all off? Why, the same sort of attitude to the one above, the feeling that you can do whatever you want and if you are ever challenged, you simply tool up and go in mob-handed, because you know that your opponent, being a decent law-abiding man or woman, won't be armed:

His ordeal — which left him with a badly injured hand — began as he chatted to his sister-in-law outside Sanders Draper School in Hornchurch, when a car with a mother and father inside nudged him.

Mr Dilworth, 43, said: “The lady then walked past without an apology, so I sarcastically said ‘excuse me’. Her partner shouted a torrent of abuse at me, then drove the car into my leg.”

Shaken but uninjured, Mr Dilworth left and returned three hours later to collect his seven-year-old twins, Elise and Tabitha. But he said the other father and a friend were lying in wait armed with a foot-long claw hammer.

In a company van. With the name and telephone number on the side.

A quick and easy collar for the cops? Well, yes. If anyone ever bothered to turn up…

Mr Dilworth rang 999 but after waiting an hour and half he drove himself to Queen’s Hospital in Romford, where doctors treated his hand.

Detectives finally spoke to Mr Dilworth last Monday, more than a day after the attack.

Mr Dilworth said: “The police did apologise but I can’t believe they’re letting lunatics run round hitting people with hammers. It should be a very easy job to find them, I’ve got the company on Google Maps.”

You’d think it would, wouldn’t you? But you'd be wrong.

A spokesman for Havering police said: “If any member of the public is unhappy with the response to an incident then they are free to make an official complaint.”

No arrests have been made.

‘Broken Britain’ indeed…