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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Anticipation

The law goes a step too far:

As part of a Government drive to curb anti-social behaviour, police have been granted new powers to ban troublesome drinkers from town centres.

Officers in England and Wales are able to issue "directions to leave" to people they believe will cause alcohol-related crime or disorder.

These orders will also be given to individuals who have not drunk alcohol, but whom police believe are about to begin consuming it.

On being issued an order, which lasts up to 48 hours, the person will be told to leave the area. They will be handed a form describing the area from which they are banned and may even get a map depicting the exclusion zone.

The function of the law is to tell us clearly what we may not do and what the punishment is for doing it anyway. Any law that tries to anticipate and curb our behavior is suspect. And we don't have to go to Britain to see plenty of examples.

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