first mention of the posting bills charge today was just about me entering my ‘plea’ of not guilty and getting another date for a contest hearing — i’m representing myself now (reasons being: my legal aid lawyer james anderson moved away, legal aid will not run appeals for my case anymore and i have become sick of having little chance to speak for myself).
i was told that the first thing i had to do was go to the police prosecutions desk on level three and tell them i want a case conference, i did that and they said, ‘so you’re pleading not guilty’, i said yes, then the guy asked on what grounds, i said i wasn’t disputing the facts, i was just claiming that the victorian charter of human rights protects my right to political expression.
he then went on to say that posting bills is also a law i have broken etc. etc., so i said yes, that is what we are going to argue about in front of a magistrate, and he kindly left it at that and put me on the case conference waiting list.
then i had to wait around for about an hour to have this ‘case conference’, which should really be called a ‘pointless argument with prosecutor who mistakes you exercising your right to defend yourself as a personal insult and waste of everyone’s time’.
this cop (different one to the one i spoke with at the prosecutions desk) asked me if i had run this defense before, even though he knew very well that i had, having my full record on hand, i said i had, he said ‘how did that go?’, even though he knew very well how it went, i said i lost in the magistrates and appealed it to the supreme, ‘yeah, and how did that go?’, ‘i lost’.
he was basically saying i couldn’t run the defense again because it had been defeated before (which is bullshit), he said the lower courts are bound by the decisions of the higher courts (which is true in similar cases relating to similar charges), but i said that the charge is different this time so the magistrates court is not bound by the decision relating to my charges for criminal damage (which is what my advice was).
anyway, the guy wanted to keep arguing with me about my defense, i said ‘this is pointless, it’s like talking to a brick wall’, all i wanted was a date to argue my case in front of a magistrate (even though that will probably prove just as frustrating and pointless).
the prosecutor then disappeared somewhere and booked me in for a contest mention, which the prosecutor told me is a brief hearing in which i state my argument and have to convince the magistrate that i have a case worth running in a full contest hearing — i spoke to a lawyer afterwards who told me a contest mention is really just going to be a waste of time because it is just another attempt to get me to plead guilty, which i won’t be doing.
i then had to go into a court to see a magistrate even though the booking had already been made, it was a pointless exercise — i sat through all the other cases (including a couple of prisoner video links) and when the magistrate called me up last, in a now empty courtroom, i went up to the big table and sat down (just like the prosecutor and the magistrate were sat down), the magistrate told me to stand up, i stood up, he asked me if i was kyle magee, i said yes, he said ‘you’re pleading not guilty?’, i said yes.
the police prosecutor, a different one again, broke the silence between me and the magistrate by saying i had been booked in for a contest mention in a months time, on the 19th of july, the magistrate said what the prosecutor had just said back to me, i said thank you and then i was excused by the magistrate because he correctly assumed i would not ask to be excused as i had observed all the other ‘properly-trained’ legal types do.
i have a real hard time with all the bowing upon entering the courtroom and the ‘your honour’ and all the other shit i know i’m supposed to do (yes sir, three bags full sir — please sir, can i have some more? “MORE!”), i did none of it today — it feels like i’d be kissing the rings just before receiving another punch in the face.
the legal system is so fucked that if i don’t kiss the rings it is like i’ve slapped them in the face, then they get all pissy with me for being so insolent when all i am doing is politely declining to lick their arsehole (consent is sexy).
i guess the idea is that if i kiss the rings i get punched in the face a little softer than i would otherwise, all at the small cost of totally humiliating myself.
maybe i should just bow (which is apparently to the coat of arms not the magistrate or judge — bowing to the power of the corporate-hijacked state is so much better than bowing to the judiciary) and say ‘your honour’ while internally interpreting ‘your honour’ to mean ‘oh pompous one of great delusion’.
i don’t know how i’m going to get through this without flipping my lid — but then again, flying off the handle is a totally legitimate response to all this awful frogshit i am being force-fed — what sort of an inhuman sap could just chomp it down and say ‘thank you very much oh honourable one, i think i deserve another’?
should i really be that concerned if i have the good judgment to refuse to humiliate myself by bowing and scraping to those that show no respect to me whatsoever?
should i meekly consent to being talked to in a way that i would never allow anyone else to just because they have the power to punish me more severely if i show any self-respect? (and i have never encountered a group of people who demand so much pomp and pussy-footing and who are so consistently rude as magistrates)
instead of becoming indignant as i normally would in response to such treatment, should i respond by trying to placate the disrespectful and rude occupant of the high-chair by saying ‘your honour’ so repetitively that it nothing short of ridiculous (as is actually demanded)?
should i really put myself through the emotional strain of treating the judiciary like intellectual and moral elites and indisputable overlords when they disregard everything i say and my right to say it without a word of explanation, flinging me in jail just to protect the ‘property rights’ of for-profit companies to poison our physical and psychological environment?
that’s a loaded question, i refuse to answer that.
