The tough approach taken by Mr van der Laan ... reflects hardening attitudes to routine anti-social behaviour that falls short of criminality
I have grave concerns regarding governments taking this action. The point to formalized laws and courts is to ensure that the rules are clear, and not abused. A system like this removes the clarity of having predefined laws; anti-social behaviour is defined after the fact opening the system to huge abuses.
Effectively, people of Amsterdam can be jailed on undefined grounds.
"The new rules will only be enforced in extreme cases". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20599036
From the BBC article:
if gay people are being harassed or police witnesses intimidated
Surely this is already illegal, and there are laws that would allow police to move a case such as this to the courts. If the behaviour is not illegal, why is it not illegal? If the behaviour is not illegal, why are people being imprisoned for it?
If people aren't coming forward because they are intimidated, the only solution would be for secret courts.... that can't be a good idea.