Watchers
2016 06 23 | journal
There was a recently resolved murder case in the courts of Hamilton, which resulted in a guilty (and rightly so) verdict for the two men concerned, and a sentence of life without chance of parole for 25 years.
What gets me about all such cases, and all cases that result in the death sentence elsewhere, are the people who stand outside the courtrooms and prisons after sentencing, at the time of execution, and cheer it like it's a Stones show, WWE, and the World Series all rolled into one. It's pitiful, animal, vulgar, and base, to cheer on a person's guilt and punishment like that. Of course they're guilty; of course they deserve their punishment (except in the death penalty, but that's an argument for another day); and it's not abnormal for some folks to even be a little hatefully glad/relieved of it, but it's wrong to cheer for it, to gloat over it. It's not a thing to be happy about, and that's got nothing to do with the deserved guilt.
After the guilty verdict was handed down, people outside the courtroom stood around cheering, and were walking around "sharing"the news with the same sorts of happy faces you see on name-droppers, coat-tail hangers, and those who've just butchered a puppy. I was in a shop when a couple came in and delivered the "good news", proud of having been there when the verdict came through, and sharing the afterglow as if they were doing us all a favour. If you were hoping for commiseration, you were barking up the wrong tree, because all you've gotten from me is the very distinct hope that I never have to encounter you again. Your proximity to the verdict confers nothing on you but the dirt you accrued by being happy about a man's guilt and imprisonment, and your need to artificially inflate yourself by being within the media blast radius.
Addendum:
My two least favourite human behaviour traits, are those who bitch about something and do nothing to work on the situation, and name-droppers. The first is frustrating, the second gives me the same sort of feeling one gets when one steps barefoot in a pile of freshly emitted dog shit.