Personal abuse reignited by Pistorious verdict.

[lolaflores]

Since forever, my older brother was abusive towards me. One of the worst episodes was him taking exception to being called home for his dinner, a message my mother asked me to deliver to him whilst he was playing football or something. He went fucking beserk. I was meanwhile in a neighbours house babysitting when through the front window I spotted my brother with a knife in his hand. I hid as best I could but he was raging through the house screaming. kicking doors, swearing. I ran round another spot but heard the kids upstairs starting to scream. At that moment the father of the house came in, put my brother in a headlock and walked him home.

Not a word was said either to him or me. I spent the rest of the weekend locked in my room, shitting myself. No one cared. He sent me to school with black eyes. he broke my ose, he stole my money. No one even spoke to him about his behviour. in fact, he didn't even care who he did it in front of cos no one stopped him. I have to add that our father died while we were quite young. Everyone felt sorry for him not having a dad....th rest of us just had to get on with it.

As I grew up I thought anything a man did was alright. I have been sexually assaulted and raped on a number of occasions. Each time I tried to disengage, the violence started and I knew it would be easier if I just shut up and hope for it to finish quickly.

I have been devastated by the non verdict for P. it feels as though all the abuse women in this world suffer in silence counts for nothing. So all the things that happened to me remain silent and unaccounted for.

I'm sorry the trial has brought everything to the surface for you. Do you want to talk more about what you've been through? Have you had any counselling in the past? X

I'd love to tell you you're wrong lola, but you're not, you're dead right. Men can and will do as they please and women are expected to put up with it. And it's totally totally shit.

You don't have to remain silent here, you can say whatever you need to say.

What a horrible person your brother was and would still be, if he is still around. Your mother should never have allowed it.

I'm very disappointed in the verdict, but I am not surprised. It is terribly unjust.

I have to agree that the verdict confirms that men have the right to terrorise and kill women and be excused. Literally to get away with murder.

It's horrific but it's true.

I can only hope you're away from your brother now and free of other abuse too?

What an absolute prick of a brother as are the enablers who allowed him to do this.

We have little or nothing to do with one another . He has an active dislike for women. His wife I think suffers in silence. I have been through many types o counselling but feel it not really me needs the diagnosis but the rest of my family. Even the extended ones. When I remember it it won't change even after all this time it is crystal clear...but I'm the only one lumbered with. Same as my rape. I told no one cos it was my fault. Self harm 3 suicide attempts. Though 2 beautiful dds an understanding loving husband. Then shit like P comes along. I look on his face and see him wondering what the fuss is. Him being golden boy and all. His resentment...just like my brother. Women deserve barely concealed hate

But u know. My mum stood by and precisely nothing happened. If I said anything things were worse . A cycle of shit that didn't end till my 20s

Pistorius has been found guilty, of course. It's the equivalent of manslaughter because the prosecution failed to demonstrate intent, but he is guilty. And that's where your brother should be, by rights. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, 'all that is required for an evil man to walk around scott free is that good people keep quiet and do nothing'

You don't have to suffer the injustice. It isn't inevitable that being female means getting the shifty end of the stick. Report the crimes, talk to Rape Crisis, get people on your side. Good luck

Edmund Burke...

Edmund Burke....the essayist. Reflections on the French Revolution ?! What

I attributed the paraphrased quotation wrongly... Burke not Franklin.... :)

But the sentiment stands. Be the good person that does something. Look at all these fantastic & fearless people coming forward today reporting crimes that were decades old... and look how they are finally being taken seriously and prosecutions are happening. South Africa is still very third-world in a lot of respects. A white guy who is good at sport is the closest thing they have to nobility over there.... If you're in the UK and not RSA take advantage of the upsurge of delayed justice.

I think the OP's point, and certainly my point, was that he has been found guilty of culpable homicide of what he believed to be an intruder, but not of the murder of Reeva as he should have been.

The judge claimed that intent had not been proved, but then it turned out that actually she had fallen for OP's narrative that he did not intend to kill Reeva, when 98% of the rest of the world has not. She commented in her judgement that after the event he did not behave like a murderer, a shockingly naïve comment to come from any judge.

The intruder line was a mahoosive great lie, as anyone who has followed the trial is aware. It was a commonplace domestic killing. I'm not sure how he managed to get away with it, but unfortunately, some people do believe men when the kill women and then claim they didn't mean to and they are very sorry.

On the plus side many eminent SA law professors have spoken out in shock at the verdict, which they believe to be the wrong one, and it has caused uproar in SA. There are alleged faults of law and confusions in Masipa's judgement which may give the prosecution leave to appeal.

I used to do a lot of business in RSA. I won't forget in a hurry the day I rang a contact and was told he wouldn't be in that day because he'd shot an 'alleged burglar' dead in his front garden the previous evening. Whatever the dead bloke was up to or not up to in the garden, being black, the whole thing didn't seem to raise too much of an eyebrow and it was all glossed over. Another day I was told that a member of staff, in the course of heated argument at home, he'd been shot dead by his DW. She wasn't convicted of murder either. Very different standards....

It's the high crime rate and fear of crime that Pistorius played on when he concocted his story. But the fact is, even in SA, this verdict has shocked and appalled many, which indicates that it is out of the ordinary, and not just because he is famous and she was beautiful.