REPEAL BAD LAWS
There is a role for the government in keeping people safe from actual criminals. But some of our laws, like the public order Act, don’t keep people safe. The public order Act punishes peaceful meetings, protests, demonstrations or rallies and other activities unlikely to be performed with criminal intent.
The absence of criminal intent should be taken more seriously by our politicians, legislators and other leaders. With a law like the public order Act which punishes you without you having intent to commit a crime on our statute books, the old adage that “ignorance of the law is no excuse” no longer makes sense. Therefore, government should regularly repeal laws, like the public order Act, we no longer need. Although there are some exceptions, criminal intent or mens rea is an essential element of most crimes. Under the common law, all crimes consisted of an act carried out with a guilty mind. In modern society, criminal intent can be the basis for fault, and punishment according to intent is a core premise of criminal justice.
Crimes that have an “evil” intent are malum in se and subject the defendant to the most severe punishment. Crimes that lack the intent element are less common and are usually graded lower, as either misdemeanors or infractions. Malice aforethought is a special common-law intent designated for only one crime: murder. The definition of malice aforethought is “intent to kill.” Society considers intent to kill the most evil of all intents, so malice aforethought crimes generally mandate the most severe of punishments, including the death penalty in jurisdictions that allow for it.
To be charged under the public order Act there has been no consideration for criminal intent.
Criminal intent is a necessary component of a “conventional” crime and involves a conscious decision on the part of one party to injure or deprive another. It is one of three categories of “mens rea,” the basis for the establishment of guilt in a criminal case. There are multiple shades of criminal intent that may be applied in situations ranging from outright premeditation to spontaneous action.
It is possible to establish criminal intent even when a crime is not premeditated. Individuals who commit a crime spontaneously may still understand that their actions will cause harm to another party and contravene existing criminal law. In other words, an individual that takes or withholds action with the knowledge that such behaviour will lead to the commission of a crime can be said to possess criminal intent.
Clearly, whichever angle one looks at, the public order Act is very bad law which must be done away, repealed and not amended.
Fred M’membe
President of Socialist Party
For the first Fred has written something with mentioning Mr Hakainde Hichilema, who by the way has never referred to as President. Good points though which he should submit to the committee looking at the repeal of the POA.
Yes it’s bad law for someone to steal $24 million without dying a slow painful death through hanging but instead walk the streets with citizens who lost their loved ones due to lack of medicine at the cancer hospital