Subjects - Your neighbourhood - ASBOs
The theory behind the ASBO is that it's for the police to use when they just know that somebody is breaking the law, but they can't prove it. That is the theory anyway. In practice it often seems to be used when the police know that somebody is breaking the law, but they can't be bothered proving it.
For example, there was a chap who apparently had the world's biggest collection of women's underwear. He was ASBO'd, as the term is, to preventing an increase in the size of his collection.
There is nothing wrong with collecting things, it's how he collected them that mattered. He did not stride confidently up to the counter at Marks & Spencer to purchase the latest frilly combination. He pinched them from washing lines. So that's theft then isn't it? So why is he just not prosecuted for theft? Why do we need this ASBO thing?
Cases like this give credence to the argument of many opposed to ASBOs that in reality they are used as a way of saving the police the trouble of having to mount a proper prosecution.
Fair's fair however and the other side of the argument is that there are some people about whose naughtiness is of a far higher degree than this chap, and who cannot be prosecuted because everybody in the locality is too scared to say anything about them and much less give evidence.
And so in that context ASBOs could be a useful tool, ad we can advise you nore about them.