The London Borough of Harrow's official motto 'Salus populi suprema lex' adorns civic buildings, litter bins, lamp posts and street signs across 20 square miles of our capital city's north-western outskirts.
Translated as 'The welfare of the people is the highest law', it supposedly reflects the noble spirit in which the council treats its 270,000 tax-paying residents.
That spirit was, however, in very short supply on May 18 when two of Harrow's 'environmental enforcement officers' confronted a local man named Alvin outside the Asian Pearl Seafood shop on Northolt Road.
Alvin, a heating engineer on his way home from work, had intervened to comfort a teenage girl who had been collared by the duo for allegedly spitting at a bus stop.
The girl, who seemed confused and tearful, was in the process of being slapped with a £100 fine. Alvin asked what concrete evidence the officers had to support the charge. When it emerged that they had none, he advised the child to simply walk away.
