Tyranny In The Nanny State

In what insane society could someone who accidentally sent sexually explicit text messages to his entire contact list instead of just his girlfriend even be charged with a criminal offence, let alone jailed for it?

A prudish, “sexual morality” obsessed Muslim state like Saudi Arabia or Malaysia? The authoritarian and equally prudish Singapore? A communist state waiting for the opportunity to persecute a dissident?

No … modern Britain. The fount of Liberalism.

This is precisely the fate which befell 24 year old Craig Evans, who was sentenced to 18 months jail in Birmingham. How could this be, you might well ask?

He is a swimming teacher. As such, amongst his contacts were a 13 and a 14 year old girl. The explicit text also found its way to them and so some idiot copper consequently decided to charge him with inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Surely incitement must require intent. How could there be such an act as negligent incitement?

Which idiot(s) at the CPS allowed this case to proceed? They should be named and required to publicly justify their actions to the citizens they serve.

Why didn't the original judge throw the case out?

Why did the appeal judges not quash the sentence altogether? Instead, they simply reduced the sentence to nine months, wholly suspended. Craig Evans still has a conviction for a sexual offence against children. He will be on a sexual offenders’ register for the rest of his life. His career is destroyed, as he will never be able to work with children again.

For what? A mistake using his mobile phone. There is nothing more sinister here: the offending message was sent to his entire contact list, including his parents. It was clearly accidental.

How does this farce in any way represent justice? Would any of the people involved, who allegedly represent the justice system, have lost a wink of sleep?

Of course not. They will all keep plodding along, moronically ruining more people’s lives as they go.

That Craig Evans was even charged at all is a travesty. His life has effectively been ruined. He should be able to sue for wrongful prosecution and defamation. The police who laid the charge, the CPS prosecutors who pursued it and the judge who sentenced him should all be sacked. How can such people possibly be trusted in positions where they have the power to destroy lives with accusations?

It is a good example of the justice system being taken over by morons and mindless bureaucrats. The separation of the powers of parliament, the judiciary and the executive is a long and deeply held principle in Western democracies. However it is being destroyed in the country of its origin as the police, CPS and judiciary become infected with the disease of nanny state politics.

This is not simply an occasional perverse outcome from badly framed legislation in a blind justice system: it is tyranny.

We usually think of tyranny in the organized form of the totalitarian police states of the communists or Nazis or Robespierre’s Republic. But tyranny is usually not so well organized. In modern, Western societies, it is arising via the correlation of the actions of hand wringing nanny staters and social democratic ideologues, mindless bureaucrats, arse covering jobsworths and cynical, careerist politicians, all aided by interconnected databases and lazy media.

This is the tyranny which charged and convicted Craig Evans. No Stalin, Hitler or Robespierre signing death warrants. Not even a hegemonic conspiracy. Just gutless, mindless stupidity, flowing from one idiot to the next within a channel of either ideologically based or fearful, reactionary legislation, all incompetently written.

In the police states of the Communist era, had a man been falsely accused of a child sex offence on a spurious construction and interpretation of “facts”, most people would not have believed it. It would have been done as a warning to dissidents or vindictively as a result of a personal dispute. The prosecution would have been seen as an act of raw political power. This enemy is known and does not even attempt to hide itself; in fact, it makes itself known at every opportunity.

But in Craig Evans’ case, the enemy is not a unified, coherent entity: it is the combination of the above mentioned nanny staters, bureaucrats and careerists with the fear, apathy and stupidity of the citizens who could organize and vote this crap out, but don’t bother.

Who will fight to clear Craig Evans’ name … to have his conviction overturned, his name removed from the various databases and the media print the story of his innocence such that a significant proportion of people will actually read it?

Very few could be bothered … too busy with job and family. Life’s pretty tough these days, you know. The lumpen middle class not even realizing that his struggle is their struggle.

In some ways, that tyranny is more terrifying, because we are fighting the willful ignorance within. People pretend it’s not really happening because the alternative is to admit to themselves that they are regularly presented with the opportunity to remove the enemy at the ballot box, yet consistently fail to take it.

Instead, they pretend that the tyranny does not exist: it is a fantasy of conspiracy theorists, Tea Party reactionaries or redneck racists.

TYRANNY DOES NOT REQUIRE A LARGE SCALE CONSPIRACY.

Human societies are complex, self organizing systems. That self organization is not always directed or even initially evident. Tyranny can arise via the unwitting, but persistent correlation of the actions of various people or groups who have different motives. All it takes to become established is for no-one else to organize to stop it.