Chapter 160: Procedural issue or route issue?
After the death row prisoners, those prisoners who were sentenced to labor camps by public trials by the masses were awaiting Seraphine's review.
Most of these labor camp prisoners were captured in yesterday's campaign and are low-level thugs working for the Takeda Saito Group.
Usually they were only responsible for watching over the place, providing security, and collecting debts. Because they were at too low a level in the group, they had basically no chance to do any serious evil, so they were lucky enough to save their lives after a public trial.
The masses' judgment of these people was generally correct.
If there was any mistake, it was because the preparation for the public trial was too hasty and chaotic, and the leading cadres and the masses participating in the trial did not have a deep enough understanding of the circumstances of some of these low-level thugs, and did not grasp the crimes in detail.
As a result, there were many low-ranking criminals who had committed serious crimes, mixed in with the small hooligans, and were let off without knowing it, with only a few years of labor reform sentenced.
And now, after Seraphine's trial...
Immediately, a dozen reactionary elements who had committed numerous crimes were dragged out by the cadres and executed on the spot.
Bang, bang, bang——
A series of gunshots rang out, and many sinful souls died.
Seraphine's expression showed no sign of discomfort.
She took a sip of tea to moisten her throat, and then said in her naturally sweet voice:
"Next."
For a moment the air was dead silent.
The prisoners all saw that this big star from Piltover was actually a death singer. Whenever her sweet voice sounded, most people would be taken out and shot.
Most of these prisoners had done evil things, and they were not sure whether their crimes would be commuted from labor camp to death penalty after Seraphine's review.
So they would rather not have the chance for a fair trial and stay in the audience rather than go up.
But does anyone dare to go up?
Those who truly believe they have been wronged.
After hesitating, they walked onto the stage one after another.
"I... I'm really not a lackey of Takeda Saito... I just run a small blacksmith workshop and have processed some small parts for the Takeda factory..." an uncle cried.
He claimed that he was just doing some small business honestly, just because the store was opened in Takeda Saito's territory and he supplied goods to Takeda Saito's factory...
Just yesterday, during the great movement that swept across the country, the out-of-control masses rushed into the workshop and started an unreasonable campaign of looting, smashing, and burning.
Not only was all his property looted, but he himself was also tied up and labeled a member of the "Takeda Gang" and brought here for public trial.
As a result, today, after a public trial, this honest little craftsman was sentenced to several years of hard labor along with those thugs from the Takeda Gang.
"Isn't this an injustice?"
"I myself am forced to pay protection fees to the Takeda gang every year. The bastards at the Takeda factory asked me to process parts, and they kept the price down to the lowest, forcing me to work hard for them every day, and in the end I could barely earn enough to eat."
"I, I am also a victim of bullying—"
"How did it become the 'Takeda Gang'?"
The small workshop owner cried and complained.
And he was not the only one who was wrongly accused like him.
There are people who run blacksmith workshops, tailor shops, carpentry shops, car repair shops, daily necessities stores... they are all honest businessmen.
And their experiences are basically the same.
They were just doing business on the street when a large group of "zero-dollar buyers" under the banner of Gana broke into their stores and robbed both the people and the stores.
"What they said is true." Seraphine told Levi with a frown.
The row of bodies shot earlier did not win her any sympathy. But facing the cries from the souls of these people, she frowned deeply in distress.
"What happened?!"
Levi was also a little angry.
He had long thought that in yesterday's chaotic riot, there would definitely be such a chaotic mass movement out of control.
After all, the leaders are developing too fast, while the grassroots cadres are too weak. A mass movement without a vanguard will inevitably get out of control.
As a result, many sports have turned into wild carnivals for the "zero-dollar shopping" crowd.
This time it was not bad. Although there were still many out-of-control chaos in the process, the Leaders Association at least managed to control the situation and stabilize the order overall.
All of this was within Levi's expectations.
But what Levi didn’t expect was that “the masses had been grudged for a long time, and were hot-blooded. In the chaos, some lumpen proletarians with ulterior motives mixed in and took advantage of the movement to engage in looting, smashing, and burning. I can understand this.”
