Criminal Codes

there are rules that many adhere to. Some of these I do. I never involve police. I won't grass. However,these last few years I have seen otherwise inteligent men, so committed to tribe they lose self. Criminal codes evolved over decades and most criminals have a high standard they adhere to. It is rare, the code free crook. Sad individuals. The seminal series The Wire spent time examining these codes. Omar, the black gay stick up boy who robbed dealers was the most moral character in the five part series. I understand a criminal underground opposed to straight society. I even get the duo, the two of us against the world, RIP off anyone but trust each other with their lives. But the solo, code free man I met. A short bald man. He was lieing to veryone and working for the police. One time he borrowed my car for an agreed half hour. Gone all day the car returned with a wire fitted. Also, as though to say "we know you are naughty but not how yet" a copper rang my number. He could only have been given it by Aubrey. Once a big coke dealer, but the pipe brought him to the level we all sat at. Yet, within this, despite the greed the drug inspires, some are strong and can rise above. New to crack, Richard, my best freind, would always give away his last pipe. A kind of ritual, both to himself so he knew he could retain autonomy, but quite a powerful statement to others. Few have that strength. The criminal and the druggy were seperate types when I was young but as drugs changed from acid and speed to heroin and crack things altered. Originally one would meet criminals as a necessary proccess due to drug laws. Few would have met criminals otherwise. With the spread of the powerfully addictive drugs, crime is necessary to support the hobby. Rich men can and do. On the whole, 95% are stuck in a cycle of stealing to fund an expensive pursuit. Heroin tops out at about£50 a day. The body wants no more. Crack, however, is insatiable. A thousand pounds can go in a day. The two drugs. Though usually taken as a dual habit have quite different nuances. Heroin, when I took it, was strong. Two pounds worth IV could kill a novice. 25£ would be an average day, an average habit. Ten pounds is not sufficient. You would be ill two thirds of the day. Now, heroin is not available. Junkies still buy brown but opiate content is so low only users on methadone get by. It has sedatives and crap in. This has been the case since the poppy blight of 2008. Yet production levels have risen. Some say the yanks sowed up all supplies during the invasion. Prior to this most used black tar, a Mexican product, u smokable but easily injected. The brown powderheroin that flooded the UK in the nineties was popular as, though i injectable if dissolved with citric acid or vitamin c, it smoked beautifully leaving probably my favourite smell. Like pure opium. This ease of administration meant foil tubes and lighters gave a kind of legitimacy injecting didn't. After all, hash smoking scenes were dieing out of fashion as the afghanis new crop brought in greater money. Interestingly, in aBristol university study on the commonality of groin shooting, often the last vein a junky can use, groin shots are far more common in theUK. Likely reason being that mixing the brown powder in water takes citric or fit c to break it down. Acids destroyed veins. In America, their tar needed no acid. Currently ethylphenidate is destroying users surface veins in the same way.
Crime to feed habit. I knew two girls, I have known many but this case study illustrates the general life pattern. Dressed smarting, bags foil lined, each day Vaz Vicky would shop lift till they had four hundred pounds of goods. Their fence would pay them £200, each day this would buy them a sixteenth of each plus more. These are decent habits. They were never I'll however their decadent lifestyle would end once they got arrested which would happen roughly every three to six months. They would endure the rehab of jail as an occupational regular occurrence. Clean and bright, they'd get straight back out shop lifting. Seldom short. Sufficient funds to buy portions, teenths, eighths, perhaps sell a bag to a freind. But this life is way different from the bottom end junky. Waking I'll, halucinatiry sickness, they must steal to score. Say a litre of spirits may get them a bag. A ten or fifteen bag is a,ways small. Never enough but sufficient to clear illness so the days serious crime could begin. Far less predictable, fences who took advantage. It is always inthe junkys interest to buy a portion. Quite quickly the drug habit becomes self supporting. An eight, split off a few bags can leave enough to satisfy the addict and if disciplined, leave a little for the morning. Most dealers don't start early so the junky is wise to save a little. Doing so is difficult.
