HobbesChoice said:
I just don't think an ASBO should be the one size fits all thing that it currently is. You can be given an ASBO for dropping litter and you can get one for dealing drugs in the street or threatening people! Giving an ASBO to an 18yr old hoodie or 80yr old pensioner for dropping litter just dilutes the message, in my opnion.
But, in an attempt to now make it a cycling thread .... nothing on the government website mentions anything about cyclists specifically or even abandoning cycles in the street so does that make us exempt???
Just a little bit of clarity before we move on. The pensioner will NOT have been given an ASBO for littering per se. An ASBO IS NOT AND NEVER WILL BE A PUNISHMENT.
You can't be given one "for dealing drugs in the street" or whatever. They are aimed at people who persistently cause misery in the community as a court order forbidding them to carry out certain acts .They are granted, after a long and involved process, to a person who persistently refuses to conform to decent behaviour. That order specifies certain behaviours which the applicants must prove on the balance of probablilities is persistently shown by the subject.
In order to obtain an ASBO from a court, the Local Authority and/or the police must satisfy the court that they have done all they can to prevent the person from behaving in that way. In the LA I work with that means that the person concerned will have been sent a letter telling them that their behaviour is unacceptable. Should they be reported after that letter a meeting will be held with that person, and a one-to -one session of spelling it out in words of one syllable if necessary, that they must conform to normal decent behaviour.
If they continue, another meeting is convened, and this time they must sign an acceptable behaviour contract. At all these different stages the person is made aware that if they persist they may be given an ASBO. If they breach the acceptable behaviour contract, then an application for an ASBO will be considered. However, before that can be done, a panel of partners meets to ensure that all the relevant partners have done al they can to support, divert and dissuade that person from behaving in an antisocial manner.
It's not a very quick process, I would reckon a fast track case may take six months minimum from first referral to granting the order.
Some of the behaviours mentioned in the terms of the order may already be an offence, for example causing someone harrasment alarm or distress, but if that behaviour is committed in breach of an ASBO the punishment for it can be up to five years imprisonment.
The tabloids have been very scathing in their response to ASBOS, but ALL of the tabloid BS I have read so far depends on misinterpretation of what an ASBO actually is, and what it actually hopes to achieve. Brucer's first post in this thread typifies the lack of understanding around the subject.
