Krojanty, September 1, 1939. The story goes how the brave Polish cavalry, lances at the ready, charged a battalion of German Panzer tanks and were blown to bits. Actually, it didn’t really happen like that.
That’s not the point. Krojanty is often quoted as an instance where old methods came up against a new menace. And got whupped.
I didn’t see the TV interview with Attorney-General (AG) Adriel Brathwaite. Many think he dodged the issues and the interviewer was too polite to pin him down. One Brass Tacks caller felt he should be replaced. Another praised him to high heaven. The AG, he said, was explaining the law as it is. He wasn’t there to say what people wanted to hear.
In my opinion, both that caller and the AG are missing the point. Any lawyer can tell us what the law says. The AG’s role goes further. If the law is failing to address current issues, if people are being shot dead daily in broad daylight, if perpetrators seem to have not the slightest fear of current punishments, then the AG must come with new weaponry.
Lances don’t work against tanks. Nor do wishy-washy laws, long-delayed trials, pardons or commuted sentences deter ruthless criminals. Adrian Clarke asks: “Are we going to be hostages in our own homes to these lawless jokers?” Eric Lewis says: give attackers everything you have without resistance. It is this society’s final admission of defeat.
Men have indeed lost their reason as Shakey says. But judgement hasn’t fled to brutish beasts. Brutish beasts would have more sense. Take that Pistorius and Reeva saga. Obviously that female judge didn’t have a clue as to how a typical man acts when faced with an intruder.
I’ve been there, done that. Awakened 1:33 a.m. by alarmed wife and daughter. Man trying to force open the front door. Made my way to the bathroom, locking the door and leaving the light off so he couldn’t locate me. Requested a torch and phone book to be slipped through a crack. Called the local constabulary.
When the policeman arrived, I stuck close to him. Meanwhile wife went searching with a torch and located intruder behind the garage. He was duly apprehended.
That is how real men deal with intruders. Pistorius was out to kill. My advice to women: even if your partner gives you castor oil and Glabber salts, don’t go into the bathroom. Some judge may see no reason to doubt he thought you were an intruder.
But our AG isn’t the only one trying to stop tanks with lances. The mighty Americans touted after Pearl Harbour that someone had awakened a sleeping giant. They were the biggest and the baddest. They bombed Japan. Germany and Japan surrendered.
They made the same threat after 9/11. But now it has a hollow ring. The giant got licks in Vietnam. Likewise Iraq, likewise Afghanistan. Lost thousands of soldiers to achieve nothing. Their enemies ended up stronger than ever. You see, a giant can squash mere humans. But sandflies can make his life unbearable.
The game has changed again. Bombs and drones won’t stop an enemy mixed up with the population. Killing women and children spawns more recruits. And if they put boots on the ground, beheadings of captured 18-year-old soldier boys shown on video will break their spirit.
The Internet is now mightier than the bomb, with even Americans and Europeans flocking to the ISIS cause.
So where does that leave us? I don’t support the Moslem way of life but they have shown that law and order can be achieved if governments wish. We banned the highly effective cat-o’-nine-tails. We don’t hang murderers as our laws dictate. We don’t enforce gun laws. As a result we have reaped a whirlwind of violence, fear and discontent.
Adriel needs to park his old lance and sharpen his terrible swift sword. Crash course with ISIS. Murder, swish! Possession of a gun or knife is ample proof of premeditated intent to kill. Rape, robbery, housebreaking, stealing farmers’ crops, swish! Vandalising beautiful lights around St Andrew’s Church and cemetery, swish!
The Good Book suggests there’s a time to heal, and a time to keel. A time to steal, and a time to feel. A time to be nice, and a time to . . . slice.
Richard Hoad is a farmer and social commentator.
