The crowds are always largest when the stones are being thrown, when the taunts are being shouted, when the scarlet letters are being applied. When justice is finally determined and our lusts for punishment are confirmed by the powers that be, the crowds are always smaller. After all, we've already meted out our punishment. Its all just a technicality, isn't it? And, when the courts renounce our public verdicts and vindicate the accused, why, the streets are abandoned, littered only with scraps of paper drifting too and fro over the drying blood stains.

Happens over. And over. And over.