Over the past 10 years, public spaces have become increasingly policed by unaccountable officials bearing open-ended powers.
On-the-spot fines mean that police and other officials can punish people for a series of offences ‘on-the-spot’, without legal checks and balances. Criminal offences that would have been tried in court are now often dealt with like a parking ticket.
On-the-spot fines have been running at around 200,000 a year since they were introduced in 2004. Now ‘out of court’ punishments make up nearly half of all offences ‘brought to justice’.
The result has been arbitrary punishments for perfectly innocent activities. A woman was fined for feeding the ducks (‘littering’), as was a man who dropped a £10 note. One Women’s Institute group received threats of fines for putting up a poster (‘fly posting’), and handing out leaflets (‘unlicensed leafleting’), while others have been fined for putting up lost cat posters. A number of political protesters were issued with penalty notices for ‘harassment’, including an anti-CCTV campaigner who handed out leaflets to his neighbours.
A new Manifesto Club campaign against ‘pavement injustice’ will take on unaccountable officials in public spaces – investigating how powers are being used, and calling for their review and limitation. We want to defend the principle that justice is done properly in the courtroom, rather than on-the-spot by a badged busybody. And that law-abiding citizens should be able to use public spaces freely, without risking censure for feeding the ducks.
A new Manifesto Club briefing document finds that there have been 32 million CRB checks since 2002 - at a cost of £1.5 billion.
At ‘Bubble’ football matches, away fans are banned from all independent travel. Travelling fans are transported on licensed coaches and under police escort, from a designated pick-up point to a designated drop-off point. Fans often must pick up their tickets on route, such as at motorway service stations. Their freedom of movement is suspended.
