Monday 16 August 2010

Get fucked!

I have never been a huge fan of the ASBO, although I've not, to be honest, been very aware of how the mechanics of it work. It seemed to be given to juvenile delinquents who seem to wear it as a badge of honour, rather than regarding it as a deterrent. But via Anna Raccoon and Leg-Iron come two contradictory tales of how councils regard the world's oldest profession and the further demerits of ASBOs. Firstly:

OXFORD’S “most prolific” prostitute has been banned from selling sex on the streets and in her home for five years.


It is not illegal to sell sex – why has this woman been ‘banned’ from carrying out a legal activity? It is not illegal to accept money for a sex act carried out in your home – why has this woman been banned from carrying out a legal activity in her own home?

Drug addict Nicola Harris worked seven days a week along Cowley Road, East Oxford, and Oxford Road, Cowley, as well as seeing clients at her home in Costar Close in Littlemore.


‘Seven days a week’ – a hard working girl then, who has avoided the temptations of raising money to feed her drug habit illegally. Like stealing or shop-lifting. Now she has been banned from raising the money legally, guess what will happen next?

The 33-year-old, who had been subject to an interim Anti Social Behaviour Order since July 9, failed to turn up at Oxford Magistrates’ Court yesterday to hear the city council’s successful application for a full order.


She was probably at work.


Anna goes on to point out that she was arrested for soliciting, which is illegal (why?) whereas prostitution itself is not. However, rather than "do" her for soliciting, instead we go down the ASBO route.

The ASBO is, I discovered, a mechanism by which perfectly legal behaviour can be criminalised. If one or more of the curtain-twitchers in your neighbourhood disapprove of one of your perfectly legal activity, they can apply for an ASBO, and if they get it and you continue with your perfectly activity, you can get done for breaking the conditions of your ASBO. You can then go to jail for doing something that is entirely and explicitly legal. Just because your neighbours don't like it.

Or, even worse, the police don't like it.

Or the council don't like it.

I don't want to be accused of giving people ideas, but how long do you think it will be before the police get ASBOs against photographers? How long do you think it will be before certain conditions get pre-approved ASBOs?

Anyway, back to old Leggy and getting fucked. So it turns out that while someone who is working, rather than stealing, to fund her drug habit and being hounded by the council and the police because of it:

Certain councils are paying for prostitutes for the disabled. It's all about 'outcomes' they say, and they kept a straight face while saying it (which is more than I did while reading it. "Oh, what a marvellous outcome," he ejaculated). The 'outcome' is apparently to turn a sad and dejected disabled bloke into a happy disabled bloke, and the method by which this is achieved is of no consequence. The end justifies the means.

Not surprising, then, that they chose a method that turns any straight bloke of any body shape or mental capacity into a happier version of himself. There is no mention of whether gigolos are available for disabled women or whether the disabled gay is similarly catered for, or whether kosher or halal hookers are on their lists. I do hope they are not applying this lunacy in a discriminatory fashion. That would be wrong.

Why do they think this is in any way right?

Liz Sayce, chief executive of disability network Radar, said the desire for sexual relations was a matter of human rights, meaning cases involving payments should be carefully examined on a "case by case" basis.


So if you're disabled you have a human right to an occasional game of hide the sausage. If you're in full health with all body parts present and accounted for, you don't. If you're not disabled and you procure a business arrangement with a lady of the night, you will be frowned on by a wrinkled man in a wig who will bash a hammer on a table and pronounce 'gross diversion' as the label for the dog. Then he'll take your money so you can't do it again.

If you hack off a limb, you can get a quick poke courtesy of the council tax payer and the wrinkled man in the wig will smile fondly and call you 'pet'.

It makes me wonder if this particular wench of the evening might have turned down a council commission.


Aaahhh ... perhaps it's all become clear after all.

It's becoming apparent to me that the ASBO is going to be the new weapon of choice in the hands of the new puritan pecksniffs and prodnoses. Smoking outside your front door? Get an ASBO. Too strict with your kids? Get an ASBO. Not strict enough with your kids? Get an ASBO. Eating too many burgers? Get an ASBO. Prone to getting drunk? Get an ASBO. Taking too many awkward videos of the police beating people? Get an ASBO. Swear in public? Get an ASBO. Blog? Get an ASBO.

Hell on Earth will not be lakes of brimstone fire, it will be a dull, drab beige existence "normalised" to some puritanical definition of morality.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

So if the disabled guy goes to Nicola Crowley's house, what happens?
This makes the case for having red light districts, if my next door neighbour was a prossie I think I might get annoyed. best to create a special area, it must be difficult if you have a young family and it's going on next door.

Anonymous said...

Similar happend to my area.

Some prostitute got an asbo that stops her swearing at people.

Yea, swearing.

sigh.

JohnRS said...

Thersa May seems to have announced the death of the ASBO. Assuming she does what she says (not always the case with Dem Tories unfortunately) then the local prodnoses can stick their disapproval up their arses.

Jill said...

The ASBO thing has been going on for a while. It's a direct parallel to the council snooping on rubbish bins under terrorism legislation fiasco. Even more than most of the things they are criticised for, badly-written, catch-all legislation is the mark of the New Labour administration.

Kingbingo said...

To amuse myself this weekend I was reading up on the 13th century. A period full of religious moralising and abuses in the name of such. Such abuses were widespread, but generally involved a state sanctioned organisation (the church) collecting money by forced from the productive classes and then proceeding to order people how to live their lives. If they didn’t conform with how they were being told to live they generally got tortured in a hideously brutal way or burnt alive etc.

It struck me that we have always had this class of people. A class of people who feel compelled to ‘know better’ and to force their world view on others. Back then they worked for the local ‘bishop’, now they work for the local ‘authority’.

The Germans call this class of person a ‘Blockwart’, although I’m not sure there is a direct English translation. I wonder how far back do Blockwarts go? Presumably the Sumerians had plenty of them as well?

But what really interests me is what nature or nurture creates a Blockwart to begin with? What makes a person decide that they must dedicate their lives to telling others what to do? I shall mainly be pondering that one for now.

jonathan said...

"...said the desire for sexual relations was a matter of human rights... "
I'm an ugly bastard who finds it virtually impossible to get laid, does this mean I can have women who don't want to shag me arrested?

Angry Squaddie said...

You can't get them arrested, but I believe if you shout "Surprise" before "excercising your human rights" in a more than usually forceful manner, this counts as a defence if the Police catch you.

Fascist Hippy said...

Anonymous, WTF are you on about "and it's going on next door", I haven't a clue what my neighbours do in their own home so it makes no difference to me what they get up to. How would you or the members of a "young family" know what the neighbours were doing, unless of course someone was 'curtain twitching' then discussing it with other people in front of the kids FFS!

Mr Ecks said...

As I've said before on other blogs, ASBOs were created by the scum of New Labour for the purpose of getting people used to the arbitary exercise of power without due process of law. The whole yobs nonsense was just the cover.

Anonymous said...

A boot stamping on a human face forever. Orwell got it right

Rationalist said...

@Kingbingo
Pop.

Anonymous said...

@Fascist hippy, my point is that the sex trade is better if it is put in a special area. It's fine to talk about allowing everyone to live how they please, but as a child I grew up regularly visiting the main red light district in Nottingham. You could try living in such an area for a few years and see how you like it, would your viewpoint survive reality? It's the kind of thing that can seriously lower your quality of life.

Jeff Taylor said...

Nicked yer stuff.

Roger Thornhill said...

Legalise drugs, drugs get cheaper, no need for her to go on the game 7 days a week. Sorted.


these puritans really do need to go boil their own heads.