What a horrendous proposal!

Firstly there are legal issues. Like what happened to the idea of 'innocence until proven guilty'? If this principle is thrown out, what will happen to our society. I believe we are already seeing the consequences of this trend, with the young losing all respect for their elders, and the elders losing all respect for _their_ young. Will the police be exempted from laws on harassment or will there just be a selective application of those laws (more hypocrisy)?

Social issues. As the article above asks - there will be consequences. People, especially the young copy their behaviour from their surroundings, peers, elders, those in authority. If neighbours and those in authority like the politicians such as Jacqui Smith & police are demanding harassment of those people they dislike then what do they expect will happen?

Moral issues - this would go against my beliefs to treat people in this way. If I was a policeman I would have to refuse orders to behave in this way, harassing innocent people, or anyone for that matter. Two 'wrongs' do not make a 'right'. If this is passed into law then my taxes will be spent on this harassment, just as they have been on killing innocents in Afghanistan and Iraq (and where is the bloody respect in that).

My question was going to be 'how long will it be until this is used against protesters?'. Just as ASBOs were, probably as intended when the law was introduced in the first place. That question has partly been answered by the above article, suggesting that harassment has already been used towards them.