Fun Stuff > CHATTER
ASBO = AAAAAAGH
KharBevNor:
--- Quote from: pwhodges on 26 Jul 2008, 03:46 ---The UK is close to being a police state in some ways.
--- End quote ---
And yet there's never a copper around when you need one, eh?
I smell an agenda somewhere behind this ASBOwatch/statewatch thing. As Pete has pointed out, there is obviously a bigger story behind these things: The second story is obviously gang related, and in the third example, there is a nice little bit of rhetorical bullshit, in that the fact the girl is deaf has no relevance whatsoever on the fact that she breached her ASBO. Like many of the newer laws they're a good idea that has been over-used and occasionally abused. What ASBOs are for is for tackling serious anti-social behaviour where negotiation is not an option and prison would be heavy handed. A gang of youths who habitually stand around a shopping centre verbally abusing passers by can simply be banned from coming in, rather than wasting huge amounts of taxpayers money on full CJD proceedings. Someone who habitually plays loud dance music till 4AM in a block of flats can have an ASBO put in place against that, without hauling him to court for breaching noise pollution laws (which would be rather police state). In practice, coinciding as they have with certain other trends in policing ASBOs have become an overused tool in the police officers arsenal. I can't really blame them: British police officers generally command little respect from anyone under 30 and they are severely handicapped by beauracracy and pointless regulations, especially in their dealings with the young. Unfortunately we have become locked into a vicious cycle: the more endemic crime and anti-social behaviour become among the young (and having just left my teenage years in one of Britains more deprived areas, I can tell you that they are fucking endemic), so the police resort to increasingly more heavy handed tactics to stem the tide, so the respect of young people for the law and for society in general diminishes, repeat ad nauseum, or until machete wielding mobs of South London rudeboys ransack Buckingham palace and make Dizzee Rascal king, whichever is sooner.
As a committed anarchist I am of course opposed to all codified laws in principal. It'll be fun to watch how the whole thing plays out. Ideally I hope to do this from the relative comfort of Canada or Iceland. It is kind of a pity because this is a nice country and the people are, fundamentally, decent. Ah well.
jhocking:
--- Quote from: Oli on 26 Jul 2008, 04:56 ---spitting in public is not a positively ghastly thing to do.
--- End quote ---
I routinely see people spit in public and I always think it should be a fined offense, like littering. People who spit in public are probably the same people who throw trash out their car window. Sending someone to jail for it is over the top though.
Oli:
To be fair she was imprisoned for breaching her ASBO, not the initial offence. Not knowing the details behind the imprisonment means it's hard to comment, but it is perhaps a little over the top.
Jimmy the Squid:
Spitting is pretty gross but I think throwing someone in prison is a bit of overkill for that particular offence.
waterloosunset:
ASBOs are basically a good thing. The media always try and make the recipients out to be angels, but there is almost always a back story, often involving gangs of chavs, and the ASBO is simply there to prevent them from terrorising the general public. Essentially it is a contract, as long as the ASBOer behaves themselves and stops behaving like a toerag, they won't be carted off to jail
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