The secret to commiting the perfect murder, killing someone and getting away with it, is to become a celebrity first. The media wave yesterday and today is that Pistorius is suddenly vindicated by the inarticulate policeman who could not cope with a very glib defence lawyer. It is like watching “Chicago” for real.
Botha was bamboozled by the defence counsel into saying that the police had no evidence that contradicted Pistorius’ version of events. But he had plainly given just such evidence – for example the height and downward angle of the shots indicating Pistorius was wearing his artificial legs. Pistorius had to walk right past the bed where he claims to have believed Steenkamp was to get to the place where he fired the shots, if he told the truth about where he was coming from. He did not bother to check on Steenkamp. He took the revolver from a holster by Steenkamp’s side of the bed. All of that contradicted Pistorius’ account of events. That a policeman was not verbally dexterous enough to put it together under pressure does not alter the facts.
Actually the prosecution had already made the most vital point right at the start of the trial. Even if the person locked in the toilet (and it appears it was a small discreet toilet, not a bathroom) had been a burglar, it would still be murder to pump four bullets in to them. Not to mention the fact that he made, by his own account, no attempt to ascertain who was in the toilet or where Steenkamp was.
Violence against women in South Africa, and gun murder, are both at epidemic levels. Anywhere else it would be astonishing that both the lead policemen and Pistorius himself had been involved in other incidents of shooting at people in the last two years.
I have always held that prison as a punishment should only be given to those who are an active danger to others. Even if you accept every word of Pistorius’ account, he should be in prison for it. I have a sinking feeling he will not be.
I really cannot understand why this case has caused such a fuss.
It’s been ‘top story’ on the television news for some days now.
It’s not that important surely?
The celebrity driven news agenda. Top story two days ago was the Duchess of Cambridge’ stomach and some novelist making comments (sensible in themselves) on Diana.
Tim – it’s the questions that our media are not asking that make this remarkable (but not unusual).
Year old charges against Botha are suddenly reinstated during a high profile case and all the BBC can say is how sensible it is to remove him from the case.
“Not to mention the fact that he made, by his own account, no attempt to ascertain who was in the toilet or where Steenkamp was”
I expect her screaming and shouting made that unnecessary.
the msm are running with this story as a distraction to the ongoing paedophile investigations and the robbery of our citizens.
” Even if the person locked in the toilet (and it appears it was a small discreet toilet, not a bathroom) had been a burglar, it would still be murder to pump four bullets in to them.” – I don’t agree. They break into your home, they deserve anything that comes your way. Tony Martin was right.
That should of course read “everything that come ‘their’ way.”
‘The celebrity driven news agenda.’
Everything to feed stupid public with the stupid news to hide real important developments.
We also have much media speculation about the case. It’s the sort of coverage that would not be allowed here in the UK. I’m sure it is allowed in South Africa.
I see the BBC engaged in this sort of speculation too.
Contrast the BBC’s attempts to apply the standards of this country to the Swedish alleged rape case involving Anna Ardin and her anonymity.
Come on, lwtc247, the Tony Martin case was entirely different. He had been systematically burgled many times before; there were two intruders; and they were at large. From what he was in a position to know, they might have been planning to capture him, tie him up, and torture or kill him. Burglars in Britain have been known to overcome a householder, tie him up, and then set fire to him – presumably just for fun.
In the Pistorius case, it was supposedly a matter of someone locked in the toilet. As long as they were in there, Pistorius was not in danger. If they managed to break out, that would be time enough to consider firing his gun. I would have thought the first thing to be done was phone the police and report a burglar, temporarily secured, but potentially dangerous. The police would have come round, opened the door, and cleared up the confusion. If, that is, Pistorius had not in the meantime managed to notice the absence of his sweetheart from her bed, and connect that with the unknown person in the toilet.
O/T – For Mary, if she’s around.
Mary, could I ask you to do your wonderful digging on a name for me?
In May Sweden will be hosting a convention on “Internet Freedom for Global Development”. Here’s the programme:
http://www.stockholminternetforum.se/program/
They’ve helpfully listed all the participants sorted by country:
http://www.stockholminternetforum.se/archive/sif2012/participants/
including this one:
SHEA, Jamie P. NATO Sweden
Who he? NATO = Sweden? I don’t think they’ve told the rest of the world yet that Sweden is a member…
Tom, I’m talking in general about people who break into house.
