The Rally for Allison...

In my last post I mentioned that I had attended a rally in the city yesterday. The idea behind the rally was that the public could register their disapproval regarding the outcome of an Appeal by a convicted murderer Gerard Baden-Clay. 

(Now I must mention here that I have no qualifications in law...just an ordinary citizen. I was the child in Sunday School who, when told the parable of the Prodigal Son, thought it was all most unfair for the son who stayed behind and worked so diligently for the father unlike his wastrel brother. To me, a fair deal has always been important) So this rally seemed like a good place to point out to our Attorney General that what had happened wasn't fair or just, in our opinion. 

 Last year a jury deliberated after a 5 week trial, and returned a verdict of guilty of the murder of his wife. But in the last week, the Appeals Court found that verdict should be overruled and be downgraded to manslaughter which carries a lesser sentence. What an insult to that jury, the judge at the trial and the many,many investigators who put together a case against this man. 

'Legal eagles' have spoken and written about how this action by the Appeals Court is correct; that Baden Clay was entitled to this right of appeal. Some of these articles did intimate/indicate that even liars, cheats and generally despicable people have the same rights as the rest of us...well I have to admit I did paraphrase that a bit.

If you Google this case, you will find that Gerard Baden Clay (GBC) and his wife had 3 little girls...and that is the main impetus for the public to seek what they consider to be justice for Allison, her children and her parents, siblings and friends. Yellow was her favourite colour so attendees at the rally were asked to wear yellow if possible.

I don't wear yellow ( yellow tops make me look as though I'm ill) so I wore 'touches' of yellow...

I arrived early and there were all the media doing interviews with guest speakers...

Collage shows Bruce Morcombe (Daniel) being interviewed, and Senator Lazarus was interviewed as well. The lady with the white cane talking to Senator Lazarus caught the same bus to the city as I did. Margaret knew the Senator from another protest rally about 'fracking' in some Qld towns which both of them had attended.

Lots of people carried placards but I only got a photo of this one...

There was one placard near the stage that said 'Strewth Baden Clay, Tell the Truth!!!' I liked that one. Lots of the posters alluded to the scourge of Domestic Violence. 

King George Square where the rally was held is surrounded by city buildings...including our lovely old City  Hall and the city Christmas tree, which is a bit ugly...

As the starting time got closer, the crowd swelled...

Being short, I couldn't see much after a while...luckily there were big screens showing the guest speakers...and some videos of Allison....

Police seemed to in pairs and spread around the square and up on the raised walkway on the eastern side of the square...

It was very hot and some people moved to under the roof of the City Hall entry, to get out of the hot sun...

My back started to ache but I was determined to 'last the distance', clapping and occasionally booing...as you do at a protest. Only time will tell whether our protest will achieve anything. A lady behind me had said, 'Hopefully we'll get justice today,' I replied that ' We might not get justice today, but maybe the process can start'. 

Now I didn't bother to turn on the wifi on my phone as the screen was so hard to read in the bright sunlight but also I was talking to people so checking the phone would be rude. I met DD2 who works in town after the rally and we lingered over coffee, so I didn't check emails and Facebook until I was on the bus home. But my goodness what a shock I got! 

3 people had sent messages to me regarding a photo on the Channel 9 website and their FB page. And DsD2 had sent an email to her dad with the link as well...two of those posts...

So the moral is 'Always be well behaved in public as you never know when a photo may turn up on Facebook' ! Lol.