In an editorial this morning, the Herald comes out in support of the government's plans for rebranded UK-style Anti-Social Behaviour Orders for boy racers. But in doing so, they highlight exactly why these orders are a bad idea:
These orders overcome what police say is the major deficiency in the current law, the difficulty of identifying and apprehending individual offenders amid street-racing crowds that number in the hundreds. Areas where the racing is taking place could be cordoned off, and the police could methodically deal with every person present. The threat posed by the order would probably be enough to persuade many to forsake future gatherings. The more draconian aspects could be used against the hard-core racers who chose to continue to endanger public safety.That "major deficiency" is in fact a vital part of our justice system: the need for there to be actual evidence that a specific individual has committed an offence. The "solution" not only constitutes punishment without trial or evidence - it is also intended to be a collective punishment. "Someone has annoyed us. We're too lazy to collect sufficient evidence to determine who, so instead we will punish all of you". This may seem like a good idea to the authoritarians at the Herald - but it should be an anathema to anyone who cares about justice or human rights.
As I pointed out yesterday, the police have plenty of offences they can charge boy racers with. All they have to do is collect the evidence. The Herald clearly thinks that doing actual police work is too much to expect from our police. I think that we should not expect anything less.
