Irvine Green has been a regular contributor to Biznews since the site started almost three years ago. He focused primarily on entrepreneurship, offering ideas and suggestions drawn from his own experience. Like the rest of South Africa – and much of the world – he has been a close follower of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial. But unlike most armchair Matlocks, he was rooting for the shooter. Because Irvine, who lives alone in a middle class Johannesburg suburb, believes Pistorius’s reaction was entirely natural, a logical result of living in a crime wave. As with the best blogs, Irvine Green draws on his personal experiences. And offers another side to South Africa’s highest profile court case in years. – Alec Hogg
By Irvine Green*
Now that the Pistorius case is finally over, it is no longer ‘ sub judice ‘ and I can have my say…
I TRULY believe Oscar was NOT guilty of murder – but rather culpable homicide, with mistaken identity.
Here’s why:
I fully understand his mindset at the time all those events happened. He was in a blind mental panic, completely under the impression that there was an intruder in his flat – and he was as nervous as hell…
Remember – his mother always slept with a gun under her pillow at night, so he always had one under HIS bed once an independent adult.
WHY?
Because of the crime situation he grew up under (hence his mother always being neurotic about harm to her kids). He grew up knowing doors had to be double, triple, quadruple and finally quintuple checked before going to bed, ALL windows closed, bedroom doors locked and such… and a gun under the pillow.
Read also: Biznews Classic: Oscar Pistorius’ version of events. Brilliant summary.
He had experienced some crime around him as a child, mainly while he and his mom and siblings were out, but possibly also attempted robbery etc while they were home, and so with Reeva present that fateful 14 Feb 2013 morning, he was frightened to the point that when he heard noises in the toilet he panicked and out of protective instinct shot through the closed toilet door.
I TRULY BELIEVE he did NOT know or even begin to THINK it was Reeva in the toilet. And for his own protection and hers, shouting ‘ Reeva is that YOU ‘ and so giving away his presence and location close by was not an option.
He panicked – and in self protection and complete fear let loose four bullets 1-2-3-4 in quick sequence.
HERE is why I FULLY UNDERSTAND his fear and ‘ fight or flight ‘ reaction thereto.
On THREE occasions robbers have got INTO the house while I was home.
Luckily, by always keeping doors locked when I am home, wherever in the house I am (or outside), I had the luck and advantage of ‘surprise’ and so chased them away before they got any closer to me.
Criminal law expert, Ulrich Roux, says the sentence handed down to Oscar Pistorius by Judge Thokozile Masipa is fair and appropriate.
— SAfm news (@SAfmnews) July 6, 2016
Twice I have been OUTSIDE in the back garden in the veggie patch, all doors locked, even the door nearest me, when intruders got INTO the house without me knowing. I heard banging etc IN the house – ALL doors are KEPT locked, even when I am outside the house, even when just in the garden.
By shouting and opening the back door when one was trying to escape from the kitchen via a ‘above door skylight’, I frightened them away.
My house has been broken into 9 times while I was out. Also, twice while In the house I heard the roof tiles being moved to gain access and by banging a tray with a baseball bat and making as if I had people with me, managed to chase them away. (Once I had secured the bottom of the house against break-ins, these tsotsi’s started to try to gain access via the roof you see.. the first time they succeeded as I was out – so they returned two days later, not knowing I am actually HOME MOST of the time).
Plus I have found/noticed/observed and in all cases caught (visually mostly via a window) and spoken to and sent packing ‘recces’ walking around my garden (on about 15 occasions)…
On one occasion when I managed to catch someone breaking into the house and bending burglar bars after breaking a window, I could have done him a BIG damage. He had NO IDEA there was anyone here, I was standing AT that window with an aluminium baseball bat in my hands and could have knocked him senseless and probably even left him brain damaged by striking him as he climbed through the window. (There was a curtain between us so he did not know of my presence).
