Law, good law, is intended to protect me from you and you from me. Specifically, it is intended only to protect me against any initiation of force or fraud by you, and you from any initiation of force or fraud by me. My freedom ends where your nose begins.
That works both ways.
There is an expectation that if you violate good law, that you will be handled under due process, and that the punishment will fit the crime. This is all part of what it means to have objective law. This is what freedom looks like. This is what Annette King wants to overturn with what is called in the UK 'Anti-Social Behaviour Orders', which give police the power to deliver summary justice, and courts the power to turn minor offences into a five-year stay in jail if they're arbitrarily deemed to be anti-social.
She means it. We should take this seriously.
Russell Brown and No Right Turn are right. This needs to be opposed. Read their posts to see why. Read the BBC's The Asbo Chronicles to see why. To paraphrase Russell, and at his express invitation, here's my short, and consciously anti-social response to Annette: you can stick your fucking ASBO up your arse.
3 comments:
This is why all those earnest munters who think George Bush II=Hitler are so dangerous to society. If you can't tell the difference between Bush and Hitler then you will eventually get Hitler again. Then you will learn!
They are dangerous because they can not discern real dictators, and real threats to liberty. They apply moral equivalence across the board and fail to sense insidious erosions such as this anti-socisl behaviour bill.
Hmm. Bet this came about because Annette King sees it as a nifty way to deal with boy-racers. (Stupid term).
But I see a world of difference between a (privately-owned presumably) shopping ctr determining who they will and won't admit entry and police using ASBO legislation to compound people's vehicles for unpaid fines, etc.
And re another BBC example, as long as beaches are publicly-owned, I don't want to be near some gross old guy in the buff while I'm at the beach. On a small beach, I may not be able to avoid him!
That actually happened while I was working as a nanny in the US. I didn't feel at all comfortable taking my pre-schoolers to our local - and small - beach for the same scenario as described.
Cheesed me off.
Onya Pete!
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