Man can be such a wretched creature...

I spent all day today at the Magistrate's court and I must say it was a real eye opener. The kinds of people who I was seeing in the dock were all unemployed, quite illiterate and quite honestly just didn't seem to be "with it". It's quite sad when several of them are around the age of 18 and have nothing to hope for and no ambition in life. It is like whatever light somebody should have at that age is dimmed if not switched off altogether, their eyes were cold and had no sparkle behind them. Another man was only a year younger than me, but his life seemed to have taken him on a different path. He was there because his former girlfriend had asked for a restraining order against him. Apparently he beat her to a pulp prior to that and he had been convicted for that earlier. Again, he seemed extremely dimwitted, lived at home with his mother and was unemployed. He was an enormous man, in fact I would say he was almost a brute, but that would be making a judgement I am not qualified to make. The judge made clear he was to make no attempt to communicate with his former girlfriend, "neither on twitter, nor facebook nor even e-mail". It was amusing to me as I have a feeling the defendant didn't even know what these things were.

Another person was about 40 years old, a scar on his face and a shaved head, earings, tattoos on both sides of his neck, his hands and knuckles. He had been arrested for having a blade in his pocket when stopped by the police. In this case looks were deceiving and it appears he had simply forgotten about it. His previous conviction was considered irrelevant and I think his appearance was simply a result of stupidity when he was younger. I don't feel bad for judging him based on what I heard and saw initially, but it just resonated how stupid behaviour which leaves a mark on a person means they must work harder to overcome judgements that other people would rightly hold against them. That is the price to be paid I guess. We also had to deal with a witness and his friends who, to be honest, looked like they were straight out of the American deep South, not that I have ever been there. But the stereotype fit them perfectly.

The rest of the people I saw today just generally fit into the category of individuals you just wouldn't like to sit in the same room with normally. Still, they each needed, and were entitled to, a certain amount of assistance. I guess this surprise was all a part of my reconnecting with the rest of the human race, in all its sweaty, beer breathed, tattooed and tobacco stained glory. One thing that struck me immediately was how all these people were not stealing or fighting because they had to. Not one seemed like he was lacking food or clothing or even shelter. No, they were doing what they did out of idleness, peer pressure, and, truth be told, because something inside them is just twisted, broken...I don't know if they can be fixed, most just didn't seem to realise they were lost souls and wouldn't have cared even if they did. It reminded me of this...

لقد خلقنا الانسان في أحسن تقويم, ثم رددناه أسفل سافلين