OJ and Oscar

Feb 16, 2013 (skip to Feb 23)

In South Africa, a celebrity athlete Oscar Pistorius is charged with murder, as was OJ Simpson in California. The Simpson case was a matter of episodic rages over a woman leaving him. Perhaps the Pistorius case is the same.

Let's not look upon this as human nature. Not every male kills the woman he wants to be with when they have an argument. But the killings are common. According to Rachel Jewkes, a gender and health researcher at the South African Medical Research Council (MRC), a woman in South Africa is killed by her partner every eight hours.

The killer is often a male in his late teens or early twenties who thinks he is punishing the woman for rejecting him and might be thinking that if he can't have her no one else can.

Oscar Pistorius appears to have had a character flaw. Before the trauma of the killing, he seems to have been unbalanced between taking and giving. Apparently he wanted to own the victim, to have her as his property. Apparently rather than give the woman he wanted her freedom, in a fit of passion he destroyed her.

Infants rage by crying. As we grow up we develop the capacity to choose a course that is more reasonable. A grown-up counterpart to OJ Simpson would have wished his parting woman well and would have looked for a more appropriate relationship: a woman who wants him. What kind of man wants to be with a woman who doesn't want to be with him?

The police report that there had been previous incidents at the home of Oscar Pistorius. Obviously, like some other women in disturbing relationships, the victim Reeva Steenkamp hung on too long. Women in her situation should not proclaim they are leaving. They need to get away, with little lies if necessary, and make their proclamations from a distance and with protection.

Screams and shouts were heard from Pistorius' apartment, followed by gun shots. Pistorius allegedly shot Steenkamp four times through his bathroom door.

A report exists of someone at the London Olympics saying of Pistorius: "What an arrogant jerk." Now Pistorius is stunned. If he is not in total denial, he is going through the "what have I done" syndrome. When taken away by the police, rather than arrogant he was bent over in shame, his head buried in a hoody. When the prosecutor charged him with premeditated murder at his court hearing, Pistorius slumped forward again and wept, his neck twitching.

But like OJ Simpson he is proclaiming his innocence.

Feb 20, 2013

Pistorius claims he thought an intruder had broken into his home and – apparently without having confronted Pistorius – locked himself in the bathroom. He says it was dark and that he thought she was still in his bed. The prosecution speaks of a witness hearing shouts between 2 and 3 in the morning before hearing shots. The prosecution describes Steenkamp as dressed when she was shot rather than in bed wear, that the shots were fired downward through the door, suggesting Pistorius was wearing his prosthetic legs, unlike he claims. The prosecution describes Steenkamp as not on the toilet when shot but hiding (as in fear of Pistorius) on the side of the toilet room. The toilet room was just off the bedroom and Pistorius, or the burglar, would have had to pass his bed to get to the toilet room.

This trial will be decided by a judge. OJ Simpson's trial case was decided by a jury that found him not guilty.

Feb 23, 2003

Rage, the impusle to smash followed by regret occurs occasionally among people capable of losing control. And in a murder case, as with OJ Simpson, they might go into some kind of denial. But Arnold Pistorius speaks as though this is not what is happening with his nephew, Oscar. He describes Oscar as a "soft person." He says he is certain his nephew is not guilty of charges he intentionally killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He predicts Oscar will "bounce back and be greater than ever."