The sound of failure

Woken this morning by the insistent warbling of a burglar alarm. It continues uninterrupted, pentrating even the double-glazed windows.

Rarely do we go a week without an alarm going off somewhere in the near vicinity. Sometimes they go on all day, making the garden uninhabitable.

Virtually everybody in the area has bought one - and they are of course ignored by the police (probably with some justice as most of them are false alarms). But even if they weren't, the police are too busy dealing with "real" crime.

The annoying noise is now a normal part of the urban environment. It is the sound of failure - the failure of the police to protect property.