Saturday, March 9, 2024

Is the law an ass?

Maybe it was just as well as yesterday's post was lost as things have changed.

Someone has been taken into custody related to the missing Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy, a 22 year old male. He is the son of a former Australian Rules football player. The judge slapped a suppression order on naming him as he is in danger of self harm. 

Later Edit: The suppression order was lifted the next day and the suspect above has now been named. The alleged murderer was named on International Women's Day. It shows just how far we still have to go with safety for alone women in public spaces. Reassure yourselves, at least in Australia, that such crimes are extremely rare and so make the news for days and days.

I doubt anyone would doubt that the New South Wales policeman is not in danger of self harm. The gay man accused of murdering two men, who cosied up to celebrities, stalked the  minor celebrity man of his desire, one Jessie Baird and killed him with a police pistol as is alleged, and Jessie's partner, the Australian Rules Football umpire Luke Davies. It is such a sad case, and if he is found guilty, I would judge it was a crime of passion by a mentally unstable man. It is puzzling how this wasn't picked at some time during his police service. Could it be that employment diversity went a bit too far? Or are the NSW police force so desperate to increase and retain police force numbers? 

Beaumont Lamarre-Condon seems as mad as a meat axe, yet he has been well and truly named. Photo from the Star Observer.


Climate change protestors parked a hire van across three of four lanes, leaving only one lane open on a major bridge linking the western suburbs to the City over the Yarra River. They were eventually moved by police, charged and the next day two were sentenced to 21 days in gaol in spite of pleading not guilty. That's speedy justice, whether deserved or not. 

I am not saying this case would be any more speedily dealt with in Australia, but how about what is happened with the Australian soccer star Sam Kerr? She plays for Chelsea in England and from what I read and read into it she was in a taxi, threw up, refused to pay the cleaning charge for the cab, police were called and now it is unclear what she called him. It could have been 'stupid white cop', rather than 'stupid white bastard'.

Nevertheless, neither phrase is nice and not decent public behaviour, and she has lost a lot of respect. But get this. It has taken one year after the incident for her to be charged and it will be another year before the case goes to trial! 

I am sure members of  the English police force get called much worse to their faces. I am not sure why she was charged. Famous Aussie football star married dyke with darkish skin getting a bit lippy? Take her down a peg or two.

Whatever, Sam has disappointed us greatly.  

32 comments:

  1. Throwing up in a taxi and refusing to pay the cleaning bill is disgraceful and in my opinion Sam Kerr should now be sent back to Australia. I meet refined Australian ladies through blogging - such as River in Adelaide and Kylie in Sydney - and there's no way they would throw up in the back of a taxi without compensating the driver.

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    1. YP, you may well think you are deporting a criminal to Australia, but now Australia doesn't readily accept criminal. She plays for Chelsea. You deal with it. You can add Margaret and Diane to your list of fine Australian women who conduct themselves in such a manner.

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  2. I just have a hard time feeling sorry for someone who drinks themselves blotto and then makes an ass of themselves in public. However, your point is valid. We see it here sometimes, as well. You may have heard of a recent case. A rich orange fellow shoots off his mouth at the judge during his trial and storms out of the courtroom. Nothing happens. I can guaran-damn-tee you that if a poor black man tried that, he would be in jail so fast his head would spin.

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    1. Debby, having gotten blotto in my younger years, I do understand, though I never threw up in public. For sure our media is reporting #45's antics. I really feel for you and your decent fellow citizens.

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  3. If you are rich and famous, you can bend the law

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    1. Ah, Roentare, sometimes even the rich and famous get caught out, but yes, they do get away with a lot more.

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  4. Stalker
    Andrew the world has gone mad with violence and your blog today points out so much about dreadful human behaviours.
    I wonder if the word bastard is even relevant today as so many couples with kids are not married….. . I don’t think anyone has the right to call someone stupid though although the protesters on the bridge would qualify for that award. They stopped working folk from going to their place of employment. If they had any sense they would chosen a different cohort like energy companies or governments but not ordinary people trying to earn an income.

    Anyway Andrew have a restful and peaceful weekend doing stuffs as you say that are joyful

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    1. Stinking hot Stalker, so not sure it is such a good weekend. We go out early morning and are home for the worst of it.
      Bastard is a pretty minor swear word here now. If you just add the words 'old' or 'effing' to the word, it is not offensive. But young people don't use the word now.
      To change the world, protestors need to break things but I don't think blocking the bridge was the right way to break things.

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  5. Ugh... Please stay aware of your surroundings, Andrew, however safe you think you are.

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    1. Darla, I am careful about wallet and phone theft, but I've never felt personally threatened. I did once call the police about someone who was behaving badly and made me uncomfortable.

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  6. So sad to think we can't go for a run or walk in a nearby forest and not be safe. We have to be careful of spurned lovers with a gun. I am so disappointed with Sam Kerr, she was my hero.

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    1. I didn't think of that Diane, and of course you walk in a forest. The chances of anything happening are so low, but the threat of innocent male footsteps coming up behind you...

