The Angry Exile: Not a police state? Yeah, sure...

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

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Not a police state? Yeah, sure...

This simply beggars belief.

Jacqui Smith was embroiled in another row over the Big Brother state last night after admitting that a baby had its DNA recorded on the national database.

What?

The Home Secretary said the child was aged under one at the time its profile was taken by police and stored.

Whaaaat??

Liberal Democrat spokesman Chris Huhne said: 'It is illegal, immoral and ineffective to keep the DNA of a baby on a national police database as if they had committed some felony.'

What the fuck? It's so outrageous that even the ilLiberal Democrat Chris Huhne has taken time out from his busy schedule opposing free speech to condemn the retention of a baby's DNA by the authorities.

Changes to the law forced through by Labour have allowed the police to take samples as soon as a person is arrested, then keep it permanently even if they are later cleared of wrongdoing.

But, with the age of criminal responsibility set at ten in England and Wales, there are no circumstances in which this can have happened to a baby.

Yeah, I was wondering that myself. The Mail speculates:

The most likely explanation is that the sample was taken from the baby at a crime scene at which they were present, such as the family home, in order to avoid any confusion. Mr Huhne said it should have been immediately destroyed.

Chris ~~Loon~~ is absolutely right. There is no fucking excuse whatsoever for this. I can imagine a situation such as the Mail suggests in which DNA needs to be taken for elimination purposes, but once that's achieved its aim it must be destroyed without delay. Bad enough - and don't get me wrong, it's very bad indeed - that DNA is kept when people are simply charged. Not actually convicted, but just charged. But as said, under tens can't be charged with anything anyway. Is it paranoid or cynical to suppose that if this hadn't come to light the bastards would have kept that DNA record along with those of the other million or so children on the database?

Honest to Christ, pick a dictator. Any dictator you like. Now tell me that they wouldn't have traded parts of their anatomy to be able to do this sort of shit?

H/T to a poster called "sinister" at Nanny Knows Best.

UPDATE: I wonder.... just noticed this on the UK Libertarian Party unofficial blog:

Dr Butler found that in just one year - 2006/7 - half of the 722,464 DNA samples collected by the police came from children, including a seven-month old girl.

And what I'm wondering if this is the child mentioned in the Daily Wail article, which said:

The Home Secretary said the child was aged under one at the time its profile was taken by police and stored...

Miss Smith, revealing that the sample had been stored, said: 'As at November 26, 2008, the youngest person with a profile on the NDNAD was aged under one and the oldest was over 90.'

If it is the same child then they kept the DNA for at least 18 months and possibly over two years. Alternatively, if it's not the same child that means they've done it more than once. Either way, what utter utter bastards.