The moment #OscarPistorius hears his 6-year murder sentence – and the court's reactionhttps://t.co/o5GqkpHpe7 https://t.co/KQ68JaQAi0
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) July 6, 2016
But then guess who’d be in trouble? ME, for assault GBH, even though MY house was being broken into. So I yelled, threw a tray at him and a baseball/cricket ball plus some heavy books.
He cut himself heavily on the burglar bars as he scarpered – this was 11pm at night. There was a NICE blood trail for about 200 metres I found the next morning and the police got some nice DNA evidence. but nothing ever came of it….
NOW – after all these break-ins while I was out, attempted break-in’s while I was home, entry while I was home, etc, let’s it call it 25 crime events in all, in about 5 years – thankfully seems to have backed off now for over a year – of ANYONE who should be on edge and extremely aware of vulnerability despite not being handicapped like Oscar Pistorius is, it is ME.
Of anyone who could understand his mindset at the time that fateful event occurred, it is ME. Just hearing his story during the trial, under questioning, I could imagine moment by moment his panicked heartbeat blocking sounds in his ears, his personal fear being on his stumps, his panic at being so vulnerable, gun or not, his first aim being to protect Reeva (I do NOT believe they had had an argument and that this event was related to personal problems) and Reeva not replying when he shouted ‘phone 10111 and security’ he was on a blade edge (not knife edge) between panic and instinctive protection, that edge being maybe two atoms wide, and he pitched over it into fear induced reaction.
I KNOW that feeling after 16 or so events on site while home. Thank goodness I am not a gun owner – I have fully hated guns even when small and often REFUSED to play ‘cops and robbers’ with friends when all we used as ‘guns’ were our index fingers. Having to use and fire a gun during basic training for National Service freaked me out.
Read also: Matthew Lester: Judge Masipa got Oscar judgement spot on. Here’s why.
If I HAD had a gun and been trigger happy when frightened so much as described, I’d have been a long time ago ‘Oscar Pistorius’ type, for using excessive force against criminals in my own home, probably getting intentional murder – dolus directus – (25 years) as a BASIC sentence, never mind also being found guilty of discharging a gun in a built-up area, being reckless with one and also probably being accused of reckless and irresponsible USE of a firearm – even when all just in self defence.
So when I heard Oscar’s story, moment by moment, I FELT his every microsecond of fear he’d been through… I too have been through the crime mill of SA.. first hand..MORE than MOST I’d say…
SO, I believe Oscar is only guilty of culpable homicide, with mistaken identity. And has already served the full sentence for that.
It was NOT murder – I STAND by this. Put yourself in MY shoes as described and then imagine you are Oscar Pistorius in his stumps and overly fearful… Lights off and your special girlfriend staying over… It is South Africa he lived in. If he’d been overseas he’d have slept with all the doors unlocked, windows open and not bothered at all when he heard the sound of a bathroom window opening at 3 am in the dark.
Remember, Oscar lived in a security estate for added safety – yet houses there had been broken into nevertheless. So that extra money spent on safety etc didn’t help his mental state at all. He was as nervous as if he lived in a shack in a volatile informal settlement.
Read also: Roots of Oscar’s anxiety disorder: Boozy mom, absent dad, amputations
When neighbours are working on their houses, say knocking on wood or bashing out bricks, or kids over the road play soccer and hit their driveway wooden gate, THUMPPPPPP, I go completely awry. Is that someone breaking into MY place – if so, where?
What say YOU re all this iro Oscar etc after imagining what I HAVE BEEN THROUGH crime wise since 2006…! EVEN MORE so than OSCAR I am sure…
There’s times, even now, as much as I prefer silence to noise – as you know – that I wake up at say 3 am and it is DEAD DEAD quiet, and I get the heeb jeebs, wondering what crime situation is about to happen here or close by.
The same as Oscar Pistorius probably would feel.
No psychologist can fix this problem in the mind. Consultations etc don’t stop crime carrying on and on alongside our complete vulnerability.
- Irvine Green is a member of the Biznews community. He is a regular contributor, mostly on entrepreneurship.
