Missing Cat Poster Got Boy ASBO’d

Posted by Alex in Crime & Law on September 6, 2008 at 11:33 am


In 1998, the UK government introduced a law designed to deter harassment called the Anti Social Behaviour Order or ASBO. The law has been controversial - some hailed it as a great way to deal with wayward punks whereas in other instances, something like this happens:

Daniel Cope, 13, was devastated when eight-year-old Milly disappeared from the family home.

He spent hours hunting for the pet with his parents before printing off 100 posters with tortoiseshell Milly’s picture and putting them up on lamp-posts near the family home in Whitstable, Kent.

Just three days later, Daniel’s mother Heather, 43, received a phone call from a community warden telling her they had to come down. [...] ‘She said it came under an anti-social behaviour act and we could face an £80 penalty. I just burst into tears when she told me, I couldn’t believe it.’

Link - via Arbroath



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17 comments to "Missing Cat Poster Got Boy ASBO’d"

  1. Cat
    September 6th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

    I was a bit confused by the whole issue regarding the ASBO law and this boy, so I looked up the ASBO law, and it seems this isn’t the first over-zealous ruling by neighborhoods on this law.

    The only way that this could have been ASBO is if the neighbors considered the posters vandalism or defacing public property. But to me it really seems as if the law is designed to create scapegoats and give neighbors excuses to harp on other neighbors.

    I agree that it would be nice to have a similar law in the United States, but this story (and other similar to it) show that too much power can be given to the people.

  2. Dianne
    September 6th, 2008 at 1:00 pm

    Just goes to show ya there are crazy laws and crazy people everywhere! What a sweet little guy. Bless the beast and the children! You were in the right little buddy and your compassion will not go unnoticed.

  3. Steohawk
    September 6th, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    It seems that the UK is rapidly becoming more authoritarian. Of course, I’m hard pressed to think of a single country that’s becoming less authoritarian.

  4. Tim
    September 6th, 2008 at 3:19 pm

    It is getting a lot worse than this. There are laws in the works to install video cameras in public housing to monitor people deemed anti-social, and provisions that will allow the government to take children from their parents based on these laws. Not to mention the forced drugging of pregnant women, their unborn children and others…

    Psychiatrists are being this crap and should be stopped.

  5. rdubs
    September 6th, 2008 at 6:50 pm

    Watch Hot Fuzz. hahahahhaa neghbor commitee.

  6. Johnny Cat
    September 6th, 2008 at 9:15 pm

    Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither. -World citizen, Ben Franklin

  7. David B
    September 6th, 2008 at 9:56 pm

    As an employee of a small city in California I understand where this ASBO law comes from. Hardly anybody ever removes their personal posters announcing lost pets, yard sales and what not. We had a case not too long ago where posters for a lost cat were put up on every pole and post within a half mile radius. The cat was found shortly thereafter (and not because of this poster blitz) but city employees took them down, not the citizens that put them up. t took a lot of tax paid man hours to remove them that could be put to better use. To me it’s a form of graffiti.

  8. Thomas
    September 7th, 2008 at 1:58 am

    Then why not just inform the parents that the kid needed to remove the posters or face a fine. I’m sure the kid would have been happy to oblige. He seems like a nice kid.

  9. Evilbeagle
    September 7th, 2008 at 3:48 am

    That poor kid. Bad enough he lost his cat. The UK is getting increasingly ridiculous about this sort of thing.

  10. Kirkburn
    September 7th, 2008 at 11:29 am

    Thomas … isn’t that exactly what the article says?

  11. Thomas
    September 7th, 2008 at 11:59 am

    So it is. That’s what I get posting after my bedtime.

  12. Moose
    September 7th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    I’d have told the moronic community warden where to go if I was his parent. It’s nothing to do with the welfare of the community it’s about jobs worths who pick the easiest target and then this is counted as lowering anti-social behaviour. This government is a joke.

  13. Skipweasel
    September 7th, 2008 at 1:30 pm

    To be fair the council did apologise and say it’d been overzealous. That kind of thing happens all the time and isn’t really newsworthy. It’s newsworthy when the council continues to overstep the mark and actually carries out the action threatened by its twit of a warden. And, indeed, that does happen from time to time and does end up in the papers and then the council’s /really/ got egg all over its face.

  14. Peeler
    September 7th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

    He didn’t get an ASBO but was contacted by the local councilwho subsequently backed down.
    There is a lot of this going on in the UK at the moment. Expect more until the next election.

  15. Peeler
    September 7th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

    He didn’t get an ASBO but was contacted by the local council who subsequently backed down.
    There is a lot of this going on in the UK at the moment. Expect more until the next election.

  16. Noelegy
    September 8th, 2008 at 3:10 pm

    Meanwhile, the REAL hooligans are doing as they please. I hope the kid found his kitty safe and well.

  17. MrPumpernickel
    September 8th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

    Johnny Cat, if you’re going to quote someone at least do it properly. Benjamin Franklin never said that, what he said was:

    “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”


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