Don't criminalise kids for being kids...

[Pete]

Just saw this on Facebook - please sign. Click here http://bit.ly/18mkLrv


We call on the government to keep the existing definition of anti-social behaviour and not to broaden it to "conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance."

Why is this important?

The government is changing the law and replacing ASBOs with Injunctions To Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance (IPNAs). While ASBOs targeted behaviour considered to "cause harassment, alarm or distress,” IPNAs will target conduct “capable of causing nuisance or annoyance”.
 
This new wording is too vague and casts the net far too wide.
 
A ten year old could get an IPNA for doing something as harmless as playing football or climbing a tree, just because someone finds their behaviour annoying. And the punishments aren’t trivial either. An IPNA can lead to a prison sentence.
 
Even the Association of Chief Police Officers, in giving evidence to MPs, warned that IPNAs "have the potential to be used inappropriately" and "unnecessarily criminalise" children.
 
Let’s tell the government we don't want our children to be punished for being children.

Please sign our petition to Norman Baker, the Minister for Crime Prevention, asking him to keep the current definition of anti-social behaviour as causing harassment, alarm or distress.

[Old Cruser]

Some people just forget what they were like as children
Signed

[Slacker]

Some people see it as trouble causing if a bunch of teenagers hang around being a bit noisy. Sad.

Meanwhile the Barlow Hunt weekend before last went round terrorising sheep and killing a pet alpaca and the Derbyshire Times don't even report it.

Will any of them get an ASBO?