rook

In this post: 'Rook makes a confession in order to fuel a rant.'

I spent most of Monday sitting in Brisbane Magistrates Court. My matter was dealt with in seconds but in the time I waited I saw a few examples of how much our legal system is fucked, and by 'fucked' I mean so bound up in useless bureaucracy and formality that it no longer has anything to do with justice.

There was a man who made an emotional appearance for breaking an Apprehended Violence Order (basically a restraining order) that his wife has against him. Now I will grant that anyone who breaks an AVO and menaces someone else SHOULD see the inside of a courtroom for it. This fellow's crime? Texting his wife during one of Brisbane's recent violent storms to make sure that his kids were OK and not too scared by the storm raging around them. For this he had to face a magistrate, like some sort of criminal. That. Is. Fucked. Luckily in this instance the judge seemed to share my opinion as, after a few minutes obviously struggling with procedure versus common sense, he dismissed the matter with no penalty or conviction recorded. Chalk one up for logic, but the man shouldn't have had to be there in the first place.

The second instance I want to vent is the older, part aboriginal woman who was brought, handcuffed, into the courtroom and placed into what amounts to a perspex cage. Her crime? Nothing. Seriously. Nothing. At one point the prosecuting officer openly admitted that there were no charges pending against this woman. For all I could see, while watching intently and actively trying to discern some reason for her being there, she had been arrested, incarcerated and brought to face court for being homeless. VOLUNTARILY homeless, no less! This makes my blood boil. WHAT IN THE FREAKING FUCK does the law think it's doing when a completely harmless elderly lady is marched into court for choosing not to spend her meager resources on a fixed abode. AND WHY THE FUCK DID SHE NEED TO BE HANDCUFFED!!

And then, while I didn't see this first hand, it REALLY isn't helping my state of mind on the matter: Man threatened with arrest for capturing police action on camera.

My brother is a police officer and I really struggle with that sometimes, so deep is my loathing for everything blue and white.