The Angry Exile: Guilty 'til proven innocent

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

Monday, 7 November 2011

Guilty 'til proven innocent

I was going to blog on the arrest (with free strip search thrown in) in Germany of Tracey Molamphy on a charge she knew nothing about relating to an incident involving someone she was with more than 12 years earlier, but SadbutMadLad has already done a thorough job on it over at The Raccoon Arms.

Was she unlawfully arrested? No, because the EAW is law. Was she unfairly treated by the German police? No, they were following their lawful procedures. So if everything was above board and followed the law what was wrong? The fact that no evidence needs to be shown to back up the extradition request.

The only thing I'll add is that thanks to the European Arrest Warrant and its provision for detention with absolutely no prima facie evidence, and of course the feckless politicians who signed the UK up to it, that nasty little phrase 'Guilty 'til proven innocent' effectively applies to everyone living in the UK. For that matter it applies to everyone else in the world who might visit any part of Europe - if a British citizen can be picked up in Germany over an incident in Portugal then there's no reason why an American or an Aussie or a Japanese tourist visiting London couldn't be arrested over a years old accusation they no nothing about in a completely different part of Europe. Any protection that might be afforded by a statute of limitations will depend on which country issued the warrant since many don't have one.

'Kinell!

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John Galt · 698 weeks ago

Indeed, this was always the expected outcome of the European Arrest Warrant and the European Investigation Order.

This together with the increasing computerization of records at airport points of entry is one of the reasons why I am reluctant to fly in Europe or interact with any government in any way, shape or form. As Johnathan Pearce over at Samizdata quite frequently points out "The state is not your friend". Personally I would go much, much further and say that both the UK and its joint sovereignty partner (whatever the fuck that peice of transnationalist bollocks I came across at the weekend ACTUALLY means) are the enemy and should be treated as such.

This means living outside the European Union and (when I do need to travel), flying into and out of a neutral country such as Switzerland (although how much longer that will be possible is difficult to say). Once in Switzerland, get a train to whereever I need to go - paying in cash.

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John Galt · 698 weeks ago

Sure, its a pain in the arse, but it means the arse, but at least I don't have to be groped by a bunch of fascists with the IQ and personality of a Edwardian era toilet attendant. However, I suspect that I won't be able to do even this much for much longer. I suspect that the level of state security theatre that we see at airports will soon be appearing at our international train stations as well as their "If you've got nothing to hide you've got nothing to fear" bullshit.

2 replies · active 698 weeks ago

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SadButMadLad · 698 weeks ago

Airport style security is already at some train stations. Bath station had it for a trail period.
http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/home/2011/10/fu...

PS. Thanks for the link AE, next time I drop in on OZ I'll buy you a drink ;-)
My recent post Road Safety Ambulance Chasers

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Angry_Exile 90p · 698 weeks ago

Jeez, that's recent too. This bloody security theatre sham is getting really out of hand now.

You're welcome for the link, by the way. Was a good post.

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John Galt · 698 weeks ago

When someone like Tracey Molamphy can get arrested and thrown in jail for 2-weeks and have to spend £20,000 in legal costs based upon a set of bullshit charges trumped up in a 3rd world country then we've got a problem. That problem is that automatic assumption of equivelence between European Justice systems. In actual fact she's just lucky that it was Germany where she was arrested (which has a modern attitude to prisoners being held pending extradition), it could easily have been some shithole toilet like Romania or Bulgaria.

This is why I left the European Union and why even when I return to work (to pay for my glorious lifestyle in the far east), I make every effort to avoid getting dragged into the EU's draconian data web.

1 reply · active 698 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 698 weeks ago

Agreed with all, JG. And I think we're past the stage now where one bullshit expression can be almost reversed: if you've got something to fear from the state then it's worth trying to hide.

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