As someone who has lived around the vicinity of Magdalen Street all my life and always regularly shop there, it was sad to read about Mohamed Haider having his halal butchers shop window smashed by some mindless idiot.The police are treating it as a hate crime which I suspect is a diplomatic way of saying it was a race crime, which is surprising because in my experience the whole street for many years has been a mix of shops made up of people with different cultures from all over the world, and all this has taken place with no racial tensions or trouble at all.

MORE: 'I feel like I want to go home': Norwich Halal butcher describes fear after hate attackI do wonder if the attack occurred because it was a halal butcher where all the animals sold would have had their throat cuts while they were fully conscious and aware what was going to happen to them.

Many animal welfare groups are against this practice and it could be possible that one of their more extreme members could be the attacker.

MORE: Man charged with criminal damage after attack on Halal Butcher shop in NorwichOne also has to consider that in the last year several shops in the street have had their windows damaged without anything being reported by the press including the Forces Recruitment Centre which recently has had its window broken yet again without any report of anyone being caught and charged in the paper.

If the Armed Forces cannot protect their own shop windows what hope is there for the other shopkeepers in the street?

MORE: Community steps in to help Norwich butcher after suspected hate crimeIt might help the business community in Magdalen Street if some of the dozens of policemen who gather in the Prince of Wales area at night spread out a few hundred yards occasionally and patrol Magdalen Street to deter these crimes which happen when the sun goes down and the riff raff, who have no connections whatsoever with the local community, come out.

David M Coe, Rosebery Road, Norwich