Support the Oldbury One!
Sunday, August 22, 2010 Last week the Sunday Mercury reported that an elderly widow had been handed a fixed penalty of £75 for dropping cigarette ash on the pavement and threatened with a fine of £2,500 if she doesn't pay. Several newspapers, including the Telegraph, picked up the story, as I reported HERE.
Blogger Anna Raccoon, who initiated the campaign that got Nick Hogan released from jail, has vowed to help Sheila Martin, 70, in any way she can. Sheila, she says, will go to prison (if she fails to pay the fine) "over my dead body".
Anna has more to say HERE. For the record, this is what I told the Mercury when I spoke to their reporter on Thursday:
“What is happening to [Sheila] is just another example of the bully state.
“Smokers are easy targets and while we do not condone littering, this case is just a complete overreaction by Sandwell Council.
“We will not allow this old lady to be bullied and we will do everything we can to help her.”
Reader Comments (11)
I wonder how many people have succumbed to the bullying and just paid their fines?
I would be happy to pay into a general fighting fund on an ongoing basis as long as maximum exposure was given to each case to highlight the consequences of demonisation of smokers.
This brings me to another point I've been thinking about. We bemoan the fact that the tobacco control lobby is so well-funded but I wonder if anyone has ever considered leaving a gift in their will to our side? I'm thinking particularly of those who are liable to pay inheritance tax Gifts in wills to registered charities are excluded from the calculation of liability; if the gift is made to a body which isn't a registered charity then, as long as the gift has been made seven years or more before death, again it's excluded when calculating the tax liability.
I will offer any support to Sheila Martin, either individually or via my blog.
I actually wrote to the Sandwell authoritarians about this midweek.
Am glad to see that the matter will not be left to rest and that we can build a supportive community to protect persecuted individuals like this poor lady.
Just goes to show how this country has been sold down the river to Europe by cowards and traitors.
What seems daft to me Peter is that whenever we have been in Spain or Majorca on holiday or visiting friends, there is never an issue with people dropping cigarette butts in the street, despite there usually being more bins available most of which are suitable for the disposal of cigarette butts. In fact, most European countries seem to be proud of their streets and surroundings and in order to maintain and continue to grow the tourist industry they just get on and provide the people with the correct equipment to clean the streets, mostly done during the early morning so that each day starts with clean streets and beeches.
Not only that, but it also seems that other European countries do not go so far with their health and safety as we are told Europe says we have to! Most shopkeepers in many European countries, as well as housewives, wash the street outside of their shop and home, with mop, bucket and water. I am sure that the H&S jobsworths would be down on anyone here doing that in case someone slipped on the wet or had their clothes splashed with the water!
We, in Britain, seem to be the mad saps that lap all this European crap up and then employ the absolute Jobsworth to carry out the 'orders' of Europe the the nth degree!
When the hell are we going to wake up and stand up for the same rights that the rest of the European Union seems to benefit from?
As for this particular story; I was listening to the debate on Radio 2 when they had Nigel Farage on and some 'puritan' (as Nigel called him) from government. Nigel spoke well and, I believe, used just the right amount of sarcasm and disgust that this other chap deserved, especially when he asked what this person was doing even smoking in or near a bus shelter? (or something along those lines).
How dare he question anyone partaking of a legal product or doing a legal act in public? As Nigel stated, more people are smoking in the street because the previous government saw fit to throw them out of any other venue where they previously could smoke with no concessions given whatsoever!
To finish; our local market has removed the recepticle for cigarette ends from outside the premises 'because of the smell'!
Nobody would 'condone littering' as Simon puts it but since when has the ash from one fag been termed litter? putting the fag end out on the street could, just about, be called that but the ash from one fag? It's normally blown away and dispersed within seconds. I'd try arguing it couldn't be termed 'litter'.
Target culture? or just a bitter and sanctimonious little t*rd?
O Brave New World........................................!
(That has SUCH people in't)
Does no one else beside me see that this is simply propaganda? Why on earth would such a thing appear in a national newspaper? It is obvious that the whole thing was engineered. Make a splash and then withdraw. The whole thing is a trick!
