citizen’s arrest

Monday is apparently make a citizen’s arrest day. That is, when a crime is committed and no police officer is in the area, there is both right and responsibility to make an arrest. If we avoided all the major crimes and dropped to to the second, third and fourth division of villainy the possibilities are more more ambiguous and open ended; such as conspiracy to defraud, littering, public obscenity… Face it. if villainy hadn’t existed, if were under the pure state of bliss and perfection that existed before the Almighty sent the then upright and walking, gabbing serpent into the Garden of Eden,then the unmixed blessing of the serpent’s presence would have been lost on all the arts. After all, what else would provide plot and make virtue interesting.

click image for source...

click image for source…

Hamlet without The Prince would be difficult, but Hamlet without Claudius would be impossible. Imagine the tedium of now White without the witch or Little Red Riding Hood without the Wolf,or Cinderella without Ugly Sisters. If God, as Malcolm Muggeridge once suggested, is the grand dramatist, he knew that the serpent and his descendants were essential characters, and the cast list would be incomplete without them.

from Wilkie Collins, A Rogue’s Life: It is a bold thing to say, but nothing will ever persuade me that Society has not a sneaking kindness for a Rogue.

For example, my father never had half the attention shown to him in his own house, which was shown to me in my prison. I have seen High Sheriffs in the great world, whom my father went to see, give him two fingers—the High Sheriff of Barkinghamshire came to see me, and shook hands cordially. Nobody ever wanted my father’s autograph—dozens of people asked for mine. Nobody ever put my father’s portrait in the frontispiece of a magazine, or described his personal appearance and manners with anxious elaboration, in the large type of a great newspaper—I enjoyed both those honors. Three official individuals politely begged me to be sure and make complaints if my position was not perfectly comfortable. No official individual ever troubled his head whether my father was comfortable or not. When the day of my trial came, the court was thronged by my lovely countrywomen, who stood up panting in the crowd and crushing their beautiful dresses, rather than miss the pleasure of seeing the dear Rogue in the dock. When my father once stood on the lecturer’s rostrum, and delivered his excellent discourse, called “Medical Hints to Maids and Mothers on Tight Lacing and Teething,” the benches were left empty by the ungrateful women of England, who were not in the slightest degree anxious to feast their eyes on the sight of a learned adviser and respectable man. If these facts led to one inevitable conclusion, it is not my fault. We Rogues are the spoiled children of Society. We may not be openly acknowledged as Pets, but we all know, by pleasant experience, that we are treated like them. ( Wilkie Collins, A Rogue’s Life, 1879 )

---Year: 1955 Cast: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine, Stubby Kaye, Sheldon Leonard, Veda Ann Borg, Regis Toomey Directed By: Joseph L. Mankiewicz  New York gambler Sky Masterson takes a bet that he can romance a Salvation Army lady. Based on the stories of Damon Runyon with Blaine, Kaye, Pully, and Silver recreating their roles from the Broadway hit. Brando's not-always-convincing musical debut.---click image for source...

—Year: 1955
Cast: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine, Stubby Kaye, Sheldon Leonard, Veda Ann Borg, Regis Toomey
Directed By: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
New York gambler Sky Masterson takes a bet that he can romance a Salvation Army lady. Based on the stories of Damon Runyon with Blaine, Kaye, Pully, and Silver recreating their roles from the Broadway hit. Brando’s not-always-convincing musical debut.—click image for source…

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