YES, THATS RIGHT YOU COULD GO TO JAIL FOR BEING A LITTLE NUISANCE. On Wednesday the
Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill
reaches its report stage (close to the end of the process) in the House
of Lords. It is remarkable how little fuss has been made about it, and
how little we know of what is about to hit us.
The bill would
permit injunctions against anyone of 10 or older who "has engaged or
threatens to engage in conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance
to any person". It would replace asbos with ipnas (
injunctions to prevent nuisance and annoyance),
which would not only forbid certain forms of behaviour, but also force
the recipient to discharge positive obligations. In other words, they
can impose a kind of community service order on people who have
committed no crime, which could, the law proposes, remain in force for
the rest of their lives. This also means that if the police "think" your behaviour "might" cause offence, not that it has caused offence you could be arrested and hauled before the courts and sentenced. The law at present, the
1998 Crime and Disorder Act,
antisocial behaviour orders (asbos) has meant that thousands of people, mostly young and poor, have been labeled as criminals already but the next step is to be able to remove anyone from public places, protestors,buskers,football fans singing on there way to the trains could be arrested at the polices behance.
The bill also introduces public space protection orders, which can
prevent either everybody or particular kinds of people from doing
certain things in certain places. It creates new dispersal powers, which
can be used by the police to exclude people from an area (there is no
size limit), whether or not they have done anything wrong.
While,
as a result of a successful legal challenge, asbos can be granted only
if a court is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that antisocial
behaviour took place, ipnas can be granted on the balance of
probabilities. Breaching them will not be classed as a criminal offence,
but can still carry a custodial sentence: without committing a crime,
you can be imprisoned for up to two years. Children, who cannot
currently be detained for contempt of court, will be subject to an
inspiring new range of punishments for breaking an ipna, including three
months in a young offenders' centre. If you are young, poor, mentally ill,homeless,eccentric or by any chance, god-forbid doing any thing remotely enjoyable/annoying in a rather posh neighborhood of town or city center, be aware you could just be on your way to a prison sentence, of course if you are rich you will have nothing to fear.
