rhythmaning (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rhythmaning) wrote2006-12-12 08:11 pm
rhythmaning) wrote2006-12-12 08:11 pm
Entry tags:
On Innocence
I was lying in the bath listening to Broadcasting House on Sunday morning. They had an item about a Ugandan boy called Innocence. It was a follow up to a story they ran three years ago (and it involved the rather unpleasant civil war in northern Uganda). But what got me was that it must be very hard to be called Innocent. Perhaps one would have to do wrong just to prove that you weren’t.
In the evening, again on the radio, they played a clip from an interview about one of the people who, in the mid 70s, ran the campaign to free George Davis, using the slogan George Davis Is Innocent. I remember this well: all over north London, this slogan appeared on bridges.
The clip was quite interesting; it was a passionate campaign – the interviewee went to jail for his belief (actually, he went to jail for criminal damage – he dug up Headingley cricket ground) - and whilst it appeared Davis was indeed innocent, he was later caught red-handed in an armed robbery. So – innocent of the first crime of which he was convicted; but clearly not innocent.
There was a similar – if somewhat lower key* – campaign for a guy called Perry Buckland. Buckland was a bouncer, and he was convicted (if I recall correctly) of murdering a punter outside a nightclub; this was the late 70s or early 80s. Again, the graffiti Perry Buckland Is Innocent sprung up all over north London.
This is, I knew Perry Buckland: he went to my primary school. I was in his older brother class – his brother was called Terry, and his younger sister was called Cherry. (Believe, I am not making this up.) I think he had a younger brother, too – though I can’t remember how or if his name rhymed. Kerry, perhaps.
Though he was a year or two below me (and his brother), Perry was the school bully. I was friendly with Terry – who was a great kid, and a good footballer - and I hung around with Terry and Gary (strange how I can remember all this), so I wasn’t normally bothered. I can remember one time when Perry forced me to climb a willow tree on Hampstead Heath, and wouldn’t let me down.
He was also very, very vicious to others – he was a little bastard. I don’t remember him being at the school long – perhaps he was chucked out or something. His brother was there for quite a while.
So it was always very, very odd when, years later, I would see the graffiti assuring me that “Perry Buckland Is Innocent”. Because whilst he may not have been guilty – I can’t say – I knew for certain that even as an eight year old boy, he was never, ever innocent.
* though a quick google shows that they painted “Perry Buckland Is Innocent” on the turf at Loftus Road
In the evening, again on the radio, they played a clip from an interview about one of the people who, in the mid 70s, ran the campaign to free George Davis, using the slogan George Davis Is Innocent. I remember this well: all over north London, this slogan appeared on bridges.
The clip was quite interesting; it was a passionate campaign – the interviewee went to jail for his belief (actually, he went to jail for criminal damage – he dug up Headingley cricket ground) - and whilst it appeared Davis was indeed innocent, he was later caught red-handed in an armed robbery. So – innocent of the first crime of which he was convicted; but clearly not innocent.
There was a similar – if somewhat lower key* – campaign for a guy called Perry Buckland. Buckland was a bouncer, and he was convicted (if I recall correctly) of murdering a punter outside a nightclub; this was the late 70s or early 80s. Again, the graffiti Perry Buckland Is Innocent sprung up all over north London.
This is, I knew Perry Buckland: he went to my primary school. I was in his older brother class – his brother was called Terry, and his younger sister was called Cherry. (Believe, I am not making this up.) I think he had a younger brother, too – though I can’t remember how or if his name rhymed. Kerry, perhaps.
Though he was a year or two below me (and his brother), Perry was the school bully. I was friendly with Terry – who was a great kid, and a good footballer - and I hung around with Terry and Gary (strange how I can remember all this), so I wasn’t normally bothered. I can remember one time when Perry forced me to climb a willow tree on Hampstead Heath, and wouldn’t let me down.
He was also very, very vicious to others – he was a little bastard. I don’t remember him being at the school long – perhaps he was chucked out or something. His brother was there for quite a while.
So it was always very, very odd when, years later, I would see the graffiti assuring me that “Perry Buckland Is Innocent”. Because whilst he may not have been guilty – I can’t say – I knew for certain that even as an eight year old boy, he was never, ever innocent.
* though a quick google shows that they painted “Perry Buckland Is Innocent” on the turf at Loftus Road