Day 190 - Upside Down- Chapter 28 - (1477 words)

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UPSIDE DOWN, BACK TO FRONT

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 28

After

“The thing to be aware of is what we are really going to decide with this trial.” The man speaking exuded calm, confidence and more importantly knowledge. To listen was not to hear, to listen was to accept. That was his skill and his purpose.
“This is not about guilt or innocence, these are outmoded concepts. It is about right and wromg, of course it is. Right and Wrong though? These are arguments, unwinnable and unending.”
His audience paused with him not holding their breath consciously, but certainly matching his rythym as best they could.
“James Hansen put a bullet in Ivan Maxwells eye. That is a fact. James Hansen does not deny this, also a fact. He does not excuse this, also a fact. James dos not make excuses, he barely gives us reasons because he stands behind his actions and takes responsibility for those actions. Also a fact. Don’t let the idea that he is pleading not guilty by any virtue as an excuse or a reason. That is a process for the courts and language that fits like a square peg forced to the proverbial round hole.”
The man stood, pacing as if wrestling a giant thought from inside.
“No. This is not about any of those things, and it’s not even about James Hansen or Ivan Maxwell or his wife Manisha Maxwell, or her brother Samir. It’s not about those people, they are stones on the path we seek. The path to truth and to justice.”
The camera angle widened to show a panel of experts and a studio audience.
“Tonight we’ll sweep away all the debris, the things that you think you know about this case and we present the facts and then the studio audience and ourselves will talk about the thing that the prosecutor, the minster of justice and the judge all refuse to talk about.”
Paused for effect, filled with a close up.
“Justice.”
“We have a QC who has been advising on the case as a consultant, a media commentator and a lecturer in humanities and civil rights from Auckland University. We had invited the minister of justice to join us this evening, but he declined to comment, citing the reason, the same one we’ve all heard before – that it’s inappropriate to discuss a case before the courts. Unafraid to join in this discussion is the opposition spokesperson on Justice and of course you should all know my last panelist as the spokesperson and the most outspoken and supportive member of Family Focussed Sentencing and the man spearheading the campaign to free James Hansen.”
The host moved through the introductions quickly, stopping to joke where he could and take pains to prick at the legal system and the polictians in power before getting quickly to the audience.
“Let’s do a quick poll of the audience and see where our sympathies lie as a country. This audience was carefully selected from extensive research to provide a valid and meaningful cross section of New Zelaand society. A quick show of hands, who here thinks that James Hansen is … well innocent is the wrong word I guess, but perhaps wrongly imprisoned? Who thinks James Hansen belongs in prison?”
One or two hands shot up, leading back to the faces of people who wanted desparately to vote against the crowd or insist that their opinion was the one to be heard.
The host picked the most beligerent of them all and a microphone was lowered to him, his concentration on what he was going to say suddenly fuzzy as he watched the reality of a large boom microphone is gathering his words for the nation.
“He killed someone, whether you like it or not he committed murder and he belongs in prison. We have rules in our society and you must follow them or pay the price!”
The was a mumuring of assent around him but it as quickly drowned out by booing.
The host drew over to someone obviously straining to reply on camera.
“Rules? You love those rules until you are on the wrong side of them don’t you?”
“Yeah well I am not a killer!”
“You just called a man accused of manslaughter a murderer – that’s slander or libel or something don’t you beloing in jail by that logic?”
That got a round of applause from the audience who obviously favoured the idea that James was the victim here.
“Yeah whatever, you won’t be happy until we’re all just murderers and rapists just running about the place will you?” The angry man was dismissive and was not even looking at the person he directed the comment to, he looked to his dwindling friends for support.
“We can’t all be murderers and rapist now can we? That doesn’t make any sense. That’s just typical bullshit from the right wing, everything about humanity sucks and we’re all evil and we need to stop them so the real humanity can be all sweetness and light. It makes no “bleep” sense.
The 10 seond delay in the booth gave them ample time to remove anything too stringent, but they did nothing to stop any natural progression to agression, it made great TV.
These two were allowed to troll each otherfor exacerbated and over the top extrapolations of their positions until the host moved on looking for a more moderate point of view to balance the program.
“I don’t think he’s a hero and I don’t agree that anyone should take the law into their own hands. I don’t think that this applies to James Hansen though.” The woman speaking did so in a soft low voice, shying from the boom even as the sound operator tried to get it closer to her.
“And why is that?” The host asked solicitously.
“Well if you take the law into your own hands, it suggests that you … it means thatyou are trying to fill a void left by the police or the courts. But that didn’t happen here did it? This poor guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he saved at least two lives and had little or not choice. I mean I can’t say that I would do the same in that situation, but if I were there and someone had done that to protect me? I would not want him to be in jail for saving my life and the life of my unborn child.”
“Interesting point.”
The were was a murmur and then a round of applause as the host nodded along encouragingly.
“Let’s check in with our panel and our online poll, Jill?”
Jill, a newsreader from the evening bulletin, was manning the social media desk.
“Well it seems that all of our social media indicators are siding with Mr Hansen. Facebook shows that a number of very strong opinions about the return of capital punishment have stirred up a barrage of arguments on the site and the poll question shows 85% in favour of James being let out pf prison with a 10% undecided and only 5% opting for a guilty verdict in the trial. Twitter is trending #freejameshansen and we are getting some very high level support from retweets and comments from some of the more famous twitteratti. Our websiet poll also shows overwhelmong support for his release.”
“Any interesting tweets to share?”
“Well there are mostly ones of support for James or negative towards the justice system and much like on ourother media sites, the usual trolls looking to stir up negative reactions for the sake of it.”
“Can you give me some examples?” The host thought as did the producer in his ear, that if the audience could second screen the twitter feed or the show’s website while watching, they may incite further debate.
“#killjameshansen, murder is murder.”
“#righteouskill – which is a new trending word just now”
It wasn’t but it got picked up, spelled wrong and retweeted within seconds.
“#bringbackhanging and #hangingstoogood are ones that seem to be getting the biggest response, though to be fair it looks like only a few accounts are propgating the new hashtags, they seem to be baiting our audience and we are getting an overwhelming reaction to this.”
“Well that’s good, nothing shows how engaged an audience is with it’s subject than a massive groundswell in the public arena.”
One of the panel interjected.

“We used to have protest marches, now we email and tweet our displeasure. Like with the Arab Spring, but perhaps 2013 is the year of New Zealans Justice Spring?” The guest was far too pleased with himself with that comment, the host shrugged “perhaps” back and moved on.