Police Scotand OBFA submission

[D'Artagnan 173]

http://www.parliament.scot/S5_JusticeCommittee/Inquiries/OBR215-PoliceScotland.pdf

 

Some interesting submission.

 

This paragraph from the ACPOs submission in 2011gets right to the heart of the problem.

 

The Scottish Government has yet to clearly define what it means by

‘sectarianism’. The debate on policing sectarianism will suffer from a lack of clarity

unless guidance is provided

[Darthter 542]

While I totally agree with the IDEA behind the OBFA laws, if one of the main subjects is not clearly defined, then it is impossible to implement - and that goes for ANY law that is implemented.

 

Once a clear definition is agreed upon, fairness & a more even application of the law can be implemented.

[boabie 230]

Scottish law was based on common law - if the people of the country considered an action was criminal then it became a crime and was treated at court as such. Everything worked fine for hundreds of years until politicians became involved and began making their own parliamentary laws [statutes] which required clear definitions. This led to many many folk walking free from courts because the definitions weren't clear enough and loopholes were left. So the politicians and law lords began tying themselves in knots trying to plug those gaps. They did it so efficiently that not even the lawyers on both sides could agree what the statute was actually trying to say.

The Labour lot in their haste to prevent anybody becoming "offended" brought in a statute that more or less said, if any one person is offended then a crime has been committed and the police should act. That led to folk getting dragged off to police stations and sometimes courts when by every precedent of Scottish law such a charge or action could not be supported.

The SNP lot then totally fecked everything up with the OBFA when they failed to give clear guidance on what was "offensive". It was a statute passed with absolutely no definitions.

Sectarian potatoes, grass cut like a sash, green pepperami's or online comments and other such nonsense have never caused harm to anybody anywhere. But thanks to tree-hugging behaviour by some and outright bigotry by others, our MSP's have passed laws which now say that "outrage and offence" was caused to thousands, crimes have been committed and allow whole debates on why the police have not taken action.

They have not only ruined football, they have changed the lives of every single person residing in this country. Banter and humour have became crimes.

It tickles me that most of those shouting loudest online don't actually live here too.