"But what about you?"
Levi looked at the leaders at the scene:
"You are leaders who understand theory, but don't you know what is right and wrong?"
"The masses arrested these small vendors, shop owners, and workshop owners without knowing what was going on, and you just believed they were guilty and sentenced them to labor reform?"
Li Wei asked the leading cadres in charge of the public trial in a serious tone.
But the cadres also said: "Chairman Li Wei, we...are all following the will of the masses."
Yes, during the previous public trials, these small shop owners and workshop owners did not receive any sympathy from the masses.
Not only did the masses not sympathize with them, some even added insult to injury when they cried out for justice, pointing out how close their ties were with the Takeda gang and how .
So the leading cadres sentenced these people to several years of labor reform based on the opinions of the masses.
"Why is this?" Levi frowned.
Since Seraphine could read their minds, it proved that these small shop owners and workshop owners were not the evil Takeda gang or the baron's lackeys at all.
But why are they still targeted by the masses?
“Because everyone hates them.”
Seraphine listened quietly to everyone's voices, and then said with a complicated expression: "In the minds of Zaun people, those who have money to open stores in Zaun are just as annoying as... the people of Piltover."
I see.
Now Levi understood.
These small shop owners and workshop owners are all small property owners, and are part of the middle class with some wealth in Zaan.
So there is a natural gap between them and the generally impoverished Zaun people, just like there is between the people of Piltover and the people of Zaun.
The small bourgeoisie will inadvertently show contempt for the impoverished, but because their wealth depends on the existing order , even though they are also oppressed by the alchemist barons, they are naturally willing to stand on the side of the alchemist barons.
The impoverished people suffered tremendously in Zaun, and they would instinctively hate everything, including these "high and mighty" small property owners.
Some people came out to point out these small shop owners and workshop owners, perhaps out of disgust or even personal vendettas.
The rest of the people had no idea whether these small shop owners and workshop owners were guilty or not. When they heard someone come forward to accuse them, coupled with their collective disgust for these small property owners, they also followed suit and demanded severe punishment.
"But you believe whatever the masses say? You don't even do the most basic investigation and interrogation?" Li Wei was very dissatisfied.
Now that the chaos has just subsided and Seraphine is backing this public trial, it is understandable that the process is a bit simple and rough.
But Li Wei could not accept the fact that these cadres blindly followed public opinion and sentenced people simply by putting a label on them.
If this is the case, then why not just give each person in the crowd a piece of pottery, ask them to write down the name of the person they think is guilty, and then vote to decide who is guilty and who is not guilty.
What else do leaders need to do?
"If you use your brain, you will know that these small businessmen who run workshops and tailor shops cannot be considered as the Takeda gang."
"With their identities and abilities, what bad things can they do?"
Li Wei questioned these cadres.
But the cadres still have something to say.
Some of them couldn't help but say, "President Levi, didn't you ask us to take advantage of the opportunity of defeating Takeda Saito to realize the complete expropriation of the means of production of the bourgeoisie in the Takeda territory?"
"Aren't these small property owners who run workshops and shops considered the bourgeoisie? I think it's just right that the masses arrested them. This saves us a lot of work in the future..."
This is what the cadres thought. They felt that small property owners were also property owners and should be overthrown with violence and their property should be confiscated.
Now the leader is about to establish his own base.
Many cadres believe that the Wind Leader Association can take this opportunity to establish a complete Jannaist country in Zaun in one go.
The existence of these small property owners is naturally un-Jana-ism. They must be violently defeated, or even physically wiped out.
"This..." Levi immediately realized the seriousness of the problem.
This issue is more profound and more difficult than the issue of trial procedure.
Because there is a problem with everyone's thinking and there are differences in the understanding of "how".
This disagreement must be resolved.
So he asked: "I understand what you mean, but everyone can think about it realistically. At this stage..."
“Are small business owners our enemies or our friends?”
