Two Laws
Some years back (Well OK..a lot of years back) I was a Company Commander in a battalion and had as my CSM a tried and trusted Warrant Officer who shall remain nameless. He was good if not a little hampered by a short fuse.
Some time after this appointment my CSM found his wife in flagrante delecto and stabbed her to death. He picked up his kids, took them to his parents and duly reported to the police.
He received life.
In todays Australian Amanda Banks has an article (no link) about an Indigenous woman who found her husband in flagrante delecto and stabbed him to death.
She received a suspended sentence.
The difference?
Tribal Law is involved.
Can some enlightened reader explain the rationale behind this. Nothing warm and fuzzy please – just legal facts.
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The simple answer is that I expect that your CSM was white, an average law abiding bloke – the worst thing you can possibly be if you are to front a judge is white, male and generally law abiding.
You need to be of minority extraction, you want a past history of breaking the law, a substance abuse history and hopefully a willingness to claim childhood abuse.
Put that lot together as a murder defence and you are likely to wind up in the new years honours list.
I know the former CSM of whom you speak, Kev.
I have sometimes wondered whether the court ever took into account his wartime experiences, but I can never, ever excuse his actions.
He was a long serving soldier, well trained and well thought of by the hierarchy to be promoted as he was, but there must have been a loose wire somewhere to do as he did.
He was bound by a strict and well laid out system of behaviour, morals and standards, expected to pass all these standards on to his subordinates, and above all, to live by them.
In a moment of rage, he committed murder.
As did Amanda Banks, equally bound by a strict, well laid out system of morals and behaviour.
The difference is, Amanda Banks is an Aborigine who lives on the fringes of Australian society.
Aborigines are feared and treated as a strange and different species, with pressure from the social engineers to never condemn indigenous people for any act that does not infringe on white society, and that which does not infringe is forgiven.
T, on the other hand, was the embodiment of all the good things in white Australian society, seen as a shield against evil, a protector of our way of life, a hero, and when he failed, he had to be made an example: “pour encourager les autres”
Our society is frightened of loose cannon soldiers, and punishes them accordingly, rightly or wrongly.
T and Ray Mickleburg are good examples.
Apologies, I used the reporter Amanda Banks’ name in place of the correct one of the offender.
Preview is my friend.
Sorry Kev.
Pete,
I thought about his wartime service as well as from all accounts he had a torrid time at Coral. Unfortunately, as would be the case with T, I never learnt about it until well after the event. What he did was unforgiveable but extenuating circumstances always play a part. Did you know his first wife and he were hit by stingers one day while swimming – she died. Sorry case all round.
Preview is my friend Good terminology but doesn’t ring a bell from Army IT days.
To all you Law-Abiding, Average, No-Criminal-Record White Australians who may fall foul of the law:
You want to get off? Easy! Just make sure the judge who hears your case is Justice Michael Kirby.
Just make sure you APPEAR to be a really bad, long-standing hard-case who hates Australia, the US and everything Western, with extreme Leftist views and he won’t just let you off, you’ll probably get a bucket-load of compo into the bargain for being so disadvantaged.
Better yet, convince ’em your Aboriginal, then sit back and enjoy the fruits of reverse racism courtesy of the Australian Legal System.
Actually, the woman involved pleaded to have her case heard by white-fella law because the sanctions under tirbal law are going to be harsher and more brutal then what she would have received under crown law.
But of course, never let an opportunity go by to bash a coon hey fellahs!
Also, the plight of your CSM, who has demonstrated through his actions that he is neither a man of integrity nor honour raises the point about why I left the military in disgust. I realised that to kill on the streets made you a murderer but to kill in the service of your country made you a hero.
Can anyone say “hypocrisy”?
I don’t bash Aborigines, I bash the system. My point is there shouldn’t be an option between tribal or national law.
Your penultimate sentence is weird. That’s all I can say