As Caro mentioned at the end of a blog post, Australia is mourning over the death of two police officers in Queensland, as reported shot down in a trap when investigating a missing person's case. The missing person was one of the assailants who along with brother and the wife of one of them deliberately shot at police to kill them, and two of the four who were attending were killed. A fire was lit in long grass to unsuccessfully flush out one of the surviving police and the smoke attracted a neighbour to the scene who was also fatally shot. The perpetrators of the terrible crime were killed in a specialised police force shoot out after a six hour siege. Six people died.
It is just so awful and barely comprehendible.
One of the murderers, the missing person, was not so long ago a school principal, his wife who also shot at police a school teacher and I don't know about his brother who perhaps owned the house.
Why is the question. They were right wing conspiracy theorists, freedom fighters, anti vaxxers, anti Covid lock down and busy in right wing internet sites. You get the picture but it doesn't explain why they murdered two police officers innocently going about their job, along with a concerned neighbour. We really need to know why.
In some countries the killing of police does not make headlines but I am pleased that our headlines did and the horror people feel and the concern Australia wide.
Vale Rachel McCrow, Matthew Arnold and Alan Dare.
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It is almost incomprehensible isn't it? I am so very glad that it isn't the norm here. And my heart aches for the family and friends of those who were slaughtered.
ReplyDeleteEC, it is a extraordinary event here and as you say, thankfully not the norm.
DeleteIt is so brutal and hard to believe happening in Australia. Apparently, all assailants were former workers in department of education as well. Drugs are involved said in ABC news
ReplyDeleteRoentare, brutal is a good word. The culprits lay in wait. Just so awful.
DeleteI heard that, and it is hard for me not to believe that my own country has exported this insanity. We've been dealing with the rightwing nutjobs for such a long time. Still, we have people like Elon Musk giving them a platform to bring their insanity to the people. Even worse, Musk is one of them.
ReplyDeleteI am pleased you heard about it Debby. I just don't understand Musk at all beyond he is not a good guy. I expect your law enforcement is is quite focused on the rightwing nutjob organisations, collectives and independents but at time things come from left field, or out of the blue.
DeleteIf media reporting is to be believed (and we do know they love to find shit where there is none to be found) they were raised in a very strict religious family and had been estranged from their parents for over 20 years. The woman was the wife of the school principal but they had separated and she had taken up with the brother. I guess what I am trying to say is that these were not normal people gone bad but perhaps several screws loose for a long time. Doesn't take the pain away but it's not one in a long line of random, senseless slaughter unlike the poor buggers in the States. I'm not sure if I'm even making sense.
ReplyDeleteCaro, I wanted to write what you just did but I lacked the skills and I was tired. I thank you. I can't see any reason for them not to have been on the police radar, via intelligence organisations.
DeleteHere in America there plenty of shooting.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on and stay safe
Peppy
Deleteyes, that happened in many countries!
But in 1996, dozens of picnickers were killed at the Port Arthur Historic Site and many others were injured. Straight after, 90% of Australians supported a national ban on all automatic and semi-automatic firearms, stating that police and army people should have their guns locked away out of the reach of criminals. The government bought up all the now-illegal guns and destroyed them. Not perfect, but anything to avoid another Port Arthur massacre.
I know Dora, I know. It will go on until guns are removed from normal citizens.
DeleteThanks Hels, a good account of what happened here and one of the few reasons to admire then PM Howard.
DeleteThis horrified me too and even worse, I learned on the news, that some gang members in Adelaide now have guns. They used to use knives and fists, now there are guns too. What is happening to my country?
ReplyDeleteRiver, I remember my father saying knives were for wogs. Real Australians fought with fists. Well, we know that one punch can kill someone if they drop to head first to a hard surface. Fists, knives, guns. I don't like any of them.
DeleteWhat an horrific crime. You cannot find answers to why this happened as you are not dealing with normal people with a sense of right and wrong.
ReplyDeleteMarie, yes right and wrong and this was clearly ever so wrong.
DeleteSad to hear, all to common here.
ReplyDeleteI know TP. What can you do aside lobbying against guns and NRA? Nothing.
DeleteWill we ever know why? I doubt it somehow Andrew. I guess the main reason is that there are wicked, deranged people in this world. Fortunately, they are very much in the minority. Most people are good with decent values that they abide by.
ReplyDeleteYP, quite so. We will never know their thought processes. We do need to focus on the good and the wonderful, even when things do go badly wrong.
DeleteThat's very very sad.
ReplyDeleteIt was Strayer and still very much is.
DeleteWow, what a horrible story. I hadn't seen that. I think some people just lose their minds when they go down these Internet rabbit holes about conspiracies. They come to see police and society as the enemy of "freedom." Basically, they go bonkers.
ReplyDeleteSteve, it can be explained but I will never understand the terrible loss of logic sometimes with otherwise intelligent people.
DeleteAs I write, we are having a funeral for one of our OPP, Ontario Provincial Police. Here is the story, so sad. https://globalnews.ca/news/9375256/opp-charges-fatal-shooting-officer-hagersville/
ReplyDelete