Liberty is not happy about the Anti-social Behaviour Crime and Policing Bill.
The Anti-social Behaviour Crime and Policing Bill proposes to replace existing orders (such as ASBOs) with a new generation of injunctions which are easier to obtain, harder to comply with and have harsher penalties.
The Bill would also introduce unfair double punishment for the vulnerable, as social tenants and their families will face mandatory eviction for breaching a term of an injunction.
Other measures in the Bill include some restrictions on Schedule 7 stop and search powers which, while welcome, unfortunately come nowhere near addressing the dangerous breadth and intrusiveness of these powers.
The Bill also weakens key safeguards in our already heavily-criticised extradition system by removing the automatic right of appeal against extradition orders.
Another item to keep a beady eye on then.
What’s with all the Orwellian nonsense? Doesn’t the UK already have existing laws against “terroristic threats” (or some variant thereupon) that can be used to combat genuinely antisocial behavior without introducing such overly broad, transparently abuse-vulnerable, and willfully free speech trampling legislation?
This is nothing to do with terrorism, or “terroristic threats”. It’s to do with buskers, beggars, and hoodie-wearing teenagers hanging about on street corners. George Monbiot recently described it as an attempt to turn the entire country in to a giant shopping mall.
Minus buskers.
Mind you, those can be a right nuisance to people who have to work in the environment they supply. Someone I knew had to try an concentrate really hard while enduring the day-long entertainment of a player of the didgeridoo or the bagpipe, with a total repertoire of two, three “songs”, outside their window. Someone else of my acquaintance actually went out and gave them a note of paper money just to go elsewhere.
But that can be better dealt with by local ordnance. (Hope I didn’t accidentally type ordinance? Or vice versa?)
Anyway, shooting mosquito with cannon. Like.