Reeva Steenkamp: Cut down by “Blade Runner”?
Double amputee Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius has been charged with murdering his girlfriend, demolishing a sweet sporting mythos that had proved inspirational for physically disabled individuals and the institutionally disabled nation of South Africa.
Pistorius, nicknamed “Blade Runner” for the carbon-fiber prosthetic attachments replacing the legs that were amputated before his first birthday, was said to be the most admired South African after Nelson Mandela. Known as “the fastest man on no legs,” he doggedly overcame congenital flaws to represent South Africa in the 2012 London Olympics. He claims his motto is “You’re not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have,” and a tattoo on his back features this passage from Corinthians: “I do not run like a man running aimlessly.”
“Oscar was our good thing,” wrote Sarah Britten of Johannesburg’s Mail & Guardian. “He was our story, a hero who, for all his flaws, overcame the odds and exemplified the greatness of the human spirit.” South African expat Donald McCrae wrote for the Guardian: “Pistorius was a gleaming symbol of South Africa’s past resistance to adversity, and of its future embrace of equality. His life-story was often told as a parable of hope that the country really was in the process of remaking itself after apartheid.”
That all changed on Valentine’s Day. Rather than the second coming of Mandela, Oscar Pistorius is looking more and more like South Africa’s O. J. Simpson.
This is what’s known so far:
On the early morning of February 14, Pistorius fired four 9mm bullets at his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, hitting her in the head, arm, waist, and hand. At least three of these bullets were fired at Steenkamp through the door of a bathroom in which she had apparently locked herself. Police refuted initial rumors that Pistorius had mistakenly shot at an intruder, citing a lack of evidence of forced entry at his home. The back of Steenkamp’s skull was also crushed, possibly by a bloody cricket bat found at the crime scene.
Neighbors said they’d heard shouting and screaming coming from Pistorius’s home shortly before the killing. Police later confirmed they’d previously visited his residence in response to domestic disturbances.
Before calling paramedics, Pistorius reportedly called his best friend Justin Divaris and confessed to the shooting. When Divaris arrived at the crime scene, he says he saw Pistorius repeatedly sobbing, “My baba, I’ve killed my baba. God take me away.” When paramedics arrived, Steenkamp was still alive but gargling blood from her injuries. She died at the scene.
Although they were known as South Africa’s “golden couple,” Pistorious and Steenkamp had only been dating since November. On the day she was killed, Steenkamp had been scheduled to deliver a motivational speech against domestic abuse at a local school, citing her alleged experiences with a boyfriend prior to Pistorius.
Only days before she was killed, Steenkamp had written the following on her Instagram page:
I woke up in a happy safe home this morning. Not everyone did. Speak out against the rape of individuals in SA. RIP Anene Booysen. #rape #crime #sayNO.
ARTICLE CONTINUES HERE.
She was hot.
While everyone used Newton and the Batman shootings to talk about guns, Goad was the only person I heard blame meds. With Newton and Batman they had just recently changed their meds (and they were on a lot). Now it turns out Pistorius was on steroids.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/slay_blade_roid_rage_Nd6bg6lfE2cOXzmY0lOcmM
“How many people have to die before we start talking about meds control?”
-Piers Morgan
http://cavnews.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/top-psychiatrist-meds-behind-school-massacres/
Caught a recent segment with Juan Williams hosting O’Reilly’s gig, interviewing a radio talk show host in the Chi and an attorney talking about the family breakdown in the black community as fueling the gun violence. Couldn’t believe they were talking about something other than guns. I’m sure that argument will dissipate like a fart in the wind, especially after this orgasm of irony: http://www.suntimes.com/18282748-761/chicago-teen-killed-hours-after-her-sister-attended-obamas-speech-on-violence.html
The final point is a good one (equality of tyranny among inequals), but making that point before the final verdict is rendered is hack journalism. Have you ever heard of the Duke lacrosse case?
Of course I’ve heard of the Duke lacrosse case, but I don’t remember any of the lacrosse players admitting to shooting someone four times. In this case, no one is disputing that he killed her. He’s admitted that he did that. What’s at stake legally is whether he did it intentionally or mistakenly. If it was intentionally, that would legally be murder. All I said is that he’s perfectly capable of killing. A trial will decide whether it was murder. Therefore, you have no point and your comment constitutes hack commenting.
I stand by Pistorius. She was committing suicide by beating herself with the cricket bat and he tried to stop her damaging herself more, by shooting her.
Okay Jim. Whatever you say. Let’s ignore your extremely passive-aggressive propensity for saying things just enough to be able to back out of them when someone calls you out. “I never said he murdered her! I said he’s capable of killing!” That’s fine, except when did anyone say that Pistorius is proof of cripples being saints? And if he did shoot her because he mistook her for a home invader, that blows up your main point. All that proves is that he was probably drunk enough to believe that he thought he saw something that he didn’t see. It also proves that he doesn’t crap the bed at go-time. Whoopeefuckindoo. Your point is null and void unless it’s 100% decided that he murdered her.
Right. One bullet shell was found in the bedroom. Three bullet holes in the bathroom door. He mistook her for an intruder in the bedroom, then when she ran into the bathroom screaming, he continued to mistake her for an intruder and shot three bullets into the bathroom door. Because intruders usually lock themselves in the bathroom and scream in a voice eerily like one’s girlfriend. Entirely plausible.
And just forget about the bloody cricket bat. He obviously beat her over the head with it while still mistaking her for an intruder. Or she used it for self-defense while screaming, “Hey, knock it the heck off—I’m not an intruder!”
And it’s not like neighbors said they heard screaming in the house all night before the murder. Nosirree, bob. Nope. Nup.
Yes, you have an airtight case, dude. You should, like, be a DA or something.
And it’s entirely my fault you don’t know the difference between killing and murder. It’s my fault that I actually know the difference and therefore choose my words very carefully and always back them up. It’s not like you’re just some other clueless anonymous pedant who’s over-eager like a little gay squirrel to catch me in a mistake yet always winds up being wrong. It’s not like you get 95 Dork Points for the screen name “Yah Rilly” alone. All that’s been established.
If tha blade don’t fit you must acquit