K is for Killing

K is for Killing

“His hand moved fast to grasp the edge of her robe and he tugged, causing the robe to come away from her, and drag her to the floor with it. He was strong. She panicked. Maybe he was too strong. He towered over her. There was no time to waste. If he had not already seen the scissors he would soon and he might use them on her. She thrust the scissors into his foot, then scrambled to her feet as he fell. She pounced on him and stabbed repeatedly at his chest. She could hear his roaring but she ignored it and the breakneck speed of her heart, and keep penetrating his chest with the blades. Each strike a payback for every violent thrust of his penis.

She stopped when she exhausted her energy, and it was only then that she heard the urgent knocking on the bathroom door and the anguished cries which vainly attempted to open it.”

-from chapter 13, Ashmore Grief

Death is an unavoidable part of life. Sometimes we know it’s coming, sometimes we do not. We recognize the frightening randomness and fragility of life, and we respond with feigned indifference. We accept it in its startling and disturbing diversity on our screens and in the books we read. Gruesome and heinous murders are popular. Excruciating and sickening details are savoured by morbid and voracious viewers and readers. Death even amuses and cause us to rejoice in the case of the demise of characters we despise. Our thirst for vengeance, for justice is slaked vicariously, and we love it.

In reality, most people fear death, and for those lives have been destroyed by violent acts against them or their loved ones, it is a terminal excoriation of the soul. Death hurts. It can be cruel, and it is certainly indiscriminate. When someone takes another person’s life we are morally offended, and demand justice or retribution. Yet we recognize situations in which it is necessary for people to be killed. Many support just wars, capital punishment and self defence is recognized by the law as a valid defense.

Most of us cannot conceive of a circumstance in which we would kill someone, but that is only because most of us have not had the misfortune to find ourselves in such a situation. Think about it carefully and ask yourself if you had to kill someone, could you? Would you? God forbid it should ever happen, but it’s worth consideration.

Photograph sources:

http://sbgi-pdx.com/krav-maga-defense/

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-grim-reaper/images/12078702/title/grim-reaper-photo 

Behind Closed Doors

Crime occurs daily. It's on the news. It's happening now. It's happening to other people. It's far away. Even in your city, it's still nowhere near you. It's distant, you are safe. You are a spectator. You are not involved. But you could be.

In Loathe Your Neighbor, David Lavender is aware of domestic problems next door. He has heard the loud, abusive arguments and other ominous sounds from within the walls. He has suspicions about the people who live there. He doesn't trust them. On a number of occasions, David goes to investigate, he knocks on the door, he calls the police. He gets involved partly out of neighbourly concern, and partly because he's a stickybeak.


Last week, just up the road from me, a man was killed in his home by his partner. News reports say that during the night she beat the man with an iron rod and poured boiling water over him. Apparently, when she woke in the morning, he was dead. She has been charged.

I wonder if the people who live next door to this tragic couple had any suspicions. If they did, did they act on them? Did they try to get involved, to help? More likely, they, like most of us, had no idea what was going on behind closed doors. They were probably ignorant of the violent disaster brewing. I hope they were. I hope they weren't afraid to get involved, or merely uncaring.

Most people  who are murdered are murdered by someone they know. Random killings of unconnected, unrelated victims are rare. I feel safe, but terribly sad that many people are living under potential death sentences by virtue of the people with whom they share their lives.

The Death Penalty Upsized

Nearly a week after Jill Meagher was reported missing, police arrested a man who led them to her body which was buried in a shallow grave 50km outside the city of Melbourne. Adrian Ernest Bayley has been charged with the rape and murder of the 29 year old Irish born ABC employee. Her family and friends are devastated, and the Australian community shocked and angry.

Talk of retribution naturally arises as people struggle to understand what drove a seemingly normal man to commit such a heinous crime against a beautiful and innocent woman. Details of this crime will follow in the days to come but the full story will not be known until Bayley's trial, and perhaps not even then. Inevitably the perennial discussion about capital punishment re enters public fora. There are those who want this rapist and murderer to be executed but is the death sentence a just punishment?

An eye for an eye sounds appealing as a fair punishment, and is the Bible verse most often quoted when it comes to the death penalty debate, but I don't believe that capital punishment, state sanctioned execution, is ever justified. The argument goes like this, "He took a person's life so he should have his life taken." What about a mass murderer? How many times should Martin Bryant, for example, be executed for murdering 35 people in the Port Arthur massacre? What punishment could atone for the loss of those lives, not to mention the ongoing trauma suffered by the 21 survivors, and all the friends and families of the victims? Adrian Bayley raped Jill Meagher before he murdered her, so should we rape him before strapping him down on the lethal injection table? Who would volunteer to be the state's official rapist? The victims of the disturbing Snowtown murders were tortured in extreme and unusual ways before they were killed. To be fair, shouldn't we do the same thing to the convicted murderers in this case? If so we need a state sanctioned murderer, rapist and torturer  Any volunteers? The money will probably be very good.

I understand the anger people feel, I feel it too, but we mustn't allow our actions to be dictated to by our emotions. Who wants to live in a society where life is so cheap? Where someone decides that someone else's life should be terminated? Where the punishment exactly fits the crime? Think about what a society that would be. Ultimate justice is in the hands of the only true and righteous judge, the perfect one, the God of Heaven. We may never see perfect justice in our life time but we may be sure of its reality.

A Murder of Crows

After many successful years as a criminal defense attorney, Lawrence Russell finally succumbs to his conscience and verbally attacks his own client in court. As a result, the defendant is found guilty, and Lawrence is disbarred.

Happy to be free of the burden of defending people whom he knows are guilty and unrepentant, Lawrence sets about making a new life for himself. He decides to write a book but can't get started so he spends his days drinking and dreaming instead. One day he meets a man who gives him a manuscript about a man who murders five defense lawyers, and the man asks him to read it over and offer his opinion. When the man dies, Lawrence decides to put his own name to the novel and submit it for publication. Although A Murder of Crows is a huge success, it also turns out to be a true story. As the "author", Lawrence becomes the prime suspect in the subsequent criminal investigation.

Lawrence Russell did the right thing in obeying his conscience to quit as a defense attorney but when the rewards he hoped for, like success as a writer, did not materialize, he disobeyed his conscience by putting his name to a manuscript which he did not write. The consequences of this latter decision were life threatening.

The film, A Murder of Crows, demonstrates two things. Firstly, the rewards for doing right are not always immediate or obvious. And secondly making a decision to do good, or to do the right thing at one time in your life does not make it any less likely that you won't make a wrong decision, or a decision to do something bad, at another time.