Crime and consequences
George Davis and apologetic anarchy
lain Scarlet
George Davis must be Gne helluva chap. It's no good my adding my own small voice to the chorus of condemnation of the action of his friends in bringing the Headingley Test match to an abrupt halt. But it is worthwhile mentioning that however reprehensible their antics with knife, fork and Visco static, the fact remains that the campaigners to free George Davis have gone a long way towards achieving their object. Within hours of Greig and Chappell announcing that they'd settled for a draw, Scotland Yard were driven to announce that an inquiry was going on into the evidence of identification given by certain policemen. And as much to the point, that the inquiry had been taken out of the hands of the Yard's own A10 Department and put into those of a copper from Hertfordshire.
Not bad that for a bunch of amateur demonstrators sustained only by their belief in the innocence of a mate.
George Davis was a minicab driver until in April last year he was convicted for his alleged part in a £7,700 robbery during which a policeman was shot and injured. He was sentenced to twenty years and hardly had the prison gates closed behind him before his friends started protesting his innocence.
He was driving a minicab miles away from the scene of the crime they stoutly maintained. And quite quietly went about painting that message on various buildings. But to no avail. So they became impatient and one of his friends took it into his head to go around driving a car into the front doors of various newspaper offices, then into the gates of Buckingham Palace. Naturally enough he got quite a lot of publicity.
But still to no avail.
So a couple of other friends decided to do their bit by climbing to the dome of St Paul's Cathedral and hanging out banners which once again proclaimed the innocence of their hero.
Even that didn't work.
George Davis remained incarcerated in Albany nick, preparing his appeal against conviction but otherwise without much hope for the future. And there he remains to this day, sixteen months later, still awaiting the hearing of his appeal, still (probably) without much hope for the future.
Without much hope, that is, until last Tuesday. Then his friends brought off their coup de (dis)grace at Headingley.And immediately cricket-lovers all the way from the Law Courts to Scotland Yard via Fleet Street were up in arms at the outrage of it all.
And outrageous it undoubtedly was. But the fact remains that in a few short hours it achieved by anarchic means what George Davis could never have hoped to achieve by constitutional means. Scotland Yard announced its inquiry into the evidence of identification and in doing so indicated that they themselves weren't too happy about the way the case had been conducted. Lawyers (who are traditionally cricket-mad: it's a qualification for the Bench) suddenly became concerned that there was a man in prison who had had to wait for his appeal to be heard for such ages that it reflected on the system that provides their bread, butter and caviar. And Fleet Street news editors sent out every reporter they could find to cover the story while the splash subs sharpened their alliterative pencils.
And what were the campaigners to free George Davis doing? Well, for a start they were standing up to be counted_ And they were also humbly apologising for all the inconvenience they'd caused. Unusual that. People of that sort usually seem to duck when there's trouble about. And I can never remember anyone from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, for instance, apologising for the inconenience they caused.
Which brings me back to George Davis. With friends like that he must be a helluva chap. That kind of loyalty doesn't come cheap. So perhaps the lawyers would be well advised to react to them as the police already have. And bring forward the date of appeal.
Otherwise someone might come along and debag the Lord Chief Justice.
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