Oscar Pistorius charged with Murder

Cookie_Monster

The south african sprinter who has the blades instead of lower legs.
http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/image/jpg/201250/op_220x147.jpg

Seemingly he was at home in bed, girlfriend turns up to surprise him and he think she's an intruder and guns her down by mistake.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10865508

"I think what this actually highlights is the level of fear ordinary South Africans have. This is a man who has gone to bed, it's an innocent surprise from a girlfriend and the moment he thinks someone is trying to break in he grabs his gun."

"This has come as a complete surprise for a man who's considered a national hero,''Maistry said.

Crazy stuff, I wonder is the above statement a true reflection of the issues in South Africa and if the fear actually that pronounced in general?

El Siglo

Think this covered in a previous thread.

IM0

well that right there is pretty damn random, to be imfamous and do something like that

checkyabadself

(Horatio voice)..... This seems like a case of more blade and less runner, sunglasses on, cue the who.

El Siglo

checkyabadself wrote: »

(Horatio voice)..... This seems like a case of more blade and less runner, sunglasses on, cue the who.

Here's a meme that just came out...

seamus

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Crazy stuff, I wonder is the above statement a true reflection of the issues in South Africa and if the fear actually that pronounced in general?

As mentioned in the other thread (presumably by someone living in SA), it's a very real fear as unlike we would expect here (and even in the US), an intruder will not sneak around your home stealing stuff and run if they hear a warning. They will simply shoot you dead before proceeding to rob your home.

While no doubt the level of fear is far out of proportion to the actual level of danger, but when you consider 18,000 murders per year, at the very least it means a lot of killings happen and people are understandably worried about it. On an Irish scale, that would be the equivalent of 1,800 murders per year. At present a bad year in Ireland is 60 murders.

However this particular case does also raise questions about whether Pistorious's level of violence was perhaps amplified by by *ahem* hormones in his bloodstream, such that his first instinct was to pick up a weapon and shoot.

El Siglo

El Siglo wrote: »

Think this covered in a previous thread.

Yep, serious deja vu.

seamus

seamus wrote: »

However this particular case does also raise questions about whether Pistorious's level of violence was perhaps amplified by by *ahem* hormones in his bloodstream, such that his first instinct was to pick up a weapon and shoot.

Bit of a jump there no? You just explained why it would be understandable for a "normal" person to react like that.

seamus

Deleted User wrote: »

Bit of a jump there no? You just explained why it would be understandable for a "normal" person to react like that.

Just speculation. I don't know if a normal person, even in those circumstances, would instantly leap up with a weapon and shoot without even a cursory evaluation of their surroundings.

Though the human brain can do really odd stuff when woken unexpectedly.

Thread here already OP