Metro, Tuesday 25 August 2026
Mohammad Alturk, 39, a Jordanian asylum seeker who fled police in an uninsured BMW, was caught with eight wraps of cocaine, and had been stopped with drugs weeks earlier without being charged, was given a community resolution rather than prosecution at that time, Basildon court heard. He admitted possession, explaining he had used cocaine to cope with stress but had since stopped. He was fined £120 and ordered to pay a £48 court surcharge. Outside court he smiled, gave a thumbs up, and declared: "All the best for all British! Love!" His asylum application is pending.
Two stops, weeks apart, for what the court heard was the same underlying behaviour, produced two different official responses: a community resolution the first time, a fine and surcharge the second. Neither outcome was automatic. Each was a decision made by someone with discretion to make it, presented afterwards as simply what the process required.
When enforcement occurs, it can be presented as a procedural consequence rather than a discretionary choice.The Performance of Obedience, Ch. 2
This entry treats two stops for the same underlying conduct, weeks apart, resolved through two entirely different mechanisms, as an illustration of the manuscript's account of enforcement presented as automatic consequence when it was, at each point, a choice.