I don’t think it applies to Pistorous as nobody broke into his house.
If what Craig says is true it seems like he did kill her.
Apparently he shot her with a starter pistol so surely it’s a race issue too! Taxi? Pour moi?
Mary,
I did find this – a NATO report on the “civil dimension of National Security” drafted by Lord Jopling (United Kingdom), their General Rapporteur:
http://www.nato-pa.int/default.asp?SHORTCUT=2443
They do seem to be very, very exercised about Wikileaks. The first half of the report is almost exclusively about them.
I caught in between the top stories on the radio earlier, a brisk little mention of how the PM is suggesting ‘military assistance’ should be thought of as developement aid and the cost could come off the developement aid budget (in this time of austerity). Its the opposite of swords to ploughshares isnt it. –Just a little by-the-by mention between the ‘top stories’
If only developement could be considered a military strategy, developement aid should come off the military budget!
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/cameron-suggests-using-foreign-aid-cash-military-000833893–business.html
Very well said.
Celebrity, Rich white guy in South Africa?
My pessimistic view makes me think that he will get away, be on a technicality, diminished responsibility or similar. All that when the simple fact is that he did shoot her FOUR times.
Why he did it, we might never know for sure.
The other sad truth is that someone lost a daughter.
U have just got it from the bitterly cold east wind and saw that the wild birds had consumed the feeder full of seeds and nuts that I put out this morning, about 1 kg worth! They must be hungry.
I saw your message and the name instantly Jamie Shea instantly rang a bell as being a spokesman in one of our wars but I cannot remember which one! I will have a look a bit later when I have thawed out.
~~~
A very weird system of justice seems to pertain in SA. A hearing to determine bail has turned into a trial. I think the hero of the Paralympics is a bit of a psychopath, hence the show of tears. Where does the bloodied cricket bat fit in?
The defence and the family, who appear to be some of the SA rich, have successfully discredited the police evidence and Mr Botha. I think that if he is given bail, Pistorius will commit suicide.
The girl was beautiful. She woukd have been a good choice for P Harry.
~~~
The BBC are giving full welly to the verdicts at Woolwich Crown Court on the three Birmingham men.
Why give this racial dimension? The victim herself was white.
“Why give this racial dimension? The victim herself was white.”
It was a joke, starting pistol, race, geddit.
This story has led the BBC R4 news for a couple of days. Yesterday at noon, it took the first 1m 10s of a 2 minute bulletin. It’s the primary news in the US too, for some peculiar reason. Speculation goes on and on, being broadcast right now as I type this, on the WaO with Martha “oh… ok.. ok…” Kearney.
Clearly this was murder. How many burglars hang out in the bathroom – was he supposed to be stealing the toilet paper? If I got up in the middle of the night and found the bathroom occupied, it’s rather likely to be the misses in there, not a burglar.
Would there be any problem in saying, “You stay where you are until the police arrive – open the door and I’ll fire!”
And hitting her with 3 out of 4 shots, while apparently scared for his life – through a door at that – after just waking up? Damn – he could have got another medal for shooting in the Olympics.
What’s this nonsense about the witness who heard screaming and shouting being declared unreliable, because they were 600 feet away? Who else could have done the shouting, if not the couple?
*
WTC247: Sorry, Martins was not “right” to shoot an unarmed 16-yo in the back with an illegally held sawn-off shotgun. You can’t go shooting burglars dead with impunity, or all burglars – for their own preservation – would have to go carrying guns themselves and always shoot first.
Maybe you’re American, where the shooter is always right? No offence mate, but we don’t need advice on gun usage from Americans.
It must have been Iraq and before that Kosovo.
Oct. 2000 – Mar. 2003 Director of Information and Press
April 2003 – Aug. 2005 Deputy Assistant Secretary General for External Relations, Public Diplomacy Division
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/who_is_who_50159.htm
I can see no mention of Sweden and they are definitely not in NATO.
but the old peace keeping mantra comes into play.
Swedish Troops Head for Afghanistan
February 18, 2006: Sweden is sending some 400 troops to Afghanistan, to form the core of a PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team). Although Sweden has been militarily neutral for nearly two centuries, it has been active in contributing troops to peacekeeping missions. During the 1950-53 Korean war, it even sent a military hospital to Korea, and later in the 1950s, began providing military observers and peacekeepers in the Middle East. Sweden, like Switzerland, has a small professional armed force, augmented by a huge reserve (containing all males of military age fit for military service.) The peacekeepers are a combination of professionals, and reservists who volunteer for the duty.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htu…/20060218.aspx
He is speaking here at that forum you mentioned.
