When Rex encounters trouble, Frank has reason to consider the instinct defence, its uses and misuses.
“Off to work Rex”? I asked. “I am Frank” he replied, beaming. “I passed my probation last week,” he continued, excitedly. “Well done,” I said, heartfelt. “I saved 1200 quid already” he said. “Brilliant” I said.
One rent deposit, a home of his own, three dating sites, and a honeymoon in Florida later, Rex’s dreams for leaving home sounded like mine at his age. Admittedly, his plans did not include ‘lozzucking around waiting for the unlikely rise of a Socialist Republic’ but still …
Rex prodded me with his rolled up newspaper. “Read it. Back page. Anthony Joshua. Body achieves what the mind believes. That’s what he says”.
Rex loves boxing. So do I. Joshua is his hero.
Just about to settle down for a cup of tea and a read when wife arrives home, pale and perplexed. ”You’ll never guess the outcome of that fit to practise hearing for the learning disability nurse”. I put the milk back in the fridge and picked up Rex’s newspaper. “You mean the nurse who punched a teenager so hard in the face he broke his teeth and his jaw. That nurse who, trained in restraint, showed none. Him? Banned for life I hope”.
Free to punch again
Wife shook her head. “The entry in the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s register for Maxwell Nyamukapa1 has a big green tick of approval against it, followed by ‘Registered – no restrictions on practice’. He is free to practise and to punch again”.
I could not compute wife’s explanation. It contained all the wrong words: no case to answer, act of self-defence, instinctive. “Instinctive you say”? I asked as it dawned, my anger uncoiling like a spring. “Instinct? Against a vulnerable teenager with learning disabilities and autism?”
Wife joined me in apoplexy. Yet more legitimised violence in health and social care? Wife and I were globally vexed. Men with huge power over others re-branding their heinous crimes ‘instinct’, like they cannot help themselves, like it’s natural, like they have no choice. Weinstein and his vile rape instinct, faking helplessness. Trump filmed boasting serial sexual assault, defended as locker-room talk. As if these are the unrestrainable instincts of men, bearing no resemblance to the men we know and respect. Instinct – a fashionable defence of the indefensible.
I calmed down, unrolled Rex’s newspaper, glanced at the back page, saw Anthony Joshua with his arms and fists up, gloved, defending himself legitimately. I rolled it back up again furiously and spent 20 minutes defending boxing, its discipline, its relative care of the human.
“Did you know that in boxing there are 21 fouls for which a boxer can be penalised or disqualified”? I said, fuming. “In a sport that is all about whacking people, nowhere does it say that the instinct of self-defence mitigates any of those 21 fouls,” I added, whacking the fridge door with my rolled-up newspaper so hard, an Eiffel Tower fridge magnet catapulted in wife’s direction, decapitating her cup cake.
I was just wiping vanilla cream and entrails of cherry off the floor tiles when the front door bell went. Wife answered it and ushered Rex into the kitchen. Gone was the buoyant dreamer and schemer of this morning; he looked crushed and crestfallen. “I am gonna lose my job,” he blurted out, near to tears. Turns out customer and his mate, sixth formers from a local school, were baiting Rex all the way up beers, wines and spirits. “They called me a mong,” he said. “They called me a spazz.”
“When I got to bread and started filling the shelves I …” Rex hesitated, “I whacked one of ’em round the head with a bag of burger buns when he called my Mum a retard,” he said, shamefaced . “Wife gave him a big, long hug.
I read his suspension letter. “I’ll accompany you to the hearing if you like,” I offered. “Do you think I’ll be sacked”? asked Rex, still desolate.
“What would Anthony Joshua say”? I asked, trying to comfort him. “The body achieves … no, in this case the mind achieves what the mind believes. Let’s believe that you won’t be sacked, and you won’t be sacked”.
It was a gloved hand
Rex went home to tell his Mum. “Well, technically, it was a gloved hand,” I said to wife and we smiled, wryly, about the burger buns. “What’s the line of defence going to be Frank? Wife asked. “Oh, that’s easy,” I said .“There are professional role models for that,” I declared. “Instinct. His defence will be instinct”.
- Maxwell Nyamukapa was a nurse at Winterbourne View Hospital.
