I think a team of vigilantes would be a good first step. Start hanging the thugs from broken cctv cameras. As the cops never show up until it's too late anyway, what's your chances of getting caught.

Isn't this the same country which is going to make hunting illegal? What a commentary on modern society, where going after a furry animal is a grave offence, while robbery (cf Tony Martin, et al) is encouraged.

So when will Members of Parliament start pushing for restrictions on the sale and ownership of bricks?

I can hear the backlash already: "They'll take my masonry when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers."

I want to smash the bobby's face with a brick. What kind of jerkov would pull a stunt like that? What the hell is wrong with those cops?

Okay, so that's one vote against brick control :-)

What remains of the right to trial by jury over there? American criminal juries take self-defense issues very seriously, and most states enshrine various forms of self help, such as the right to use deadly force when necesssary to protect oneself or another and the right to arrest for a felony commited in one's presence in their constitutions and laws.