I reckon I've written and deleted variations of this post many times. I'll admit I'm jaded by the justice system, as someone who has worked in the system for a period of my life and have had known people to be assailants and victims with some insane hypocritical and a wide range of outcomes for similar crimes, it's borderline third world county stuff our system. FJ link to crime story only one of the hundreds of examples filled with inequality. I'd be surprised if many on here have not experienced by inequality of crimes and justice. The worst is domestic violence.
Simply put, what Noah did was a crime, it was assault but I just can't resonate with the hysteria and outcome. There are known assailants who have assaulted their vulnerable partners, multiple times and have received CCOs or ICOs. You see continued breaches of FVOs go unpunished, unreported as if nobody actually cares about these vulnerable people (mainly women and children). We see little to nothing being done about home invasions and rise of gang crimes. So that's the base I'm coming from seeing Noah's case and in perspective it is absolutely nothing. The victim, thankfully is unharmed, he is not injured apart from a few scraps which have bleed easily, likely because of the contents in his blood stream. But that context doesn't fit a juicy sensationalistic media story links to the nationwide popular AFL juggarnaut. If only our media were half as passionate about real problems and crimes we currently are experiencing.
So the trial is done, a corrections order as expected. As for the curfew, I find it embarrassingly media driven, based on Noah playing football and how the curfew will be a constant PR bus for the justice system about assault. Whilst that can be a positive, it's not just or fair for Noah. The curfew could have been specific to a location, venues, alcohol free based etc. I would argue there is a borderline ground for mistrial / suppression order with the amount of garbage that has been thrown around, I suspect Noah just wanted this over and done with, hence the quick settlement and payout for a victim with injuries that were fixed with a packet of Band-aids. Funny that the Geelong player has been protected in the media, more so the victim being protected and rightly so. A shame Noah wasn't given the same respect he deserved. Not to mention the release of the footage, victims lawyer going to multiple media outlets, his employer as well.
Funny that Noah's employment was deemed a punishment not the usual positive rehabilitation aspect of sentencing or taking into account his mental health in rehabilitating by returning to work properly and moving on positively with his life. An aspect in many sentences was conveniently overlooked. Plenty of cases where assailants are given opportunities to rehabilitate like promoting educational programs, integrating into local sport or workplaces for positive role modelling. Would think that RFC as an employer would be the perfect place for Noah to spend as much time at during the 3 month curfew and positively rehabilitating from his 'assault'. But doesn't fit the PR shaming train.
At the end of the day, the curfew means he misses few games of footy, it's not a big deal in the scheme of life but what has been lost all along here is the impact of this scapegoating has had on Noah. Every media personality and politician having a say whether he should return to his workplace or not and get on with his life, just because he plays footy. We crap on about mental health and have 'Spuds Day' and worry about concussions later impact on mental health and male suicide but as a footy media they have ran Noah through the mud, championed him to be fired from his workplace, not play again, not play till the trial is over, commented on every boo he received vs GC. I have not read one single media outlet having the brains to call this stuff out, we do the 'check on your mates' and 'RU OK day' stuff, yet when push comes to shove the media absolutely shat the bed here and hang a guy out to dry for a couple of extra clicks, $ and sensationalism rubbish. On flip side, media have lost an opportunity for some positive media in celebrating Noah's resilience, or Richmond culture and faith in their group to support Noah enough to get him up to playing such a positive game. But again, doesn't fit the narrative of modern day sensationalism, anger and fear mongering clickbait media.
At end of day, hope Noah comes through this OK, he has not been thought of at all through the process, even when he turned himself in, pleaded guilty and came to settlement for the victim. The victim, thankfully, is fine and laughing with his payday all the way to the bank.
I just hope over the next 3 months of the circus continuing with him being allowed to play VIC day games, then dropped for night and Interstate games that the hysteria dissipates.
