OK, I will try to keep this blog multi-lingual and security might be an item to start with.

Considering the way things go in Belgium, there’s a chance I might end up writing everything in English ;-)

The subject isn’t really a choice, considering what happened last Thursday at 10 meters from my courtroom and also

August 18th (see the blog of Sept. 3).

A court is not just a center where “clients” come “shopping for justice” (and rarely paying cash:-/

It should be a meeting point where arguments are heard and questions answered. But also much more than that, and certainly at a Justice of the Peace.

It’s a place of trust where people go to with the most trivial problems, or the most intimate. They ask most of the time for too much too late, steaming from anger, deaf from bitterness, dumb from sorrow.

Sometimes they physically sweat from fear: fear of partners, family, neighbours... you name it.

There are so many injustices we can’t repair for a long time, even when the procedure is a short one.

So, my argument is really that around this building, enough insecurity, drama and mischief smoulders, that our “clients” should not hesitate to come to us: they should not be afraid to have their wallet stolen, their I-(or other)phone grabbed, or attacked by a sskinhead (yess, I just meant to write it that way).

Almost everyday here, we look into eyes with tears, but at least, there should be no blood.

I will always remember a German slogan from (luckily) about 26 years ago “Leben in Freiheit ohne Angst”. Well, at least people should be able to come to us whithout fear - as I already doubt they come just ‘freely’: they never drop in here for small talk about the weather.

Of course, I’m only talking about a “fait divers”.... and peaceful Roeselare is lightyears away from Brussels (sometimes even from Kortrijk ;-)   but even small criminality is not just like having influenza: it’s not an accident, it doesn’t go away when taking a day off, and if you don’t intervene, it just gets from annoying to bad, and from bad to worse.

Caring about the security of our citizens is caring about justice: security is not the goal of justice, it is the condition to it.

Wat u vast niet gemist hebt - Ce que vous n’avez certainement pas râté - You didn’t miss this one did you ?

30 08 2010 Paroles de Juges: “encore un rapport (à venir) sur la délinquance des mineurs”

04 09 2010 Paroles de Juges:”Faut-il pendre les JLD ?”

04.09.2010 Hoge Iraanse geestelijke noemt holocaust “bijgeloof” (De Morgen)

05 09 2010 De Clerck belooft oplossing voor geïnterneerden tegen 2014 (De Morgen)

A quote a day, keeps the doctor away ;-)

“Le droit de l’intolérance est donc absurde et barbare: c’est le droit des tigres, et il est bien horrible, car les tigres ne déchirent que pour manger, et nous, nous sommes exterminés pour des paragraphes”

Voltaire, ‘Traité sur la Tolérance’ éd. 1763.