The Angry Exile: Do as we say, not as we do.

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Wednesday, 20 August 2008

Do as we say, not as we do.

Also on the subject of policing, and also from the Telegraph, we have this gem.

Man arrested for challenging police who ignored no entry sign.
A man was arrested and locked in a cell for five hours after he took a photograph of a police officer who had ignored a no entry road sign.

I know, the mind boggles.

Andrew Carter, a plumber, has now received an apology from the officer and from the Deputy Chief Constable Rob Beckley, of Avon and Somerset police.

I should fucking well think so too. As is clear from the article this guy saw a police vehicle pull up and reverse through no entry signs into a one way street. Yes, they were on police business but no, it wasn't an emergency. They were just going to view some CCTV footage and were too fucking lazy to drive around the block and/or had seen a parking space and were keen to get it before someone else because... well probably they were too fucking lazy to walk that far. It might also be said too fucking thick to work out that one of them could get out and save the space while the other drove around the block, but ooooh maybe it wasn't a nice day and they might have got their hats wet or something. Instead the attitude seems to be that the law... well, fuck it, that's something we apply to the little people, innit? Hypocritical bastard wouldn't have thought twice about doing an ordinary motorist, and rightly so. But this guy seems to think that his uniform is a license to do as he likes and then arrest anyone who points out the hypocrisy:

Mr Carter, 44, said he pointed out the 'no entry' sign to the officer who swore at him and told him he was on 'police business'.
The passerby then took a photograph of the van through the window of the chip shop.
He claimed the officer smashed the camera from his hand. He was then handcuffed, arrested and bundled into the back of a van. It was alleged he had "assaulted" the officer with his camera, resisted arrest, and was drunk and disorderly.
"When I took the photograph he came running out, battered the camera from my hand onto the floor and arrested me for three crimes, none of which I had committed. All I had done was to photograph these police officers doing something illegal."
Mr Carter, who has not been charged with any offence, was taken to a police station where he was kept for five hours before being freed on police bail.
When he returned to answer bail the following week, with his solicitor, he said he was kept at the station for another five hours.

I'm sure the majority of coppers are fair minded professionals and I do hope they're all decently appalled by this. But at least the officer was disciplined and the DCC's letter of apology says:

We expect the highest standards of our officers and PC Farooq fell below what was required. I know that his colleagues feel he let us down and he has learnt a difficult lesson.
"He realises his actions were totally unacceptable and he could and should have apologised to you much earlier.
"His performance will be monitored in the future. I will be meeting him in the next few weeks and will reinforce our expectations of his behaviour.

Doesn't sound like he's done his career prospects any favours, but then his reaction to a member of the public who'd noticed him break the law was to arrest the poor bugger on trumped up charges. Over a fairly minor offence too (though certainly not worth committing in the first place). So pointless and probably avoidable if he'd accepted what Mr Carter had said and apologised. Knob.

Mr Carter said he was "relatively" happy with the apology but he pursuing a claim for compensation for wrongful arrest.
"As long as the police officer acknowledged what he did was wrong and apologised to me then I didn't want him to be sacked," he said.

Fucking good. I hope he is properly compensated for having his camera smacked on to the floor, being sworn at, being arrested on trumped up charges and held for several hours. I'm not such an Angry Exile that I'd want the guy sacked either, but Mr Carter was treated like shit on the baseless accusation of an arrogant cop and amends should be made.