If we take a look at the society we’ve created, we could shamefully say that we live in a dystopia; we have endless examples of this in the policies that govern the common lives of mortals. We have gotten to the point where life and health are worth less that property, and that is reflected in the judicial system.
In ‘More Hate than Fear’, we get a small glimpse of this senselessness. This short film written by Molly Manning Walker and directed by Billy Boyd Cape, arose from a couple of surreal sentences given in England (one of the countries with the longest sentences against graffiti): the same day that a graffiti writer received a 3 year sentence for vandalism (painting), another person received a 15 month sentence for SEXUAL ASSAULT on minors between 9 and 17 years, over a 20 year period.
Beginning on that premise, the film demonstrates a graffiti writer’s situation; dislocated, imprisoned with common prisoners, and exposed to a level of violence that brutalizes and breaks him down as a person.
As the creators of the film point out, these disproportionate sentences are more a reflection of the fear produced because a sector of the population escapes control, than about a necessity for such a devastating punishment.
They also signal out that these sanctions are rather counterproductive: treating graffiti writers as high-risk prisoners reduces the possibility for rehabilitation and transforms them into much more conflictive and dangerous people within society.
We’ll leave you with the short film to contemplate and to draw your own conclusions.
“Law without justice is a wound without a cure.”- William Scott Downey
2 What do you think?
crudo!
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