Anton Savage: Enoch Burke is not in jail because of his religious beliefs, but because he broke our rules

Originally published in the Business Post.

The Enoch Burke saga is causing a lot of people to question our justice system and the fitness for purpose of our contempt of court laws. The theory is that repeatedly jailing someone for failing to purge their contempt is an untenable practice, and it’s reprehensible that a man has been in jail for 400 days when violent offenders often get shorter sentences.

That is of course the greatest load of old arse. Enoch Burke is in jail because he repeatedly, unendingly, incessantly does what the court has told him not to. Jail is his choice.

It’s like a fella peeing on an electric fence. The first time you could forgive, as he might not be entirely familiar with how the whole electricity thing works. But the second or third time he receives 2,000 volts where none should ever go, it’s hard to maintain sympathy.

This is particularly true for Enoch who, let us not forget, started all of this by getting turfed out of his school for failing to obey the rules. Much as the stirring-sticks of social media would like us to believe he was set upon because of his principled religious beliefs, this is simply not accurate.

He was dragged into a disciplinary procedure for being unable to give voice to his religious beliefs in a way that is appropriate in the workplace. The beliefs are not what matters.

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