Integrity as Obstacle- 7.02.98
It takes seven seconds she said,
strapped my feet,
entered my arm.
I stretched all senses
on FIVE
the room closed on me like an eyelid

Micheal Ondaatje


what follows is a deconstruction of the events behind an article i wrote today. yellow is article, gray is comment.


Lower Mainland News, July 2, 1998

Vancouver. More specifically Surrey. Fastest growing town/suburb in Canada. Common address: 18796 128th Ave. just off of 72nd St.

Adult Court not Sought for Drive-By Teen

After someone is sought, they are likely sodomized. Look at the subject matter. Relevance is about as important to the media as, well, ethics.
 

SURREY (Sterling)-Crown will not seek trial in adult court for one of the three boys accused in the February drive-by shooting of 15-year-old Jared Dion in Surrey.

Lads are walking around the courtroom. Nicely dressed. Unless mothers of people you have murdered are "chicks", the fellows picked the wrong date and place to spiff up.

Crown counsel Mike Pitrie told Judge Scarlett that he would not oppose lowering the manslaughter charge to juvenile court, nor would he seek raising the aggravated assault charge to adult court.

Asking court clerk how to spell the name. "Like gone with the wind". Apparently popular culture also serves as a dictionary. People use dictionaries as reference because they can't spell or can't define. People use pop culture as a reference because they can't think.

A manslaughter charge for juveniles is officially dealt with in adult court, but can be brought down at the request of the defense.

These boys are barely sixteen. They jumped out of a car, shot these two other boys. Combined reason for a conflict might equal the amalgam of hair at the mouth of your wash basin. Manslaughter is far too fleshy a word to be indexed in a criminal code. If these kids slaughtered anyone then they could sell movie rights, if they could travel time. There is nothing brutal, not a hint of imagery worth pondering to be found in shooting someone at a bus stop.

All three of the youths have been charged with the same offense, but the Crown has addressed only one, as the lawyers of the other two accused were not in attendance for the pre-disposition hearing.

Prosecution rules! You'd think defense lawyers would realize that its not the false sincerity that earns them one adjournment after the next, rather its the pretense of democracy. If democracy was an arthritic grandmother, it would be fucking bitter for the way her grandchildren played her. She'd say "Quit Fucking Playing Me". Then she'd make'm eat soap and clean up their own vomit. Then they'd learn to deal. Manipulation and due process are unnaturally tight.

Pitrie said the crown plans on following the same course with the two others accused in the killing. Their status will be determined Jul. 9 at Surrey Provincial Court.

Bright flash; strange texture between the tread of the cross trainers. What is it? It's you and me saying damn but feeling like we haven't conceded it. Yet.

New Westminster's Jared Dion was killed in a shooting at a bus stop on 64th Ave. and 168th St. in Surrey on Feb. 6.

I smelt this case in the courthouse. It was actually the drop of water in the lobby. I noticed it was actually vapor on an exit sign. Where from? I followed a trail of scentless smoke through the throbbing courthouse to eyes of a mother who's son was "gunned down" in a drive by. Her name must have been something Dion. I Must have been insensitive. She was crying; pointing at the boy in the pinstripes aka the gunman. She asked him a rhetorical question. According to his lawyer, he showed "proper restraint". In not saying anything. Otherwise known as fitting indifference.

Dion, along with his friend Glen Panjanaban were shot on their way home to New Westminster after visiting Dion's cousin in Surrey.

Look for the families to sue public transit for running late, thus leaving children exposed to drive-by shooters. Then look for transit to counter-sue saying that it is defamation of character and in fact the family is responsible for the bus being late as they voted for the party that won't fund more busses. The party that never the less advocates more transit coverage. It all becomes so petty.

According to police, Dion and Panjanaban were waiting for a bus when a carload of teens pulled up. Two jumped out of the car; one, armed with a gun, opened fire.

Sorta sounds like a pack of wolves. Cluster of sharks. Colony of Ants. Hive of Bees. Not as legitimate. When archeologists of another species fall from grace, it will be on theories of such carloads. Even though they'll be right, people unable to fathom the threat, will lynch'm. It, being the future, will probably be something more elegant than a lynching. Something that marginalizes something as dramatic as death.

Jared was killed, while Panjanaban has been paralyzed by the incident.

The detective never got back to me. I assumed because the lawyer told me. Then i realized the company i was keeping. The communications i am emphasizing. help harder.

The three accused will be back in court next Thursday to have a trial date set and to determine whether the other two will be tried strictly as juveniles, as well.

And this story will be rewritten with two new facts. Supposedly there is a moment in a persons life when they realize what they have become. For me that happened today. I heard a woman cry and instead of being concerned or respectful, i became motivated. Tears=News. I write about it like a confession. Hoping this'll forgive it. It will because i know. I just wanted you to know as well.
 

                                     --spencer

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