The Angry Exile: Worse than PCSOs?

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 1 September 2010

Worse than PCSOs?

What do you think?

THE state opposition is demanding an inquiry to determine whether the Victorian government tried to falsely boost a police presence on the streets by using public servants to drive marked police cars.

Peter Ryan, the state opposition spokesman for police matters, also wants an inquiry to investigate "allegations of interference in operational matters".

The push for a probe follows allegations by former police media adviser Stephen Linnell that the state government planned to put police logos on unmarked cars, which would be driven by unsworn staff. Mr Linnell quit the force in 2007 after he was targeted in an Office of Police Integrity inquiry into the leaking of confidential information that allegedly compromised a murder investigation.

Mr Linnell, former head of the force's media unit, said yesterday that the government wanted ''to increase the number of marked vehicles that were out driving around the streets''.

"One of their ideas was to actually just put Victoria Police logos on the side of the unmarked vehicles," he told ABC radio. "That was a government initiative, that came to us, and it came to the corporate committee.

"That had a number of problems, because quite often you have unsworn or civilian staff who drive those vehicles, and if they're driving around and perhaps drive past an accident, or are flagged down by members of the public, they certainly can't do anything."

Yes, that is a bit of a downside. But if some of the behaviour of PCSOs in the UK is anything to go by the upside for civil liberties is also that they can't do anything.

Hmmmm.

5 comments:

Bucko said...: Reminds me a the carboard cutout of a copper that they used in a superstore to deter crime - that was promptly stolen.; 1 September 2010 at 21:11
Angry Exile said...: Shame. Would have been worth more than some PCSOs.; 1 September 2010 at 21:50
Gordon the Fence Post Tortoise said...: The Force's MEDIA Unit? That'd be right next door to Sales & Marketing then?

Oh, FFS ... right yep, those are the fearless crime fighters that here (SW UK) responded to a local plague of wee hours drunken car boot, roof and bonnet jumping, house window smashing, wheelie bin emptying and threatening carry ons by putting up some posters (2)and buying advertising on our local radio stations "you're very naughty boys" in a Michael Palin nasal granny voice.

I can foretell their next step - a few burglaries = they'll be buying TV adverts - simples this detective lark.; 2 September 2010 at 04:59
JuliaM said...: "THE state opposition is demanding an inquiry to determine whether the Victorian government tried to falsely boost a police presence on the streets by using public servants to drive marked police cars."

Given this (sent to me by MacHeath) maybe they were just trying to cut down on repair bills?; 2 September 2010 at 14:51
Angry Exile said...: Not much help here, I reckon. People who can park seem to be in a minority here, and to be honest I've sometimes left it a short walk from the kerb myself because of worrying about my alloys on a giant kerbstone that you need a sherpa to get over. But regular car parks here are full of cars looking like they were valet parked by Stevie Wonder. It might be sexist of me to blame it mainly on school run mummies but in fact it's Mrs Exile's observation, not mine. And I'm sure she's right.; 2 September 2010 at 20:02