Use your brains and simply totally and utterly ignore it. Make no statements at all. The possibility of this matter actually going to court is beneath contempt.
Since there is, presumably, no evidence (tobacco ash), then she really ought to sue the council for harassment. What right did the council official have to approach her and remonstrate with her?
I would not pay a penny towards her fine, but I would contribute a tenner to the cost of suing the bastards!
That is the problem, you see. For some unaccountable reason, we accept that these people have a right to approach us, when, in fact, they have no such right at all!
Thankfully, the official worm is beginning to turn - very slowly. We see the gradual removal of speed cameras and mumbo-jumbo street furniture. But there is a long way to go until the Gov gets rid of all the 'quangos' which produce this shit.
You mirror my thoughts on this exactly Junican. These silly little twerps with their propaganda machines in full swing against the most vulnerable victims in our society; old people, pensioners, hospital patients. Can you imagine one of these nasty little thugs approaching 2 or 3 young men who were smoking at a bus stop? Of course they wouldn't, the bottom would literally fall from out of their trousers if they were confronted by someone who could stand up to their intimidation and threats.
The one problem where I believe you have got it wrong, is where you say "there is, presumably, no evidence (tobacco ash)" From what I understand in matters like this, these thug's words alone are accepted as bona-fide evidence. They saw it (so they say) so that alone is enough for a conviction. It couldn't possibly happen in any other legal case; all evidence is worthless unless it can be corroborated in some way. Take the police with speeding fines, they have to be caught on camera or at least witnessed by more than one police officer, but here we have an elderly woman being wrongly accused of littering, when there cannot possibly be one iota of physical evidence against her, just the "word" of a thug!
Regarding contributing towards her fine, I do not see this as doing any good whatsoever, as these thugs do not care where the money comes from, as long as they get it. It would suit them perfectly if everyone they harassed and threatened had a queue of people waiting in line to pay their victims extortionate fines.
What we need here is not an open cheque book for paying fines, but an open line to free legal advice, and a string of freedom believing journalists, ready to take on the bullies and extortionists, and show them up for what they are.
But there are 'rules of evidence' in any criminal case, which this, if it went to the Mags, is. This is not 'balance of probability' but 'beyond reasonable doubt'. This is, also, notwithstanding my previous point about the definition of 'litter'.
Could be fun.
Another thought just struck me concerning the so-called litter that is the fine ash dropped off the end of a cigarette, which this poor woman, and I am sure hundreds, if not thousands of others are being criminalised with depositing on our streets.
There was a case reported in the papers last week regarding a young toddler, who was playing on the grass in her local park (I think) and somehow or other managed to come into contact with dog's excrement. If this wasn't bad enough, the excrement found its way into the poor child's eyes, and according to the paper, she could even lose her sight because of this.
OK, before you start shouting at me that we cannot start prosecuting dogs and cats for fouling our parks with their 'mess', I know this, and I also know that their owners can be quite rightly prosecuted for allowing it.
But, where I live in Blackheath, there is another type of 'litter', which I am sure is equally as dangerous as the dog and cat excrement, and far more disgusting to see on our streets than the minute amount of cigarette ash, that these ridiculous councils are prosecuting our law abiding citizens for dropping.
The 'litter' I am talking about is quite literally horse s**t, or as garden and animal lovers like to call it, 'manure'. And it is deposited on our streets by horses in the employ of the Metropolitan Police, and ridden by police officers who knowingly let their animals defecate wherever they walk, with no attempt whatsoever to clear it up.
Why can't the mounted police officers carry something similar to the 'doggy-doo' bags which ordinary responsible citizens have to carry when they take their pets for a walk, and scoop up their horse's excrement, instead of letting it lie there in our streets, stinking, and possibly endangering young children?
This is 'real' litter on our streets, yet these villains are allowed to get away with it, while a 70 year old woman is criminalised for dropping something which is invisible to the naked eye, and cannot possibly cause any harm to anyone.
LOL, Peter, they'd have to carry sacks - mind you it could prove an effective weapon if l;aunched at a crim. I believe that some entrepreneurial types shovel it up to sell to gardeners....