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For the last finallyFriday of 2011, the topic is a frivolous and festive celebration of planking. More specifically, keeping to the theme of this Blog, planking in criminal justice settings.

For the few of you who don’t know, 2011 was the year that planking went viral. In a nutshell, planking is no more than lying facedown in an unusual or incongruous location, flat-out like a plank. Integral to the game is posting a photo of your planking exploits on the Internet.

It became so popular this year that even the New Zealand Prime Minister’s son posted a photo of himself planking on Facebook, with his famous father standing behind him.

Planking on police cars quickly became a popular variation. In some cases, plankers were celebrated:

In others, they were arrested. Using Facebook to brag about your planking made it pretty straightforward for police to come and find you:

In some cases, we don’t know the legal outcome, we can just admire the abs:

I have written before about the prevalence of mobile phones in prison and the way they give rise to bullying and other problems. Sometimes, they just provide evidence of humour:

@babybarista blogged earlier this year about junior barristers having a planking competition in front of a, fortunately oblivious, judge by taking the opportunity to demonstrate how a claimant was lying injured after a fall for which they were seeking compensation. Regrettably, pictures are not available – presumably through fear of being held in contempt of court.

Still, it’s hard to be a killjoy at this time of year – especially when the leader of the free world can be photoshopped into planking action:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 

 

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