Undressed, humiliated and lied to

This is what happened when I went to Leeds Magistrate's Court with Shaun last Wednesday, as promised.

First the court official asked Shaun 'is your headwear for religious reasons?' Shaun said yes and that was ok, but this was just the first of four instances of what I think should be described as violence towards us from the court. I'll describe the others and then explain what I mean.

The second thing was that Shaun was given a 'Statement of means' form to fill in. This had to be completed before Shaun could go before the court, and it was an offence not to provide the information (a note said 'see the other side for details' but the other side was blank). This form was not only difficult to fill in on the spot with no warning, but it had no relevance to the hearing.

Thirdly as we were entering the court I was directed to go to the back of the room. I thought at this point that I should say I had come to speak to the court. The court official went to check this with the magistrate, came back and said I should still wait at the back until I was called to speak. This was a lie, and it led directly to the final piece of violence.

Finally, Shaun was before the judge/magistrate. He was told the charge (faulty brake light), asked whether he understood this (yes), and asked whether he pleaded guilty or not guilty (not guilty). Shaun asked if he could explain what happened and he was allowed to speak for about 2 or 3 minutes. The judge/magistrate didn't seem very interested, said that this wasn't a trial, asked the CPS representative if they wished to pursue the case (yes), and that was that.

At that point I offered to assist the court. Remember I had informed the judge that I had come to speak before I entered the room, and I had been effectively told that I would have an opportunity. In fact the judge reacted with more violence to my offer of help: he shouted at me, said I was abusing his court and if I wasn't careful I would be removed from the court or even worse.

Violence
I said I would explain what I meant by violence and why it was important to think of these four experiences in terms of violence. I would define violence as any use of power to restrict movement or action. There are lots of reasons and precedents for this definition which I won't go into for now, but we can see that it covers things like assault (because after we are assaulted we hurt and our movement is restricted), as well as a wide range of other types of violence. One area familiar to many people which opens up the definition of violence in this way is domestic violence, and here are a couple of quick links 1 | 2.

Let's go back to the headwear example that I started with. Shaun was ok, but imagine another young man coming to the court. He may not look very smart to the court officials in their suits, but the chances are he's made some sort of personal effort to look his best and to prepare himself mentally and physically. For many people these days looking good includes wearing a hat. Many young men in particular habitually wear hats. So much so that the hat becomes a part of their identity.

Then, just before they go into this scary room full of officials who have the power to change their lives, they have to remove their hat. Tradition or something says that wearing a hat before the court is a mark of disrespect, so you have to remove it. And now your 'hat hair' is looking stupid, you're feeling stupid, you can feel your head and your hair and the fact that you're not wearing your hat. Effectively the court has dictated that you feel humiliated before you even start. There is a very close correspondence here with the domestic violence situation of a man denying a woman the possibility of wearing clothes that she feels comfortable in. Both victims of domestic violence and victims of court violence feel less able to act, less able to speak out, less able to defend themselves. They suffer. But what pains me even more is that justice and liberty also suffers.

This violence can be seen again in the case of Ronelle. Legal procedures have taken place, she has been unble to speak out, and an admin error nearly caused her to be imprisoned, have her baby taken into care, give the two of them a record that will last for the next 18 years or more, make it more difficult for them to find work and support themselves to live and grow as a family. This is violence by any other name. We need to recognise this, and as advocates we are in a position to do something about it.