homo escapeons

Déjà vu all over again

by LORD TENNISANYONE

For those of you unfamiliar with my circumstances I am enjoying a second kick at the cat so to speak and learning about your world in the 21st Century.

I had the misfortune of becoming separated from my closest friend Charlie Darwin during a mishap at Sea. My head became lodged in the Antarctic ice fields and was subsequently discovered and cryogenically preserved..

unfortunately next to that tedious Disney fellow, most unpleasant.

To make a long story short I am convalescing here in the Colonies with a smashingly peculiar chap by the name of Donn.

Like my host I have become quite enamoured with the Telly and this evening we watched yet another educational program on the History Channel, which of course is my favorite.

Tonight's televisual feast was part 4 of Tony Robinson's

Crime And Punishment.

Many of you might recognise Tony Robinson as Baldrick on that delightfully wicked Black Adder series...

one of my absolute favorites!

Tonight's episode was Have I Got Noose For You and it was a brilliant recounting of the Motherland's attempts to deal with the hordes of great unwashed Commoners from the countryside who so rudely stampeded into London in order to work in the factories as the Industrial Revolution went into high gear. The city became a sullied, bloody, shambles and it wasn't safe for members of the ruling class to walk the bloody streets.

Back 1829 Sir Robert (Bobby) Peel created a civilian Police service for our protection to manage the thieves, scoundrels and hooligans that bred amongst the squalor of the unruly, impoverished, working class...poor miserable bastards had a hell of a time.

The constables became affectionately known as Peelers & Bobbies. What with all the nasty revolution business in France and America one can never be too careful now can one?

The other peculiar notion that evolved was the invention of imprisoning convicts in lieu of hanging them. You see up until then the vast majority of Crimes were punished by frequent public hangings, which, I might add, the mobs seemed to thoroughly enjoy, or by shipping the sods and scoundrels off to the bloody godforsaken Colonies.

Before a Police Force was invented FEAR was the Government's main weapon.

Even the stately court rooms with the elevated seating for the Jury and the Judge who was outfitted in those outrageous poncy costumes & ridiculous wigs, were designed to strike terror into the souls of the defendents.

However, Voltaire, Locke and especially that upstart Jeremy Bloody Bentham, started going on about modern rehabilitation for offenders!

Apparently Bentham is still preserved in a wooden, bloody, dresser in University College London..

bloody showoff!

Now this was of particular interest to Donn because Canada is presently engaged in a Federal Election that has the entire country sliding into a somnambulistic torpor...

My Word, the Canucks are too mesmorized by the garish political pageantry to the South in the USA. Not only do women get to vote, now they can even run for President..or Vice President and just wait a few weeks before they become President.

This week in Canada the reigning Conservative Party led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the only member allowed to actually speak to the media, announced that they will abolish the almost universally despised Young Offenders Act which most people perceive as a collossal failure of biblical proportions.

He vows to bring Justice into the Legal System and return to the halcyon days of processing and incarcerating violent young offenders like any other bloody criminal. The general public has become exasperrated by the kid-glove treatment of the violent little twats, who for several decades now, have been anonymously shuffled through the revolving doors of a slap on the wrist legal system...and a stern warning of and don't do it again!

Criminal gangs use this gaping loophole to encourage and force the teflon kiddie-criminals to commit serious offences for them. Naturally I pointed out that products of hardscrabble broken Families burdened by multi-generational Poverty andfailure to procure Educations are largely to blame for their abysmal predicament.

So apparently the quaint notion of reforming violent criminals (of any age) has come full circle. Donn believes that this hot button issue may actually secure a Conservative Majority a few weeks from now...they are leading in the polls.

Crime maybe 5th on the list of issues lead by the Economy, Environment pffft yeah right as if, Healthcare, and Afghanistan, but sweet sweet revenge is a universal crowd pleaser and an easy avenue for the working class to vent their frustration and lash out.

Isn't it peculiar that after 200 years Jeremy Bloody Bentham's peculiar notion that prisoners of any age can be rehabilitated and re-enter society may be coming to an end...is the return of the Death Penalty far behind?

Plus Ça Change Plus C'Est La Même Chose.