BIG CARL

What’s the word I’m looking for… mmm… intrigued?  Yes.  Intrigued.

I think the entire state of Victoria has been intrigued with Carl Williams since they were first introduced to him in the Underbelly series.  Certainly, what was depicted in this series was amped up and over exaggerated for dramatic impact, but apparently that’s called ‘artistic interpretation’, and they can get away with it.

However, we were all hooked; fascinated by these characters that are so far removed from our own ordinary, simplistic lives.  Not to forget that a lot of us will also remember some of it being splashed across the news at the time it was all unfolding. He lived among us, and his crimes were carried out on our front door steps.  He was the very ordinary looking man next door that we saw on telly when we were eating our dinner each night.

Matthew Charles Johnson is the man that bought all of that to an end, and one could say, has now laid that underbelly era to rest. 

It’s like something from a Hollywood movie, isn’t it?  The big underworld figurehead murdered in prison?  Scary to know that it’s real.

Johnson, whom none of us had ever heard of, who was a career criminal, having spent most of his adult life in prison, was referred to as ‘The General’, and was a member of the prison gang; Prisoners of War.  The POW’s hated inmates that helped the police (referred to as ‘dogs’), and were notorious for bashing these dogs at random.  Some say that this is what bought Big Carl’s life to an end.

Or was it, as rumour suggests, an ordered hit from the underworld on the ‘outside’?

Or was it, as Johnson would like us to believe, a matter of self-defence?

Some would argue that Big Carl’s demise has not come soon enough.  Others would argue that the death of one man is not justification for the death of another.

So, let’s look at arguments for and against his death.  Let’s have a little think about this.

Carl Williams was a ruthless monster that displayed no value for life, other than his own, and for his inner circle.  He was a psychopath that had no hesitation in killing out of pure revenge (take the Moran family, for example), or eliminating anyone that stood in his way, or threatened the extravagant lifestyle that he and his white-trash wife, Roberta, lead.

His actions over the years have impacted upon thousands of families.  Not only the families of those that he has killed, but those that have felt the impact of the drugs he has peddled. 

This slack-jawed yokel that was never paid any mind, sat quietly in the background, and waited for his time to come.  When he finally struck, the impact was devastating. 

His death has not only given peace to many people, but it has saved the Victorian taxpayers the millions of dollars required to keep society safe from his influence.  Clean facilities, three square meals a day, no demands or deadlines, access to gym equipment (possibly not in the way he intended in the end…), dental and medical services, books, televisions, newspapers and the like, and all he has to pay, is his debt to society.  Considering his own sense of self-importance, he would have been fair to think that this would have been an easy ride, and a ride at our expense.

Matthew Charles Johnson has possibly done society a huge favour in killing Big Carl, but does that make it right?

Here is the irony.  We punish a man for taking the lives of so many, yet dismiss the fact that he has been murdered himself.  It’s almost… justifiable.  However, it’s not, and in steps our beloved legal system to hand out justice where rightfully deserved.

Johnson deserved to be punished for the crime he committed. He killed a defenceless, unsuspecting man, in cold blood.  Brutally.  The end; and anyone with access to youtube.com could watch it

Kill or be killed; survival of the smartest and the strongest, Johnson would have us believe.  Unfortunately, considering the situation Johnson was in, that excuse simply didn’t cut it.    

Forget that Big Carl was scum and deserved it.  Forget that he and Johnson were counting the days in prison for their crimes against society.  Forget that they are primal creatures, living in an environment where position, domination and violence were the key to survival.  Forget that their prison world revolves at a completely difference pace to that of our own.

Big Carl had rights, and those rights were invaded when he was killed, and honoured when his death was investigated.  He too, was a human being that deserved justice.

Again, we could argue the moral rights behind this all day though, couldn’t we?

Maybe we should just call it karma, because in the end, we all get what we deserve.

Peace out.