Harassed by the Home Secretary?

Jacqui Smith


Yoof

I was intrigued at the recent announcement by the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith that she wants the Police to harass yobs? The traditional approach was to get evidence and prosecute in open court! Perhaps this important law officer of the state is unaware of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (PHA ’97) and her own department’s advice on the subject to the Police, Prosecutors and the Courts?

“Section 1 of the Act prohibits a person from pursuing a course of conduct which amounts to harassment. In order to commit an offence under section 2 of the Act, it is necessary to show that:

• Harassment was caused. Harassment is not defined in the Act, except that it includes causing the person alarm or distress. Harassment is, however, a concept which the courts are used to interpreting through other legislation (e.g. the Public Order Act 1986);

• The harassment was caused by a course of conduct. This is defined in the Act as conduct on more than one occasion; though there is no requirement that the conduct is the same on each occasion. The Act is not retrospective, and all incidents which form a course of conduct will have to post date implementation. Conduct can include speech; and

• The alleged offender knows, or ought to know, that the course of conduct amounts to harassment of the other.”

Home Office Circular 34 of 1997.

What is depressing is that the Home Secretary came out with this arrant nonsense about harassing yobs a day after her predecessor, Charles Clarke, pointed out that The Labour Party was losing credibility by engaging in “dog whistle” politics – issuing essentially meaningless sound bite announcements audible to specific interest groups such as Gordon Brown’s statement that he would create “British Jobs for British workers.” !!! How? Why? A bit of a rich statement from a government which had to own up to employing illegal immigrants as security guards in, wait for it, the Home Office!

Mr Clarke said the Prime Minister should stop using "bullying" tactics to stifle debate and abandon "dog- whistle politics" such as promising "British jobs for British workers". The technique, targeting messages about sensitive issues such as immigration at specific groups which only they hear, is a jibe normally thrown at the Tories by Labour. The former Home Secretary said Labour needs to correct "short-term errors which, week-by-week, erode confidence in Labour's competence and capacity".

It would be far better for the Home Secretary to be competent about things she can actually influence, such as ensuring people in the UK were entitled to be here, That illegal immigrants (7,000!) are not cleared to work in the security industry, that the police actually respond to reports of crime, that the Probation service actually works and that privatised youth prisons were not such sink pits that the Inspector of Prisons recommended that one be shut down as its management was so incompetent.

However, for the sake of balance I must report that not all agree with me and I attach an unabridged comment I received;

“Personally I think we would have a lot less problems if there was a large refrigerated container behind all police stations along with high pressure hoses and a few lengths of hydro-dare. Wash all suspects with the hose and heat them with the hydrodare. Following that if they were put in the fridge for a while to cool off. Repeat every 6 hours for a week.”

There you have it; maybe this is the “tough love” they need in Walsall, Hinckley and Coventry!