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.In a society where black men were regarded as permanently subordinate, their tormentors received no punishment; hell, their society didn’t even realise that what they were doing was wrong.There’s little point in punishing adults without making sure they understand why they’re being punished.It’s far too easy to drive someone into the belief that they’re being unfairly persecuted and then you have someone without any loyalty to society at all.I’m going to look, briefly, at three cases I had to judge before we finally managed to get a government up and running.I don’t know just how well I did while I was judging, but at least I didn’t get lynched myself, right?The first case involved a young man whom I’ll call Bob.(Bob, by the way, was the nom de plume of choice for pretty much every CIA agent in Iraq.Their incompetence became the stuff of legend pretty quickly and we would probably have had more accurate intelligence if we had forced ‘Bob’ to walk in front of the tanks towards bridges that might have been held by friendly forces (none were, as far as I can recall, and it would have been shouted to the skies if they were) so that he would take the first bullet.) Bob – this Bob – had been the teenage son of an engineer who had managed to escape the cities and find gainful employment with us, taking his three kids and wife along.Bob had found work himself in the militia and had been courting a girl from Ingalls.It hadn’t worked out.She’d finally decided that she wasn't interested in him and told him so, unwisely as it turned out.He had been desperate for her and, in the ensuring chaos, forced himself on her.No, I’ll be blunt.He raped her.Her screams brought several men to her aid and Bob was dragged off her and beaten quite badly, although Jackson turned up in time to save him from being lynched on the spot.Jackson arrested him, dragged him down into the jail, and locked him up until I could return to hold a trial.This wasn’t a particularly safe position.The girl’s family wanted to lynch him and, were it not for Deborah, would probably have broken into the jail – in defiance of the natural law that says people want to break out of the jail – and killed him.That was the situation I found when I returned.I wasn’t too keen on keeping him alive.I’ll admit that from the start.A rape victim is rarely to blame for her condition, particularly when she’s saying no so firmly.There was little doubt that he’d assaulted her and I firmly believed that the blame was all on his side.I didn’t want him lynched, however.The rule of law had to remain firm.Why?Tell me something.What makes America – and the West – great? What’s special about us that is lacking in…say, the Middle East? The answer is simple; the rule of law.In America, all are equal before the law.That’s the most important attribute of American society, far more than gun ownership or even democracy itself.Bob should not be lynched.If he were to be put to death, he had to be put to death legally.Everything had to be fair and firmly aboveboard.This was no time for underhand behaviour.Everyone had to agree that Bob deserved everything he got.(And, if nothing else, what about the other immigrants? What would happen if they didn’t feel part of the community, or if they felt that Bob had been hung because he was an immigrant and the girl was part of the original town? They wouldn’t feel part of it themselves and that would be very dangerous.)The courtroom was set up in the big hall.It normally served as the communal dining area (eating together saved food and heat, while allowing people to catch up over a meal and feel connected) but we made a few changes.The dock had been designed by a local carpenter who became a bit overenthusiastic, ending up with something out of a children’s tale.It had been designed so that the accused had absolutely no doubt at all as to why they were there; dark, foreboding and tipped with spikes
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