Informal summary of session 6 – Managing the balance of freedom and security in a digital world. Swedish Foreign Affairs Symposium.
OR Eliminating freedom and imposing security on a digital world!
Shea is here sitting next to the dangerous Neville Jones woman. He starts by saying that at the time of the Kosovo air campaign, NATO had an a DNS cyber attack. He uses the 1st person plural throughout when he speaks of NATO. Nasty piece of work. Glib. He could be talking at a supermarket logistics forum not one for killers. Be very afraid. The warmongers’ enforcer.
http://www.stockholminternetforum.se/archive/sif2012/program/session-6/informal-summary/
Glenn. We’ll have to agree to disagree. I’m not into gun ‘culture’ or a 1776’er :D, but if vermin break into your home (I won’t add the dimensions of the story you somehow left out) then… well good riddance in my books.
Craig wrote – The secret to commiting the perfect murder, killing someone and getting away with it, is to become a celebrity
first.
I think this might be a celebrity second or third. O.J. Simpson got away with it and I think Lana Turner did something. Hell, there must be a dozen celebrity murderers out there who got away with it. Robert Blake got away with it but not, alas, the bewigged inventor of the Wall of Sound, Phil Spector.
She was not a celebrity but became one. The American Amanda Knox.
In December 2011, it was reported that Knox had secured the services of Washington, DC-based lawyer Robert Barnett in order to negotiate an official book deal.[48] On February 16, 2012, HarperCollins announced that Knox had signed with them to write her memoir in a deal that will pay her $4 million.[49] On November 29, 2012, HarperCollins announced that the memoir will be titled Waiting to be Heard, with an expected release date of April 30, 2013. [50]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Knox
Craig wrote:
Meredith Kercher Case
by craig on Oct 6th 2011 in Uncategorized
To cut through the enormous wave of rubbish that swept the net for 48 hours about Amanda Knox, I wanted to publish the text of the statement she made to police trying to frame Patrick Lumumba. It is evidence of how appalling the media coverage is that I can’t track down through the gush this […]
The White Charger Stays In The Stable
by craig on Dec 7th 2009 in Life
As a campaigner for liberty, and a sucker for damsels in distress, I was looking to work up a piece in defence of Amanda Knox. Incarceration is a horrible thing. We lock up far, far too many people in the UK. Punishment is necessary in society, but there are innumerable other forms of punishment possible […]
WGAF. This story is another distraction. Olympic/Celebrity tosh.
Another ‘terror plot’ too, beardies in togas, in the realms of thought crime.
Freaking BBC tossers. Run the Thatcher obituaries.
Thanks Mary, for that info on NATO’s Jamie Shea.
I think you’re right – the latter is the true purpose of the Internet Freedom for Global Development convention in May. The US State Department also has quite a contingent participating. I’m just surprised there’s only one from our own FCO.
Sweden’s supposed 200-year-old ‘neutrality’ is much prized by Sweden’s citizens. It’s a pity no one’s told them that their government became a de facto member of NATO without bothering to inform them. Here’s their Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt giving a joint press conference with Anders Rasmussen, NATO Secretary-General in April 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMBCHJNlU6E
For other acronym dense types like me that was WGAF Who Gives A Fuck from Cryptonym and because I like looking things up, a cryptonym is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_name
~~~
Mr Marcus Beale Asst CC W Mercia police keeps saying another 9/11 or 7/7 was averted. If he had not been so assiduous in his duties and preventing one fron happening, the powers that be could have started another war like the one in Afghanistan.
~~~
The SA court have announced changes in the prosecution. Botha has been replaced. Hearing adjourned. News conference on CH 80. Chaos reigns and now the sound has gone.
Stop the defence cuts says Rasmussen, one of the more mad mad men.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/21/anders-fogh-rasmussen-defense-cuts_n_2732418.html?utm_hp_ref=world
Rest at link http://www.spinwatch.org/blogs-mainmenu-29/nicholas-jones-mainmenu-85/5279-nato-strategist-jamie-shea-gives-chilling-insight-into-militarys-media-control-at-times-of-war-
A quick news search finds him quoted as “NATO representative” in news items going back to at least 1995.
The cop leading the investigation is accused of murder………..7 murders.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21528631