The Angry Exile: The attitude alone should be worth an extra couple of years

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

Thursday, 24 November 2011

The attitude alone should be worth an extra couple of years - UPDATED

Norman Stanley Fletcher, you have pleaded guilty to the charges brought by this court, and it is now my duty to pass sentence. You are an habitual criminal who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard, presumably accepting imprisonment in the same casual manner. We therefore feel constrained to commit you to the maximum term allowed for these offences: you will go to prison for five years.

From the titles of Porridge

Of course that was from both fiction and another time. These days an habitual criminal can look forward to having to write a letter, and even though that's likely to be a tortuous exercise with many products of the British educamakayshun system at least one burglar has treated it with the contempt it deserves and not even taken the trouble to disguise his equal contempt for his victims.

Now on one or two levels he's actually doing everyone a favour. You can't argue with the advice of a professional thieving little bastard as far as things like curtains and open windows go, and since we can expect his attitude towards this so called punishment - apparently described as the most rigorous form of non-custodial sentence for young criminals, which I guess means there's no help with the spelling and punctuation - to be shared by many who do take the trouble to hide it and go away smirking to themselves this guy's open display of contempt tells us what a pointless waste of fucking time it is for someone like him. It's probably not intentional but in effect his twisted form of honesty is a kind of public service, so he probably deserves some kind of thank you.

I'd suggest a few years bed, board and possible buggery in HMP Slade.

UPDATE - Same with more serious crimes if the Ambush Predator's latest post is any indication.

"Mr Hussini was punched by two of them, who then held him back while the defendant leant forward and stabbed him in the stomach."
Yes, you heard that right – they held him while this little savage stabbed him in the stomach.Is that not attempted murder?

The boy handed himself in to police the following day and pleaded guilty in court to wounding with intent and possessing an offensive weapon.

Sentencing the youngster to a two-year detention and training order, Judge Hamilton said: "But for the fact that there was a surgeon living nearby, the man you stabbed would have died."
A two-year detention and training order. For stabbing someone in the stomach…

This country is doomed.

This Private Frasier-itis I've come down with seems to be catching, but perhaps we're being unfair. I suppose it's not attempted murder if someone is only slightly stabbed. /sarc

Comments (8)

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Macheath · 696 weeks ago

This is, I suppose, the natural consequence of two decades of 'child-centred learning' - a doctrine that relies on the theory erroneously popularised by Esther Rantzen as 'children do not lie' and, by extension, only misbehave as a result of inadequacies in the way adults have cared for them; it's always someone else's fault.

Add to that a constant drip-feed of adverts and TV programmes showing children getting the better of unintelligent adults - and how many times have you heard a parent exclaim 'Silly Daddy!' to a young and impressionable child? - and you have the patronising and exploitative attitude to adults so charmingly displayed here.

My recent post Empty Vessels

1 reply · active 696 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 696 weeks ago

Don't know if it's child centred learning as such because there are home educators doing something very much like that and turning out bright, well behaved young adults. Child centred institutionalised learning, on the other hand, sounds like chaos. I can't see an approach that works with one or two kids at a time working with 30 or so, mainly because there's still only one adult involved.

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Macheath · 696 weeks ago

i agree - the problem I have is not with the concept per se but in the way it has become a handy catchphrase (hence quotes - but I should have made it clearer) on which educational theoreticians have built a whole house of interactive flashcards, with a built-in presumption that all children are predisposed to cooperate and follow the rules.

You hit the nail on the head with your distinction; there is simply no way that one teacher can provide a tailored curriculum for each child in a large class, even without the necessity of maintaining discipline as well. it's the same woolly thinking that requires teachers to be designated 'facilitators and learners', undermining any vestige of respect childern might have for age, authority or superior knowledge.
My recent post Empty Vessels

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microdave · 696 weeks ago

Yes he may be an odious little shit, and the system's broken, but that gave me the best larf I've had for days when I read it earlier!

And authorities often employ former criminals to give talks on home security...

1 reply · active 696 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 696 weeks ago

I admit I chuckled at how he had two tries at 'know' and failed to spell it correctly or even consistently.

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Twisted Root · 696 weeks ago

Suggested householder reply:

Dear Random Little Scrote,

Congratulations. You are everything the state expected of you. To say that you do not feel sorry for me is refreshingly honest, but I feel sorry for you. My mistake was to leave the kitchen window open. Your mistake was to be born in late twentieth century Britain.

You clearly have a long and varied career ahead of you being made to do dumb things like writing letters of non-apology by the same people who didn't even manage to teach you how to write. You are going nowhere (least of all prison) because the careers of so many depend upon it. If you haven't already, perhaps you could see your way to acquiring an addiction and keep a few more people in well paid employment.

(cont)

My recent post Top Ten Reasons the Mafia is Better than the State

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Twisted Root · 696 weeks ago

Forgive my cynicism, but the few meagre chattels you removed from my possesion during your escapade pale into insignificance next to the taxes extorted from me to pay the people who keep you as stupid and ill informed as you are now.

My one consolation is that your future is assured and it involves dying alone on the street, riddled with disease, body ravaged by years of addiction. Life sucks, eh. At least yours does.

Yours sincerely,

Dumb Householder.
My recent post Top Ten Reasons the Mafia is Better than the State

1 reply · active 696 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 696 weeks ago

Excellent. Worth printing out and handing to burglars upon conviction. Or possibly stencilling on thousands of cricket bats and twatting them in the eyes with them.

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