Okay, let's get the good jokes out of the way first:
"What's the difference between me (me being some guy in a comments section on the internet) and Oscar Pistorius?
Oscar takes his girlfriends out on Valentine's Day."
and...
"Oscar thinks he should get bail because he has a good track record."
(Same guy... he was on a roll)
That said, utter tragedy. Terribly sad. Strange mix of celebrity, sports hero, gun control issues, media froth, violence in South Africa, police integrity, possibly corruption, and the way power is amassed and wielded in our society generally.
What do you make of it all? And should Oscar get bail?
What do I make of it? I see a completely paranoid man with a large collection of illegal weapons and a track record for flipping out and shooting objects in his house. He probably didn't mean to kill his girlfriend, but he's a dangerous maniac nonetheless.
It's one sketchy tune he is singing anyway. Truth however may be stranger than fiction I suppose. I was surprised at the legal arguments that centred around 'Why didn't he do x or y?'. Accustomed to that from the chattering masses but I've always found assuming you would react in any given way to a situation completely out of the range of typical experience more than a bit of folly. It reveals the challenges ahead though. How to judge a case where the state of mind of the defendant is the pivotal issue?
Too many available weapons for nutters to get hold of in places like the US and South Africa. So lots of people die. It's as simple as that. This guy shouldn't have been allowed near a gun!
People are vividly and disproportionately afraid of violent crime in the United States and South Africa and that in part is the justification for wholly too many guns and wholly too many accidents and crimes of impulsivity. But in fairness they're not the only populations vulnerable to fear industries that proliferate things well beyond weapons. Violent death is big and obvious but there have been quietly dramatic shifts in cultures across the world based on disproportionate, manufactured fear.
As for Oscar, he should fire his PR team. Leaking his recent private memorial service for his victim was seriously lame. How cynical to manage the image of a homicide, of whatever degree, when it's all this fresh.
Yep, makes him look worse and makes lots of people even more angry. Couldn't be more cynical! What horsesh*t! This guy needs to be put away for a long time, well away from people and guns.