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The government are not actually serious are they? I mean, really, are they serious or are they mental? On the face of it this is one of the most pointless pieces of legislation that has ever made it out of the doors of the Ministry of Rights Removal, otherwise known as Parliament. Think about it, the government are claiming that this "Super ASBO" will help them in the fight against organised crime and its bosses. How exactly will that work then? Well, it seems that the government are fairly certain who the organised crime bosses are but they cannot arrest them because, hang on a minute, they do not actually say why they cannot arrest them... Which leads to the biggest problem in British legal history. They are going to target crime bosses who they cannot build a case for trial against. So, essentially what this means is that for all their suspicions there is a complete lack of evidence. There is no case to be presented in a court of law because they cannot prove that there should even be a case to hear LET ALONE PROVE A PERSON'S GUILT. They have NOTHING. Just suspicion, rhetoric and hearsay...and that simply is not and cannot be enough to place somebody under an order that limits their right to travel, make telephone calls, use certain bank accounts or credit cards and even the amount of money that a person is allowed to carry... Remember that they murdered Jean Charles de Menezes based on a hunch and NOBODY is going to pay for that except the taxpayer when the police force that we fund gets a huge corporate fine for breach of the Health and Safety at Work act. I really am not making this up! Home Secretary John Reid suggests that there are around 1,000 of these people already on the radar...So why not go back to the old fashioned, time honoured tradition of watching them, investigating them, building a case against them and trying them in a court of law?!??! As if all of this was not ludicrous enough, they are going to be used for people who have broken a law in another country but cannot be tried in the UK as it is not a criminal act here. Therefore anybody going to Amsterdam and getting stoned or going to Saudi Arabia (although I would not recommend that right now!) and having an alcoholic drink is now "on the radar". Ok, now I am just being alarmist...Of course they will not use these orders for such "crimes"... Will they? Do not forget that when curfew orders were originally announced everybody though that they were wonderful because they were only to be used for children and only in Youth Dispersal Zones... Now they can be used on anybody, anywhere, anytime for any reason at the say so of the local police chief. "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but soon and for the rest of your life." |
Monday 17th July 2006 | ePolitix.com
A new 'super-Asbo' has been unveiled by the Home Office as part of a drive against organised crime.
The serious crime prevention orders (SCPO) are designed to target organised crime bosses who consider themselves "untouchable".
They will act in a similar way to anti-social behaviour orders, with anyone receiving a SCPO being banned from certain activities or facing a possible maximum of five years in jail.
Restrictions on travel arrangements and telephone calls will be used under the orders.
There could also be bans on certain credit cards or bank accounts being used by known criminals and limits on the amount of money allowed to be carried by them.
Home secretary John Reid outlined details of the new order on Monday. It is chiefly aimed at tackling crimes such as drug trafficking, organised immigration crime, credit card and identity fraud and money laundering.
The Home Office could not estimate how many people would be targeted by the proposed order, but suggested that more than 1,000 people are already on its radar.
Reid said the proposals were designed to "prevent these criminals from operating on UK soil, to disrupt their activities, target them more effectively and make it harder for them to evade detection".
Examples of where the order might be useful include if there is evidence of crimes committed overseas which cannot be prosecuted in the UK, or as an extra option in the run-up to a criminal prosecution aimed at restricting the amount of harm a suspect could inflict while a case is being prepared.
It is part of a raft of Home Office proposals contained in the consultation paper 'New powers for organised and financial crime' which completes its consultation period in October.
Other measures outlined include improved data sharing between the public and private sector on suspected fraudsters.
The Home Office also wants a new offence of encouraging or assisting a criminal act to help strengthen the current law and make it easier to clamp down on those involved on the fringes of organised crime.