Punishing Pre-Crime Is No Longer Just In Tom Cruise Movies
Brendan O'Neill at Spiked explains it that way in describing the sick injustice of a man found not guilty of rape who still must:
...provide the police with the name, address and date of birth of anyone he plans to bed, 'at least 24 hours prior to any sexual activity taking place'. So despite not being found guilty of a crime, he will still be treated as a criminal. This should alarm anyone who cares about due process, liberty and not allowing the state to stick its snout into the sexual relations of consenting adults....The Sexual Risk Order against the man is an interim one. In May, there will be another hearing to decide whether it should become a full Sexual Risk Order, which can last for anything between two years and forever. If an individual breaks an order, he or she can be imprisoned for up to five years. So if this guy - who is not a criminal, remember - has sex with someone without first informing the police, he could be jailed. That is, he could be jailed for having sex. It should concern anyone who believes in even basic autonomy, in the sovereignty of the individual over his mind and body, that the threat of jail-for-sex hangs over the head of an ostensibly innocent man.
...The Yorkshire case, and Sexual Risk Orders more broadly, demolishes the ideal of due process. If someone can be treated as a criminal, or precriminal, despite not having been convicted of a crime, then the entire, Magna Carta-derived basis of civilised law is called into question. Last year, Britain celebrated the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, a document which insists that 'no free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions', unless he's found guilty of a crime through 'lawful judgement'. This is the foundation stone of democratic societies: that citizens are free until such a time as they have been convincingly, openly convicted of an offence. This is now reversed.
...A society in which a non-guilty man must provide the police with information about his every sexual conquest is not a free society. It's the opposite; it's a society in which no zone of life exists independently of officialdom, and in which more and more of us are viewed as precriminals, and sex is viewed as pre-rape.
It's easy to let each one of these yankings of our civil liberties fly by as we're busy with other things. This, the legalized theft known as "civil asset forfeiture," the removal of due process from men on campus accused of sexual assault, and the TSA's violation of our civil liberties at airports under the pretense that they're providing is with security and under the cover of "administrative search."
The problem is, the more we allow rights to be taken from us, the easier it is to take more and more rights.
What are the cops planning on doing with this? Are they planning on "warning" the women, or just noting down his possible partners?
Ignoring his rights, what about his partners' rights to their privacy?
Anyway, if I were this guy, now that his order is well known, I'd call the cops everyday and give them the names of prominent members in the community, both female and male.
"Hello, is this the coppers? I'm planning on shagging Connie, the chief prosecutor's wife this afternoon. And then after Question Time, I was going to have a go with the mayor himself."
jerry at January 25, 2016 11:52 PM
I refuse to watch anything with Tom Cruise in it. The guy is a sanctimonious prick.
He savaged Brooke Shields for relying on Paxil for her post-partum depression. Oh, but he apologized for it. Yeah, after attacking her publicly, he apologized privately, the night before Shields went on Leno, so she could tell the whole world how Cruise apologized.
Considering Cruise got his big break in a Brooke Shields movie, he should have kept his stupid mouth shut.
Patrick at January 26, 2016 1:20 AM
Jerry has the right approach.
"Yes, I plan on sexing the judge's wife tomorrow tonight."
"Angelina Jolie the next."
"The prime minister's the next."
It is a bureaucracy, make them live according to their own rules, which is to write all this down. I don't see anything about actual completion being necessary.
Do this EVERYDAY. EVERY SINGLE DAY. This is how the parable of the persistent window works.
I R A Darth Aggie at January 26, 2016 4:41 AM
Great Britain, is it not? They used to be a free country. So were we, once, mostly, even in my lifetime.
MarkD at January 26, 2016 5:39 AM
If he's an optimist they will have quite a list.
Also puts a different light on the old "my body is a weapon" line.
Seriously though how do you fight this? Look at us? We passed a game-changing health/insurance plan w/o "knowing what was in it".
Bob in Texas at January 26, 2016 6:12 AM
Two issues on this.
First, the order reads: "You must disclose the details of any female including her name, address and date of birth."
Does this mean that he doesn't have to report if he has sex with a male? That's if he swings that way.
Joking aside though, the second issue is this order also restricts his internet usage; so, it really is just a matter of time before such orders are about more than just sex.
Such orders will soon include who you can or cannot talk to, where you can or cannot walk, where you can or cannot eat, live, or work. All done without due process; just because some judge thinks he is "dodgy."
If that's the way things are going to work - someone should have slapped such a "sex restraint" order on Bill Clinton years ago - he is quite "dodgy."
charles at January 26, 2016 8:26 AM
He should hand the police a phone book and say every woman in it is a possible sexual partner in any given 24 hour period.
Matt at January 26, 2016 8:32 AM
People are adaptive and tolerant. Small changes in their freedom or large changes in the freedom of others does not bother them much.
How to catch wild pigs. Not a joke.
Put corn on the ground in the woods. The pigs will come every day to eat the free corn. When they get used to that, put a fence along one side of the area. When they get used to the fence, they will resume eating the corn. Then, put up another side of the fence. They will get used to that.
Continue until you have all four sides of the fence with an open gate. The pigs will soon come through the gate to eat. Slam the gate on them, and catch the whole herd.
Suddenly, the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They will run around and around, but they are caught. Soon, they will go back to eating the free corn. They are used to it and have forgotten how to forage for themselves, so they accept their captivity.
Andrew_M_Garland at January 26, 2016 10:05 AM
The danger here is when someone found innocent is still put on restrictions like this. The brits have this "administrative orders" thing that is very very dangerous. A neighbor can call police to report that your behaviour is "alarming" and get a restriction put on you. You don't even have any recourse.
Likewise with the US sexual criminal list. You can get on it by being a drunk who urinates in public or by being a 17 yr old with a 16 yr old girlfriend or even by RECEIVING sexts--how are you supposed to prevent that? And then you are on it for life.
Or, the best of all, someone in gov somewhere in US puts you on the no fly list. Good luck to you.
Craig Loehle at January 26, 2016 11:12 AM
ring ring
"911, what is your emergency?"
"I have a boner, and I need to report it."
Steve Danielss at January 26, 2016 5:02 PM
So,if the guy wanted to relieve himself, would he have to call the police and tell them his name and address?
Dragonslayer666 at January 29, 2016 10:40 PM
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