Asbos

I have to admit this is something that has kinda passed me by, i obviously live in a decent neighbourhood as i'm not aware of anyone being subject to an Asbo. I've never had any run in's with the law that would even lead to be threatened with one, although there was a baby potato throwing incident back in my student days that i now look on in a new light as narrow escape.

So when i saw the front page of the Independent yesterday i was initially underwhelmed by the headline about children being subject to more asbos than adults it didn't immediately grab my attention. It was the little snippets at the side that raised my interest. I couldn't help but titter at the Asbo imposed on a 15 year old boy from Birmingham for 'aggressive car-minding' and 'causing distress to fans' outside Villa Park. It was always something that was common up here in Scotland in days gone past at the Old Firm grounds, scrawny wee children asking for '50p to mind yer motor mister' or in other words give 'gie me 50p or i'll let yer tires down and scratch the paint and mibbe even pan yer windows in'.

However on a slightly more serious note there were a couple of other examples that i just thought were completely mental. Another 15 year old who suffers from Asperger's syndrome and faces jail if he breaks a ban on staring into a neighbours garden. The other being an asbo being served on another 15 year old which bans him from swearing in public, this young boy also happens to suffer from Tourette's syndrome, a rather well known syndrome which can involve involuntary swearing.

I don't wish to comment on Asbos in general, i don't really know enough to think about offering an opinion, but how on earth could a magistrate serve an Asbo on the 2 children in the examples above, it beggars belief.

Also, a bit of a sidenote there was a Mori poll about Asbos that found that 89% of people supported them but only 39% thought they were effective. Presuming everyone that thought they were effective supports them what the hell were other 50% supporting them for and were the magistrates that enforced the order on the 2 mentioned above in that 50% as that would seem to fit in with the logic shown earlier.