Teenager fined £80 for swear word

mkpdavies · 24-02-2006, 10:17 PM

I missed this.

Quote:

Of course, a lot more people are going to find 'F**K' a lot more offensive than the word excrement. I suppose you'd have no problem with people running round the streets shouting 'F***ing C**ts' all day then?

Personally, I couldn't give a flying **** what people say.

Especially in this example.

However, I understand that some people don't want their kids to here naughty, mind-corrupting swear words. So I wouldn't mind a police officer stepping in if someone was going over the top. Handing out a fine after one utterence of the word is way over the top.

kernow · 25-02-2006, 01:30 AM

I remember not long ago walking with my wife through a busy Devon town in the middle of the afternoon when I saw two gangs of teenagers on opposite sides of the street screaming obscenities at each other at the top of their voices, not even in anger, just as the norm! approx' 45 years before then when I would have been there age, even the roughest of the rough didn't carry on like that in the middle of town in the afternoon on a busy day! and the scum always breed more scum! Never see them having to go for infertility treatment!

mkpdavies · 25-02-2006, 06:55 AM

It isn't just words!

http://cars.msn.co.uk/carnews/sweari...06/Default.asp

Quote:

A motorist has been fined £80 for making offensive gestures towards a speed camera as he drove home from work.

Simon Thompson, 41, extended his middle finger at the mobile speed camera as he passed it whilst driving safely under the speed limit. Simon, from Colchester in Essex was astonished when half an hour later the two policemen who had been operating the camera knocked on his front door. The officers handed Simon a fixed penalty notice for £80 for making offensive gestures under the Public Order Act.

Simon told The Sun newspaper: "I wasn’t giving the officers the finger, I was aiming my anger at the camera. I’ve got as much contempt for speed cameras as everyone else. I’m a careful driver. My licence has been clean for ten years."

Essex Police said: "The man received the fine because he was seen to gesture several times to officers operating a mobile speed camera in an obscene and offensive way."

Nice little earner this 80 quid thing eh. I never knew cameras could be offended.

Westcountryman · 25-02-2006, 08:52 PM

Lucky for him, had it have been me, I would have done him for driving without due care and attention.

Quote:

Handing out a fine after one utterence of the word is way over the top.

He must have said it more than once. The POA requires the Officer issues a warning before they can issue a fine. Only if the behaviour continues can the offender then be issued a fine. I expect he was being 'big and clever' and showing off in front of his mates.

mkpdavies · 25-02-2006, 09:20 PM

Well that's not what the story said! However, you may be right.

I'll be interested to see how the court case goes.

mkpdavies · 25-02-2006, 09:25 PM

A bit more from a criminology professor.

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100n...name_page.html

Quote:

If I swore in public - as has happened - and if an officer fined me, I would regard this as an outrageously disproportionate response, and so would most people.

Why should a teenager swearing among his friends within accidental earshot of a police officer be fined, when identical behaviour in the pub, school, workplace or social security office is not?

In practice, the kids and adults swearing directly at the police as they go about their business on weekend evenings in most Welsh cities, are hardly ever fined or arrested. Twenty years ago, the behaviour was little better.

Like fining people for spitting or throwing away chewing gum in the street, it may work in places like Singapore. But in Mexico City they would end up having to pick bullets out of police officers' bodies. In Cardiff or Newport, perhaps an assault on police.

Fines should be proportionate to the ability to pay, and standardised fines hit the poor hardest. This may be attractive as a deterrent but it is inequitable to charge a multi- millionaire or a royal the same amount as someone on social security for swearing (or for any other offence).

And Western Mail readers would be the first to complain if we allowed people to pay off the fine at 50p a week.

There is a danger that such laws could be used as a mechanism of penalising people we just don't like, who are easy targets, rather than focusing on offenders who commit more serious crimes.

It is the apparent arbitrariness of (mostly unseen) discretion that makes it so resented among young people.

And anyone who is determined not to pay and is jailed for swearing could end up as a folk hero, rather than a folk devil, in the eyes of those he or she cares about.

The Welsh forces were praised for their sensible approach to Asbos - let's be just as sensible about swearing.

Dr Michael Levi is a professor of criminology at Cardiff University

Westcountryman · 25-02-2006, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkpdavies

Well that's not what the story said! However, you may be right.

I'll be interested to see how the court case goes.

As will I, I just hope they report it.

25-02-2006, 09:20 PM	#35 (permalink)
mkpdavies Uber Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Woking Posts: 31,053 Party: Libertarian Party	Well that's not what the story said! However, you may be right. I'll be interested to see how the court case goes. __________________ http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/ http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/ http://lpuk.org My ignore list Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems

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25-02-2006, 01:30 AM	#32 (permalink)
kernow Uber Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 5,182	I remember not long ago walking with my wife through a busy Devon town in the middle of the afternoon when I saw two gangs of teenagers on opposite sides of the street screaming obscenities at each other at the top of their voices, not even in anger, just as the norm! approx' 45 years before then when I would have been there age, even the roughest of the rough didn't carry on like that in the middle of town in the afternoon on a busy day! and the scum always breed more scum! Never see them having to go for infertility treatment!