So, first week of the trial against Anders Behring Breivik. I knew it would be an emotional experience, but I couldn't quite imagine just how it would be. In some ways it's been worse, and in some ways it's just been... WTF is the only word I can think of. When Breivik at one point talked about being so well educated and then went on to say his learnings came from Wikipedia, I literally laughed out loud in court. I mean, seriously. It's utterly absurd. And then I got so angry because his justifications for what he did is so full of actual factual errors and doesn't at all hold together and for the publication of that piece of shit he murdered 77 people? For
that?! Seriously, he wanted to kill hundreds of people, behead a former prime minister to upload it onto YouTube and this is meant to show us how barbaric muslims are? The logic, it is lacking. Seems to be a common flaw with him. His reasoning doesn't hold up at all.
And then there was today and his detailed emotionless explanations of the murders on Utøya and I have no words to describe how it feels like to listen to how he killed so many, how he killed people I know, and sit next to people who survived him but so easily might not have. So many young. I knew one who had celebrated her 14th birthday two days before Breivik shot her in the head. It's just... I don't know. Even his defense lawyers were teary at the end - who are doing a very difficult job and living up to our ideals, so I admire them very much. I've cried. I will undoubtedly cry more as the trial continues.
What has become very clear though his explanation was his intention to kill many, many more. He thought by chasing them to the sea they'd drown in panic - there were over 500 people there, his goal was to kill 600. But he didn't count on the people living or camping nearby Utøya, who took their boats out and at risk to their own lives, saving hundreds. (Breivik did shoot at those boats, so the risk was very real.) He also called the bombing "a failure", since it didn't kill enough people. He wanted it to make the main building collapse and to have placed it earlier, when more people were still at work. (Including my mother.)
The Guardian has a live blog of the trial, if you can stomach it.It's also becoming quite clear that he reads the media reports about his behaviour during the trial and adapts his statements and demeanor somewhat to "correct" the impression he's making. The first day he made no emotional reaction to the long list of his victims being read out, but cried at the showing of his own propaganda video. The day after, when there had been much media attention of this, he claimed he cried because he thought 'of his country dying'. He even declared himself a 'nice guy, really' today, and tries to hold himself up as some sort of protector of Norway and his idea of Norwegian values. (Fuck you, all you've done is harm this country don't you ever dare to claim to love Norway and justify killing 77 Norwegians in the next breath fuck you FUCK YOU.) It's also clear he very much wants attention. And fans of him have started to turn up - some Americans, some Finns, some people trying to get into the trial. He's also charmingly slammed women, claiming we lack backbone and comprehensions abilities.
He's been blaming his actions on anyone but himself. It's Norway's fault for being multicultural. It's the media's fault for not letting right-wingers have enough space for their views. It's the victims' fault for supporting multiculturalism. Hell, some people have even vaguely backed him up claiming this is a punishment on Norway for being secular. I don't think anyone ever deserves what was done here, quite simply. He said in court he can't let himself realise the horror of what he has done because it would break him - deflecting blame for it thus makes sense. I suspect he will never let himself face that the blame is solely his.
The main question of the trial is Breivik's sanity. I can see now why opinions are divided on it. There is clearly something wrong in his head, but is that the same as being not criminally liable for his actions? That I am not sure of - but my layman's opinion from this week is that he is liable, that the delusions he's come under he's sought out himself. We shall see what the court decides in the end.
Finally, if he is found liable, it is true Norway's maximum penalty is 21 years. However, we do also have containment, which is a preventative measure and basically means life imprisonment if someone is considered a danger. Breivik will never be let out. As for the death penalty, Norway doesn't have it. Majority of Norwegians don't support it, and that number has not changed after Breivik's action. What he did, he did to us, and as such, it is we who choose how to try and sentence him. This trial is horrible, but we do this because the principles and ideals of our society is far more important than Breivik - and because doing anything else lets him harm us even further. Survivors of Utøya have been stressing that exact point.
The CNN wrote a bit about our desire to live up to our values, as well as
a look on our prison system. There were
flowers outside the court today again. Our PM posted
this picture to his public Facebook today. The rose has become our symbol after July 22nd. I hope we can continue to make it so, that when the nine weeks of this trial has been endured, Breivik will be put away (either into psychiatric care or into prison), but that the roses and what they symbolize will remain. That we're Norway, that we hold to our values, our democracy, our openness, our human rights commitments and that we answer violence with roses. That's what we owe those we lost.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2){kind=small}
phdelicious. Much love and moose to her.
welcoming
peaceful
accomplished
amused
optimistic
exhausted
horny
thoughtful
tired
sad
apathetic
moody
depressed
calm
curious
sore
pleased
aggravated
