Meantime this week a Sydney lawyer who crashed into an L plated motor cyclist and then suffered a road rage moment will plead that he should not be judged under criminal law as he was 'mentally ill' at the time.
Such absurd 'legal' instances stand as complete anomalies in 'mental health week'. Compare this with a minor news story in the letters section of the SMH newspaper on 2/10/14. Wherein we are told of a seriously ill man who took off his clothes in searing heat and wandered aimlessly around a country city for 36 hours and then was jailed for his incoherence despite his mental health history.
This man has since been locked up in Silverwater jail for 18 months awaiting trial given he was charged with trespassing (go figure?). He can't be found fit to plead given his mental state (meantime he rots in jail!!!). Mr Ingrey in that same letter offsets the case of a Sydney barrister's son who hit a jeweller over the head during a recent armed robbery and only received a suspended two year sentence for his crime.
There can be no doubt at times that the law appears an ass. This is not new. But the disturbing thing is this 'bi level society' is so closely following what we see in the US today as 'the norm'; it truly makes you wonder whether we are going forward or backwards ...back into our own colonial past. It also highlights the truly veiled state of mental health in this country. The law too is being manipulated to its own ends.
One thing is for sure. We are deluding ourselves that we are participating in a 'fair dinkum' society as we would like to think. 'Fair dinkum' being Australian for ...'fair and reasonable'!
The Rose, the Sun and the Sea
She was the kindest of woman
her beauty long lost to the sun
She came to this port as a stranger
for the love of "a wayward one"
Most thought:
"he'd since died a sailor"
Put it down to his 'late father's bent'
But back to this headland
she'd return each day
Early ...without relent
After this vigil
She'd walk through town
Shoulders thrown back as she'd go
Watching out
for new arrivals
the Coachman's brow would lo'
In the early years
neat and composed
Never missing the odd chance to talk
Her appearance waned
with each new year
yet purpose still clear in her walk
She'd stop and she'd chat
to the waifs and the needy
A port town carries it's share
Helping out at the sailor's home too
Plenty of work to do there
She also worked hard for a living
under the Milliner's shop
Until one grey morn'
when the Constable announced:
"her rounds had come to a stop"
It seems the Squire
from a nearby cove
had called that very same day
With ghastly news
that a body was found
Floating ...face down ...in the bay
Her funeral was said to be touching
All of the children were there
Even the seamen
made their way up the hill
with flowers ...to rest in her hair
The Mayor declared her (to be)
"of good breeding"...
who came to us 'through the back door"
Describing such situations as "travesties..."
"...such things shouldn't happen at all"
Most would have noticed too
a stranger there...
Sitting amongst the throng
A refined old woman...
Who said not a word...
In a short while she was gone
The Landlord later noted:
"personal things were taken...
...right to the very last one"
All that was left
in his seaward loft
Was a rose...
...now bleached by the sun.
Forwarded from my I pad - Grahame J Flynn
Forwarded from my I pad - Grahame J Flynn
