Pistorius trial

[Dáire]

That's probably one of the things everyone agrees on :) I figure one of the rules is to make sure you know where your family are, so they're not in the line of fire.

I admit I can't figure out why anyone that rich would stay in SA living in a barbed wire compound trading shock stories with the neighbours. Alright, loving ones' homeland and all that, but no.

There's this car-flamethrower thing, to toast carjackers. Here it is. It got withdrawn, eventually, but the fact it existed was interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaster_%28flamethrower%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In South Africa, it is legal to use lethal force in self-defence if in fear of one's life, and ownership of flamethrowers is unrestricted.

The device was controversial in South Africa, with some (including the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA)) speculating that the device might cause more carjackers to simply murder drivers with gunfire as a precautionary measure before approaching the vehicle, a tactic which was already fairly common.

But no one was concerned about burning people.

[Bastian]

Also armed intruder or not, it's shitty and irresponsible at best to shoot four times at one through a door.

This really is the main point for me. Really.

[Tabitha]

What a horrendous way to live.

[Bastian]

#visitsouthafrica

[la Fée Verte]

I just can't get my head around it being ok to murder someone because they broke into your house. I know they might be armed and South Africa is scary and all that, but I don't think it's cricket, really.

[lazzikins!]

But I don't feel a huge distinction between shooting person A or B through a locked door. In neither case it could be self defence.

Home invasions in SA generally end in torture, rape and murder. It's a huge cultural fear. Shooting one can only be self-defence - surely no one could advocate waiting for the intruder to throw the first punch or wait until you're absolutely sure your life's in danger?

Yes, that's what the law is asking for, for people to lay down their lives. :sman:

I know nothing of South African law, but it seems that a legal system that would allow you to hear a noise in your house and then shoot a pistol with impunity would need some improvement. It seems crazy (to me) for hearing something from the direction of a bathroom to be sufficient grounds to fire off four bullets into 12 metres squared, or whatever it is.

[Bastian]

It's not crazy and anyone saying it is crazy is crazy.

*hammer thud*

Court is over all rise.

[lazzikins!]

[Lily]

What a horrendous way to live.

I was thinking that. Hideous.

I thought they found that the steroids he was claimed to be on were actually herbal things? Or something. I am going back to the old thread about it again.

[Dáire]

I just can't get my head around it being ok to murder someone because they broke into your house.

It's a popular belief, though, even in the UK. What other measures can people take?

[Bastian]

OHLOOKATTHAT.

[Cosmopolitan]

What a horrendous way to live.

This is why I live here. I am still afraid when I hear noises in the night and it's been 15 years. And having been burgled several times, I can safely say that I would have felt a lot safer with a gun and additionally, I'm not sure how I would have reacted had I had a gun and that horrible fear.

[Zoomer]

Yes, I'm interested in what other people think they would do if somebody broke into their house.

[Bastian]

Creep out the back.

[Zoomer]

Yeah, if you have a back to creep out, that's a good solution. What if you don't have a back to creep out?

[lazzikins!]

I would not call out for my significant other or anyone else; instead I would head straight for a deadly weapon and fire blindly.

[Lily]

I can't say killing someone who breaks in bothers me particularly (as in I don't see it as a massive crime not that I would be able to do it), but that's for another thread - I can't imagine the fear people live in there, perhaps that clouds your (generic) judgement? Pistorious commented previously on his paranoia and fear. I guess it's worse if you have no legs.

I don't know; it just seems a nightmarish way to live.

[Bastian]

Hide under bed.

Truthfully, obviously I have no idea. How can I? But I've never felt like I would be the sort to go looking in my nighty with the lights off. I would jump out of a window and break all my bones before I would confront an intruder, I think, from this great distance.

[Lily]

Did the woman who claims she heard Reeva screaming call the police? (Thinking out loud as just heard the evidence on t'radio)

[smalex]

Did the woman who claims she heard Reeva screaming call the police? (Thinking out loud as just heard the evidence on t'radio)

I think I heard (I could be wrong) that she didn't, and she only called the police when she saw her own house on aerial footage of the area and realised that Oscar Pistorius' house was so close to her own.