So the druggies and criminals blended somewhat. The old heads, psychonauts heald high morality, environmentalism, whole foods, vegetarianism, feminism all would have been unlikely to expand without LSD, a drug that opens the mind to infinite possibilities, strips users of self delusion and often delivers spiritual even religious experiences. Cannabis, smoked alongside gave Heads or freaks a high moral cosde.
Criminal codes vary immensely but you find few criminals without one. Nonsense crimes are seriously frowned on, nonces committing sexual molestation to children are hated roa degree far greater than in straight society. It can be argued this provides a self justification. But another factor is a belief in free will. Most criminals accept responsibility for their 'choices'. In modern times more is known about free will or the lack thereof. But a hierarchy of morality none the less exists. Child abusers are deemed worst, rapists, sexual crimes in general, upwards toward an almost noble stance of pride in sophisticated planned crime. Bruce Reynolds encapsulates this best describing the Great Train Ribbery as his cistern chapel. A fine artwork. Respect for this provided him a status in jail of criminal aristocracy. Many straights admired his gall, bravery and Robin Hood like attempt to defeat a system so class biased, serious money was out of reach. Reynolds took pride in clothing, dining i the finest london restaurants. He succeeded to an extent but in later life, if you read his autobiography he knew he was trapped. His happiest days were in jail where his status was high. After all, he inspired a nation.
Sadly, the noble codes have broken down. Many still adhere to a morality. I will call him so, a freind of mine. He is consistent, a thief, yet his code is strong. He would not hurt an individual in financial gain. I would not leave my wallett on the table if I nipped to the loo. Despite this I know, if he saw me taking a kicking, being beaten up in town, despite all odds, be it twelve men, I guaruntee he would jump in and fight for me. As I would for him. He would never grass. Something I despise too. Even if morality points that way. In murder cases or other serious crimes to the person, of course, I would help police, but never on material goods or money. The police are corrupt. They serve to maintain the status quo. The wealthy stay wealthy, poor stay poor. Rape often reported gets ignored. Attacks on blacks, gays, shamen, hippies, jews take lower to zero priority. Once one understands the police are not there for my type, criminal codes become more significant.
There is an appendage here. Blindly following a code where intelligence ought to over ride such things is common. A few years ago a murder took place. I know only details but an unpopular man, later discredited as sexually predatory, was axed, then beaten axed, finally he was driven off, assumed dead though a witness saw him sit upheld he was finished off by manual strangulation,, a shallow grave quickly dug and in a pathetic attempt to hide DNA, he was downed in petrol and burned., he is dead. There were points where anyone of the three could have tried ring an ambulance. None did. They wee withdrawing from heroin, on diazepam and alcohol, this drives most.
To my mind this went beyond travellers code of silence to police. A life taken. Inteligent people advanced the idea Paul Chambers, the least guilty, must say nothing or betray their code. He did. Chris Charkes decided to say a few words, he left the dieing Man alone with Paul as he went to the car to collect cigarettes. When he returned, Lenny was dead. Essentially he grassed Oaul up. Despite this, perhaps due to Vhris higher status or bigger physique, people I respected saw no wrong here. Site code is fine for drug busts but if an innocent man is being accused by a freind of murder, sticking y Chris showed incredible character weakness. Covered by code. I believe the individual I have in mind has found a little bravery. Today I asked him if he knew the address of a man who broke in to our workshop. I wanted to step in, reclaim the bike, avoid police involvement, hopefully avert the straights taking their methods. But he would not give me the address, I imagine he saw it as grassing. I see it as weak. In so many ways I respect the man yet a childish adherence to code without thought, a weakness of character, occassional,y shows up.
So tonight I have stayed awake all night, hoping the burglar who stole Magnus' bike yesterday, would return, I hid in darkness but so far no show. If I had his address I could reclaim the bike, warn him away, keep the police out. But now it will play out in the straight manner. The police will become involved due to this mans resolving to not provide me a way of avoiding filth.