LadyEllen
Posts: 10931
Joined: 6/30/2006
From: Stourport-England
Status: offline
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You see, the thing I cant get over, is that the police in recent years have founded Independent Advisory Groups, to advise them on tactical and strategic levels in dealing with minority groups which formerly didnt get a good deal from the police. In addition to a Disabilities Group and Ethnic/Religious Minority Group, my local force (West Mercia) has an LGBT Group.
The LGBT Group only functions because the police have had to change their attitudes regarding the likes of us - ie that being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and transvestite is not a crime and that officers' personal views on morality etc is irrelevant in the law and so we ought to be treated like anyone else and expect the same high level of courtesy and respect as anyone else. The former situation, before this change, was that alike with ethnic and religious minorities, LGBT people did not receive the same treatment and often received unfair treatment because of what they do - that is live in a way not in accordance with strict 1950s style WASP culture.
To apply then, a law which whilst not specifically aimed at bdsm will inevitably encompass it, seems odd, when the police in their latest incarnation are taking great pains to be alternative lifestyle friendly, especially when this change of heart includes by way of the LGB aspect at least, alternative forms of sexuality. I know that there are LGBT people who engage in bdsm activities, and those activities form part of their LGBT sexuality. So to indict them for their bdsm activities, must inevitably also indict them for being LGBT, for their bdsm activities are tied in intimately to their LGBT sexualities. Given that the LGBT community and its constituents are now working with the police, against considerable resistance from the majority in those communities who distrust the police from poor prior experiences and encounters, this could all become very embarassing for the police and set back relations irrevocably, at the first arrest of an LGBT bdsm practitioner; especially considering the vocal and intellectual nature of many in those communities.
My hopeful instinct, given the above, is that the police will be extremely careful in how they apply this law (given that it is not thrown out by a House Of Lords whose reputation for being involved in bdsm activities themselves!), and not use it willy nilly to round up everyone who ever visited a bdsm website for example. In my case, I have visited the OWK website on many occasions, and there are on that website some pictures that would undoubtedly bring me into conflict with this law, but am I seriously a danger to the public for that? Of course not, and the stink I would kick up if I got a knock on the door would not be something the police would enjoy, I assure you. Add on top of that the probable arrest of several celebrities and other public figures and the unpleasant result would be magnified a thousand times.
I am also interested, in how the EU Human Rights legislation will figure in all of this; the right to private life as one aspect, the rights to freedom of association and communication as others. Will we yet again see the British government humiliated in Strasbourg, fined millions which of course we the taxpayer will have to pay and ordered to pay compensation of equal sums to people whose lives have been ruined by ridiculous convictions?
E
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In a test against the leading brand, 9 out of 10 participants couldnt tell the difference. Dumbasses.
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When do the new uk laws come in to force? - 
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