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  7. These are stories that I only skim the headlines and maybe the first paragraph of, they don't really hold interest for me. She threw up in a cab? She needs to pay for the cleaning. All the rest could have been avoided. The mentally unstable man? I thought "that can't be right, mentally ill men aren't in the police force" and I turned the page.
    "They" can fix things as much as they like, but I will still avoid certain areas in the city, avoid going out or coming home after dark, and will always have my doors locked at home.

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    1. For Sam Kerr, you are right. Just pay. I
      n spite of reasonable security, we always have our door at home locked.
      I refuse to avoid anywhere in Australia and have gotten away with it so far. I am a privileged old white man and I walk confidently wherever I go (So long as my friend Arthur is pushing my neck down to face the ground)

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  8. Kerr is a young rich footballer. I'm not particularly surprised that she got drunk and misbehaved. As my interest in sport is minimal nor am I disappointed.
    By Australian standards the charge and especially the racial aggravation element seems a bit over the top though that may be a trick of perspective.
    Also, I suspect that along with bloody and bugger, bastard is more offensive in England than in Australia.

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    1. Anon, I can't remember ever hearing the word bastard used in England. You may well be correct that while it is not such harsh word here, it may be in England.

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  9. I only know that we hear about incidents like this, or each day a murder, shooting etc from the USA, never from Australia or Canada. Belgium has changed a lot, now the prisons are too small and they have to let out prisoners for 2 weeks and put in others, typical Belgian story !

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    1. Well Gattina, I suppose they only let out low risk prisoners who will return to gaol.

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  10. Such crimes are rare in UK and make the headlines for days, as you say for Australia. Selection processes for the police seem to be very lax so that the bad apples that get through can assault, rape, kill with apparent impunity. Their colleagues know and apparently do nothing until it's too late.

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    1. JB, I can't believe weird behaviour of Sydney cop wasn't unnoticed by colleagues, and they did nothing. Decent police need to have an avenue to call out colleagues without having to personally confront them.

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  11. Dreadful that the killer didn't come forward before to the Police regarding the alleged murder of Samantha.
    As for the Policeman who killed to men, well, I never! Such another dreadful crime, there is no excuse in my thinking.
    Sam Kerr, oh gosh how she has disgraced herself in many people's eyes. Sat there and has preached to all of us who have seen the ads re racism and so on, and turns around and does the same thing to a 'whiteman'...can't figure that one out!

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    1. Margaret, Kerr's behaviour is puzzling but we don't know all the detail. The English justice system is generally reliable, with some exceptions. I expect the charges will be dropped.

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    2. Andrew, Anon above was I. Once the matter has been set down for trial I expect is a bit late for it to be dropped. No idea about the abuse of process stuff which is her lawyers' attempt to have the charges thrown out but if that doesn't succeed it is hard to see the case not proceeding.

      We are catching up by now in Australia what with the anti climate and Gaza protester stuff but until recently sentences in the UK look to me to have been quite a lot stiffer for disorder-type offences than in Australia. Remember the 6-month sentence for Trenton Oldfield, the chap who disrupted the boat race?

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    3. MC, can't a public prosecutor drop a charge if they see fit?
      I don't remember Oldfield but clearly a dim view was taken of him upsetting the upper classes. The punishment does seem severe but as a non citizen, why did he put his situation at such risk by a planned protest? That's somewhat different to Kerr's spontaneous offence.

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    4. Ah, and I see Oldfield successfully appealed his pending deportation.

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    5. Yes a prosecutor can discontinue a prosecution but at least in Oz by the time it has been set down for trial it is too late and they generally just double down. Dunno if England is different.

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    6. PS: tend to agree with you about Beaumont L-C. Looks as though he'd already been shifted sideways in the police to the school engagement job he had. Reminds me of how (once upon a time) teachers with "problems" were parked in the Correspondence School.

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  12. Well, to be fair, vomiting in a cab and then refusing to pay for the cleanup is pretty obnoxious. I'm not sure it's criminal behavior, but I guess the charge was actually for mouthing off to the cop?

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    1. Indeed it is obnoxious Steve. Yes, that's the charge with a racial basis.

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  13. Women are routinely murdered by their husbands, ex boyfriends, boyfriends, or random sexual deviants here. Teenagers now take at each other, for any tiny dispute, with guns. Idiots decide to go out drinking and think its somehow a great idea to take along a gun. Onward we march.

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    1. As I heard the other day Strayer, and heard many times before, respect towards women and people who are different starts in early childhood. What happens here with knives seems to be growing but a knife might kill one or two people, unlike a gun.

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  14. My daughters and I were fascinated by Lamarre-Condon. The guy would seem to be a psychopath and not a smart one.
    He was schools engagement officer in a bunch of local schools including the one my kids went to. They've been out of school a long time but it's still all a bit close to home

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I was a bit emo

I had a nice weekend away. The hotel was not that posh but quite nice, and on the Geelong waterfront. Unbeknownst to me until an hour or so ...