Islamic attack on Danish cartoonist-saved by panic room BUT

[DarrellRivers]

He managed to get in his panic room but he left his 5 year old grand-daughter out in the house
She was fine but not sure how I would feel as a daughter/son
Relieved my father was alive but about my daughter having been left to an axe wielding extremist
see here

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what a shit. What kind of person leaves a small child alone while someone is smashing the house. She must have been terrified.

ah you never know how the hosue was set out
whether the bloke was running towards hinm and more imporatnyl HOW any of us react in that sitatuion

What a git

You see, I know how i react in situations of danger
I am that 80% of the population that freezes and would die
i know i am crap in emergency situations
I try to look sage and as if i am thinking what to do , when really i am screaming inside
yes, if crazed man running towards me, and door to panic room just there, would obviously dive into panic room

The Sunday Times said that the child was in the living room, and he didn't have time to get her on his way to the panic room. He said he knew she'd be OK (presumably as the man was after him) - apparently she saw the man axing at the door to the panic room. All ST reportage, of course.

All sounds a bit odd to me. But if I were the subject of death threats, I don't think I'd be alone in a house with, or in sole charge of, a child.

You see, he had time to think about and then reject it
Not my ideal choice for childcare though

It does all sound weird, my initial reaction is that he is an awful man but i suppose it could have been briefed by police/whoever to behave like that, assuming death threats are from people believing that by killing him they are punishing him with the correct penalty and so would not physically harm an innocent child......i wouldnt have risked it but then as awful as seeing an axe weilding man smashing a door would have been for the child to have seen her grandfather murdered could only have been worse

Did you see the accused being stretched into the courtroom yesterday - QUALITY.

That IMO is how it should be. None of this " the accused was too ill to attend court so he have left the nasty little scumb bag to lie in his cell watching tv" - you have been accused of a crime, you go to court - if that means you go on a stretcher then so be it.

If he ran into the living room the attacker would have followed him to the girl - maybe putting her in more danger.

Sounds awful, but since the mad muslim was chasing him it wasn't in the child's best interest to lead him to her was it.

As for not being in charge of a child. This isn't a temporary thing that will blow over so he still has to live his life.

Well, he could have detoured to pick up the child. Then the madman would have slashed him down in front of the child. Or slashed cartoonist and child to bits together. I'm not sure there were any winning options, here.

Onagar, I'm not saying that he shouldn't see or be with his family, but I wouldn't have left my child in the sole charge of a man with threats against his life that require him to have a panic room. As events showed, the child was left unattended, with a violent man in the house. The artist's priority was to get himself in to the panic room - probably following instructions from his security advisers. But that's not a suitable sole babysitter.

Wonderingwondering, I agree with the logic of that, but find it terribly sad.

Also agree that you would feel bad after even if it was the best decision.

I'd hate hiding at all. I'd want to beat the attacker to death. Though that wouldn't have been the wisest choice either.

I applaud him for not hiding away, and carrying on with his life as best he can, as normally as he can. But I think putting himself at (a calculated) risk is one thing, putting a child of 5 years old at risk is another.

In my view, it's not the threats from extremists that's the issue, it's the fact that he's not a reliable carer - in the same way as if he were prone to collapsing, or to erratic behaviour. You wouldn't leave such a person in charge of a child, so I find it odd that a 5 year old was left in a house with a panic room and the only adult there was the target of death threats.

On the face of it though, it's easy to say that the child shouldn't be left with him. But for how long should this apply?

He may have received death threats and perhaps a panic room was installed in the early days after the cartoons were published. But maybe no attempts have actually ever been made on his life before, so maybe while the theoretical possibility of death threats was there, the reality was that due to past history, ie no previous actual attempts, it wasn't perceived to be a real and immediate risk hence why it was considered ok for the child to be left with him.

Or should someone not leave their child with someone who has had death threats against them ever?

Lots of people are sent death threats. People in the public eye, politicians, soap stars, footballers, yet most people wouldn't suggest children shouldn't be left with them.

Goodness, I would never leave my child with a footballer in the public eye

Do you know, I have no fucking idea what I would do if an axe wielding madman came crashing into my house. I would like to think I would run to DS, but as someone else pointed out that would just bring him to their attention wouldn't it?

It's impossible to know if he did the right thing without knowing the layout of the house, where he was, where the child was, where the attacker broke in, how much time he had. He wouldn't had long to assess the risks and make a decision.

As the outcome was he survived and the girl was unhurt, then I think he probably did ok.

I imagine that someone who has had serious enough threats made against them that they had a panic room complete with panic button in their house would have a rehearsed procedure for dealing with a real incident, and would have been advised by people with professional security experience..

I would imagine that someone would be advised not to lead their would-be attacker to the rest of their family, in fact I imagine that going into a room without paying attention to others in the house would lul the potentiall attacker into the sense that they and their victim were alone in the house, and would leave them unlikely to go seeking others to attack...

FFS i can't believe people are demonising this man and describing him as a "shit" for not reacting in some hollywood-esque perfect action hero way to the threat of a man running at him with an axe.
nobody knows the logistics of what happened or how they themselves would have reacted.

So people are more interested in saying "gosh, what a git for not grabbing his granddaughter and pulling him in with her" than in saying "isn't it terrible that a cartoon artist can't use satire to express himself without getting death threats from mad axe-wielding extremists?"

Think about it - the advice he'd have been given is that as soon as he presses the button he gets help within seconds. So he did as he should have done and was saved as was his grandchild. Are you really suggesting he should have run - presumably with mad man following - to where his grandchild was sleeping and then tried to fight him off with said child in his arms... ?

I'm with UQD. Talk about straining at gnats and swallowing camels.