Coronavirus and fines

Firstly, hey, how are you? It's been like two years since I last bothered to write a blog post (well, one for this blog anyway) but this seemed like as good a time as any to get writing again.

I'll do a proper post at some point about whats been going on with me, but I wanted to start by writing some words about the latest social distancing measures.

If you live in the UK, you've almost definitely heard about the upcoming three-week lockdown that Boris announced last night. There is no question about whether this is the right thing to do. You simply cannot argue with the science and the math.

I personally think it's something that should have come into effect seven days ago. We'd already seen how Italy was decimated by the virus, the UK should have taken stronger action and the PM should have sent a clearer message about how serious the situation was.

The new measures come with the vague threat of fines but even the police themselves don't seem to have the details of how much they will be, what behaviour will receive a fine and when they come into effect. Who needs those kind of details though?

This blog post is going to be a quick unpacking of why fixed-penalty fines are hugely unjust and are essentially only punish those of us who have very little to begin with.

First up, something very simple to understand.

If I get fined £500, I'll have to cut back for six months and probably borrow some money from my parents - I'm pretty privileged in that respect. 

If my boss gets that fine (not my actual boss, just a hypothetical person with a little more privilege) they may have to cut back for three months and dip into their savings.

My CEO (again, not my actual CEO) doesn't think twice about the fine. Chances are they simply expense it because they're super busy, very important and they have to do business things despite the social distancing measures.

If somebody who is living paycheck-to-paycheck gets a £500 fine, they may have to decide between huge overdraft fees or extortionate payday lending. If they're in an unstable living situation, they may find themselves homeless. They may have to choose between paying that fine and paying for food that month.

Who knows what the situation would be for somebody who is currently homeless. Do they get fined simply because they have nowhere to go? What if somebody is in an abusive relationship and they have to choose between escaping violence or receiving a fine?

And what if somebody can't pay that fine? Well, according to a 2015 paper from the US, up to 20% of the prison population were only there because they hadn't paid a penalty fine. I know that's not a perfect representation of the UK prison population but this is just a quick post and I don't have time to dive deep into the numbers.

Have the Government said that people could be arrested if they don't pay these penalty fines? Not yet, but as I mentioned, details about the system are scarce and there will need to be some punishment for non-payment - or else why would anybody pay?

So, now you're getting a picture of how fixed-penalty fines unfairly punish people who have less capital. Let's look quickly at how they'll likely target people of colour too.

Again, we don't have much detail about the fines but what we do know is that they're going to be given at the police's discretion.

Key-workers aren't included in the lockdown and guidelines suggest that everybody is allowed outside once a day for exercise. People will still need to work, unless their place of business is closed and they can work at home. Everybody has to eat and drink, so infrequent trips to the shop are allowed.

None of the above is something that can be judged by a cop on sight. They'll see somebody outside of the house and have to make a judgement about whether or not that person should be outside. It's essentially stop-and-search, except there's no search involved, just a fine.

And, spoiler alert, stop-and-search is a racist practice that has disproportionately punished people of colour since it began.

Unless the entire police force has managed to fixed their unconscious biases, people of colour are up to 40% more likely to be targeted by this kind of discretionary policing.

Don't think that's relevant? If police have been shown to disproportionately assume people of colour are worth stopping-and-search, do you honestly believe they're more likely to see a black teen or a white teen as a potential key-worker?

Do you think a cop in a mostly white suburb is going to notice the same black teen exercising twice a day or the same white ten exercising twice a day?

So, what can we do right now to make this fairer?

Firstly, contact your local MP and police force to voice your concerns. This may be a token gesture, but it's takes like two minutes and you can literally ctrl-c-ctrl-v bits of the blog post. You're welcome.

Secondly, pay attention to the news and the crime numbers. When more details about the measures are released, be ready to respond. Make sure you know what our rights our regarding the measures, so you can exercise those rights when necessary. And, when they start reporting on how effective these measures are, be ready to dissent.

Thirdly, support organisations that provide legal and financial aid to the less fortunate. At some point, I'm going to do a whole post about rad charities you can support.

Finally, if you have any level of privilege and you see someone with less privilege being hassled by the cops make sure you step in. Make sure that person understands what their rights. Challenge the cops about what it was that made this person suspicious. Ask why you didn't attract the same level of suspicion.