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Recently a Perth woman died and her 16-year-old daughter was critically injured as the result of a police car chase to recover a stolen vehicle. This is the fifth death this year related to a police pursuit. Civil libertarians have been calling forrestrictions on chases for years, but what is it about stealing cars that provokes one of the strongest and most dangerously punitive responses from our police force? What are we trying to control here?

I spent most of last Saturday night listening to young boys driving fast along streets not far from mine. This is a regular accompaniment to our local mystery drunken opera singer and the whooping cough barking of the terrible small dogs next door and their lonely little friends down the street.

I lie there hoping the boys won’t kill anyone, including themselves, that my cat is inside and that if they do hit something, could it please be my bomb which is still insured as if it were worth insuring.

I don’t know why we allow police pursuits of speeding or thieving drivers. No one I’ve spoken to seems to know either. There is a great void of understanding in most people’s minds when you ask them why they believe chasing a car already going at speeds that risk deadly harm achieves anything except to multiply the risk of violent death.

So there must be something precious and little understood that we won’t let go of in our tolerance for this stupid and indefensible game of chasey.