Heads Must Roll

Pam Corkery's  Calls For a Committee of Public Safety

Pamela Corkery, opinionated provocateur, has chosen an unfortunate turn of phrase writing about a hot public controversy presently incandescing the pages of our newspapers.  Some under-age girls have been allegedly date-raped by young men.  The police have not yet charged anyone.  Pamela has called for "heads to roll", apparently oblivious of the historical reference to the horrendous Reign of Terror. 

Maybe Pamela  forgot the connection.  Or maybe she does not care.  Or maybe she is ignorant.  Or maybe like a true people's demagogue she finds nothing offensive, unjust, or distasteful in seeing innocent heads roll from the guillotine blades into the tumbrels? 

Whatever the case, it does seem that Pamela has chosen to overlook the minor matter of evidence, witnesses, and proof beyond reasonable doubt in matters criminal and judicial.
  We know these are relatively trifling matters in the world of demagoguery.  But more balanced people might have a different view.

But Pamela persists.  Asking girls to come forward to testify as witnesses in a court case apparently amounts to placing the responsibility for crime-solving on  the victims.  This responsibility, shrills Pamela, is not the girl's at all.  It belongs to the authorities. 

This still leaves the onus for crime-solving with a still unknown number of teenage girls in Auckland.  Fail. Girls don't attack themselves. Bringing their attackers to task is the responsibility of official grown-ups.

Wow, good point.  So, let's get this straight.  It turns out there are unsolved murders in New Zealand.  The cases are still open, never having been closed.  By Pam's demagogic reckoning, select police, politicians, and bureaucrats should have their heads in the tumbrels for irresponsibility and failure.  No doubt she will soon be calling for a Committee of Public Safety to ensure that officials and "grown-ups" are appropriately decapitated.

Imagine justice in Pam's demagogic world:  

Judge: I will now call upon the Crown to put its case.

Prosecutor (addressing the jury): We are convinced that the defendant is guilty.  He is a loathesome creature.  Just look at him. 

Judge: Do you wish to call any witnesses?

Prosecutor: We would like to, your Honour, but we will not be calling any witnesses today.

Judge: Why might that be?

Prosecutor: We don't have any.

Judge: Why not? 

Prosecutor: Well, sadly, the grown-ups did not provide us with any witnesses, your honour. 

Judge: Well, get those lazy, incompetent, defalcating grown-ups in here, so I can sentence them appropriately.

[Enter senior police officers, detectives, the NZ Police Commissioner, and the Minister of Police]

Judge (addressing the police officers): The court understands that you have failed to provide any witnesses to prove the defendant guilty beyond reasonable doubt.  The Corkery Committee for Public Safety is calling for heads to roll in such cases, and it shall have them.  You are hereby sentenced to death by decapitation at dawn tomorrow.[Cheers from the public gallery]

Judge (to the accused): You are acquitted.

Alice's tribulations in Wonderland had nothing to top Pamela's view of justice.