I fully understand the enormity of Pistorius' task trying to explain how anyone could blast away through the bathroom door at what he claims were strangers who had broken in and potentially were a considerable danger to him. Of course in a society such as the UK where firearms are generally banned and even the police have to jump through all kind of hoops if they are required to discharge their weapons, we are miles away from the gun toting society South Africa has been for many years. Fear of personal attack has always been high and is not getting better.
The Pistorius case is symptomatic of the fear of violence, not the violence of a street fight but the use of weapons to kill without much thought for the victim.
The court room scenes are strikingly South African. The un-plastered brickwork of a government building shorn of any decoration. The physically frail judge who seems a little out of place. The way the accused when responding has to address his answers to "My Lady" rather than the Barrister asking the question. The heavily accented leaders of both the Defence and Prosecution jar against ear and somehow diminish the solemnity of the court. Finally there is Pistorius himself a clearly damaged individual with his broken voice and uncontrollable emotional delivery which seems unmanly as he gives us no rest from his supposed anguish.
How can a man who has armed himself and is marginally secure behind his gun still discharge shot after shot through a door at someone he believes has broken into his house. There was no confrontation, no call to come out of the bathroom I have a gun pointing at you, no phone to the police just a fusillade of shots, the act of a coward.
As I listened to his pleading I wondered for his mental health and could well imagine his fragile psych peeved at his girlfriends response tipping him over the edge in frustration, a frustration that probably has its root in his deformity
http://twocents2012.blogspot.com.au/
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