Brushing with the Swedish Judicial System
I’ve probably had more contact with the police than the average person might expect to have, considering that I’m a law abiding citizen (of two countries) and I’m not one for excessive drinking or anything that could get me into trouble. This is entirely due to the fact that the world is full of stupid people.
Yes, stupid people. In the age of technology where most people pay with a debit or credit card, in an age where an increasingly large number of people download movies and thus put the video store out of business, in an age of video surveillance cameras – what smart person would think to rob or commit theft in a video store? They wouldn’t, of course. Yet they do, surprisingly often despite the precautions we take against it. One fateful evening two men decided the law did not apply to them, and that there would be no repercussions. Working together one distracted me with questions about the movie I was playing on TV (Underworld) while the other one walked out of the store with over 60 movies. I chased after them, and had “suck my dick” shouted at me and a movie thrown at me for my trouble. I ran back inside to call the emergency number, only to be told that wasn’t appropriate and be hung up on.
Eventually I did get a hold of someone willing to do his job, not that the police that finally visited the store did anything other than take my statement – they refused to even watch the video. Luckily, deepthro… I mean… a friend to the store… managed to identify one of the perpetrators, the distracter. I had the utmost joy of looking at a stack of mug shots to identify the second, mr. “suck my cock”, which took me about two seconds. God bless the memory of a woman scorned.
I thought that would be all, but to my surprise, my sworn testimony was still needed at the trial against perpetrator #1 (I have no idea what’s going on with perpetrator #2). I feverishly tried to get all the information I could possibly scrounge about legal proceedings and what I would be required to do with help from the Swedish courts webpage. Luckily it was pretty straightforward, and I had my manager/role-model with me for support, she even sat down for a little fika (a swedish coffee break, only with the coffee replaced by sweet delicious creaming hot cocoa with whipped cream for me) to calm me down.
The experience was educational, if slightly negative. The proceedings started late, and no note was put on the door to warn us – and the woman in reception was of no help at all, as well as having the appearance of an alien who hadn’t gotten the hang of pretending to be human. We were waiting in the same area as his family eventually came to wait, all of whom I knew and had rented movies to/given movie advice to many many times. I, of course, didn’t realize that they were his family until AFTER I offered a cough drop to the woman coughing since I had other worries on my mind. The “bad guy” was brought up the stairs, handcuffed and escorted by two policemen past his family and myself and into a private room. The prosecutor explained what would happen (I didn’t tell him I’d already read the website, it never hurts to get more confirmation) to prepare me, and then I was to wait until I was called in.
I had to be sworn in by a very pleasant chairperson who said the oath and then I repeated after her: “I (your name) promise and affirm on my honour and faith that I will tell the whole truth and not omit, add or change anything.” (”Jag (ditt namn) lovar och försäkrar på heder och samvete, att jag skall säga hela sanningen och intet förtiga, tillägga eller förändra.”) Then I was asked to repeat the events of the evening, which I did. Shaking like a leaf the whole time, with my hands clenched together and trying to avoid looking at “the bad guy”. By the end of the story, my jaw was nearly vibrating my teeth together. I answered a few questions, although I have to say the defence attorney’s question wasn’t really a question and thus I had no way to answer it. “What direction was the other man standing”. Uhm, I don’t know… east? No, I didn’t answer that. I just told him that I was sorry but I didn’t understand the question, and he changed it to “did you come closer to the second man upon leaving the counter?”
After my testimony, I was free to stay, but I just booked it out of there as fast as I could, so I don’t even know what happened in the end. Maybe I’ll read about it in the paper, maybe I’ll get a letter. I also don’t know what will happen with the second perpetrator. I know the one I testified against was wanted on other charges as well, which is how he ended up in custody.
But all I could think about was if this was how horrible the entire experience felt for me, how awful is it for the family to watch the proceedings? How much worse is it for a rape victim? I truly hope I never need to do it again, but I’m glad I did do it. I’m glad I’ve done my duty and I’ve done what’s right, despite all my fears of reprisal. I was also compensated for the loss of salary due to being needed in court, which was a nice surprise.
And people? Don’t rob your fucking local video store.
postscript: Thanks to HL for supporting me, the designer of www.domstol.se and BaroqueW for giving Bunny a photoshoot.
postscript²: I love Bunny!
Category: Articles in English, Blog, Suède / Sweden | Comments (6)
