Killing Humanity

They are killing humanity with their laws. It's our most basic most fundamental instinct to help when we see someone in need, someone downtrodden. Albeit today we go on with our daily lives with the knowledge that there are many hungry and homeless people out there but at least we are not blithe or indifferent to the ones in front of our very eyes. Well... We do that too in big cities, the beggars, the homeless are taken for granted and we walk by them as if they are invisible.

Friends of ours keep going back and forth to Greek Islands. They said the police warns them constantly: “Don't pick up anybody in your car.” After all, if they do, they will be put on trial for human smuggling. “We have the stick, we have the jails. Dare to not listen to us,” says our “estimable” governments. A Frenchman has been put on trial recently with a charge of up to five years in jail and 30,000 Euro fine. He was helping migrants. "It's not up to me to make a distinction between black and white, people with or without papers. It's not my job. Farming is what I do, my job is feeding people and that's what I do," he said.
    “They’re telling people, if you see a black person lying on the side of the road, you have to ask him for his papers before helping him,” he said. “That’s the problem.”
    “Our role is to help people overcome danger, and the danger is this border.”
    “If we have to break the law to help people, let’s do it!”
    “I prefer to be jailed as a free man than to live closing my eyes and plugging my ears.”
    Even the prosecutor asked for a lenient sentence of eight months and said that it needs to be suspended “of course.” The goodwill of the man was obvious, he didn't do this for profit. However, the law does not really care much about goodwill. Anyway, the judge turned out to be merciful and Herrou was given a suspended sentence of 3,000 Euro which is a nominal fine given what he faced. Naturally, everybody expected him to be happy about this result and bless his lucky stars. Oh, he announced he was going to object to the verdict. His rationale being “It's very natural for us to do this, I do not accept the penalty.”

Of course I totally agree with everything Herrou says.
      We have a duty to not obey unjust laws.
      No one has a right to expect decency upon facing indecency.

The prosecutor Jean-Michel Prêtre said “He’s demonstrated a manifest intention to violate the law. One can criticize it, but it’s got to be applied.”
    Of course I do not agree with Mr. Prêtre. If a law is unjust, which unfortunately it is very much so in this case. The law has not got to be applied, it has to be changed!

Keep in mind that France’s national motto is “Liberty, equality, fraternity.”
The article “Farmer on Trial Defends Smuggling Migrants: ‘I Am a Frenchman.’” in The New York Times by Adam Nossiter starts with “At times it was hard to know who was on trial, the smuggler or the state.”

Yes, states should be put on trial by us, the people. They are massacring humanity!