The Magnificent Seven

The workers reappeared on Thursday following the day in court. Over the cakes meant for the day before I had a chat with the head mason to try and get to the bottom of it all. I didn’t, but what I understood was this:

Following an incident a month ago when the men of the area decided to take the law in to their own hands and “deal” (think very extreme) with 3 local thieves, the District Commissioner (the governor of the area) called a meeting to openly discuss the events. The residents expressed a lack of confidence in the local law enforcement, claiming that the area was inadequately policed and felt therefore that the only was to address this was to take the law into their own hands. The DC acknowledged the failings and promised to correct them; he even dressed down the police chief in front of everyone. He went on however to state categorically that any further vigilantism would not be tolerated.

Then 2 Sundays ago the 2 thieves who survived the previous incident were sighted at a local house. Word spread like wild fire and a group of guys quickly got together and spread their own wild fire. They burnt down the house where the 2 we spotted…and 7 of them ended up in court last Wednesday.

I’m not clear whether any of our workers are part of the Magnificent Seven but everyone was back at work on Thursday. Bail was set at £1k … a fortune for anyone here … and most had to hand over the title deeds to their land to secure their release. Trial is pending.

I only hope the library is completed before it comes to trial otherwise nothing may happen for a while.

O tempora! O mores!