Oscar Pistorius trial part 2

[JillJ72]

To continue from previous thread

All south Africans know what the rules are regarding discharging their firearms.
The idea that they can understandably do so every time they hear a noise in the toilet IN CASE it is a home invasion is nonsense.

They may live with or feel that they have to live with a heightened level of security to try to prevent crimes especially if they have had previous experience of crime
That is normal in SA.
They live with many measures to feel secure.

Shooting repeatedly at someone enclosed in a toilet, when they have made no threats, when you are armed, have armed security on call and have a route to escape, in a highly secure housing estate with v v low levels of crime. That isn't what normally happens in SA.
Those security measures are used to buy you time. To give you options. To give support. To give you the time to say....I have a gun, I am calling security

Trying to pretend that what Pistorius did is what every South African would do is not a real representation of the country.

African Where in SA do your family live? (Not Cape Town I'm guessing where my dh's family and friends are.)

I agree about Dewani probably being guilty. What bits of his story do South Africans find illogical?

So Nel's whole case seems to be hinging on his repeated assertion that OP does not take responsibility for his actions. Whether it be arguments with Reeva, discharging this gun in a restaurant... or what happened in his house that night.

It is illlogical that if you shouted as he claims to, that his GF would have said nothing.

Why couldn't he just admit firing the gun at the restaurant

"The gun was in my hand, the gun went off, but I did not fire a shot"

Eh?!

What is the potential sentence for discharging the firearm in Tasha's?

Yes the chances of being attacked by an intruder in SA are quite high, but if you are pondering those statistics, you also need to factor in this one - if you are a woman in SA, your chances of being killed by an intimate partner are among the worst in the world.

A very good point BeCool

I don't think he meant to fire the gun in Tasha's hence why he is saying he did not fire a shot. He was careless with a firearm that was loaded. There's a difference in intent and that's probably pretty important.

I can't understand why he is denying the other firearm charge from the car when there are two witnesses. It seems odd to say they were both lying.

This prosecution chap is good ,Pistorius won't answer the questions and continually just makes statements and Pistorius is convicting himself at the moment .

Yesterday he claimed he did not mean to fire the gun at the bathroom door. Today he claimed he did not pull the trigger when he fired the gun in the restaurant. He seems convinced that if he denies something it didn't happen.

That's shocking about his dad!

Re. comments about panic alarm - assuming there was one! We have them, but when five men broke into our home I completely forgot about them until after they'd gone. Such a different way of life in SA, it's very hard to say how one would react.

I am currently living in South Africa and crime is on the rise. There is not a moment where I do not climb into my car or do anything in public without double checking my surroundings. People are being hijacked and killed for the most trivial of things. The majority of our population are living in constant fear. If i thought( with no certainty) that my life is in danger, I would shoot. In relation to the Oscar case, there is no possible way that anyone could remotely place themselves in that situation and have a rational frame of mind. Any defense skill is a temptation to eventually be executed.

radikel ,I hear what you're saying , but surely if you hear a noise in your house you check where all the other people in the house are before you go randomly shooting ,even if you check whilst having your gun ready to go ,IYSWIM.

I've only just been skimming over this and do not know the full details but I do find it strange that he did not check that Reevaluate was next to him. If I hear anything I always give my partner a nudge to say did you hear that or you have a sense that they are not in bed and sometimes wake to check. But that's just me. Also was she not sat on the toilet?? Was there evidence of a wee??? Again not everyone turns the light on to go to the toilet. I just cannot get over the fact he did not realise she was not in bed or he didn't just nudge her.

Well Nel is proving that Oscar was very careless about guns

He also seems to have a very selective memory.

I do hear that SA is very dangerous and if broken into you would shoot an intruder, I get that, but you would leave your balcony door open when asleep?

Yes about the selective memory.

He will be found guilty of the gun charges, surely? This is laughable

Yes very careless. I'm sure you would check that your partner was safe in bed before shooting. I mean how big was their bed ffs.

He's mad to say the 2 witnesses were both lying

Floralnomad that's just how I would react. I am not defending Oscar, neither am I condoning what he has done. He killed someone and for that he should take responsibility. On a personal note and I know it might sound selfish but, i would not die protecting anyone except my kids.

What reply of Oscar's did Nel laugh at that the judge told him off for? I missed that bit

Whatever his intent was - he sounds a very controlling man telling Reeva she shouldn't chew gum and he found her accent annoying, and as for the whatsapp message about the party, dreadful. What a shame she just didn't dump the bloke, if so, she would be alive today. Perhaps it was just a clash of temperaments - that is feasible - maybe she stood up for herself and he didn't like it.

On the other hand (putting some perspective on this) he could have thought it was an intruder.