Saturday 21 January 2017

CARNAGE IN MELBOURNE

“Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense.” - Robert A. Heinlein 

Five people, including a 3-month-old baby and a 10-year-old child, were killed, with at least 20 people injured after a man deliberately mowed his car into terrified pedestrians in Melbourne's Bourke Street Pedestrian Mall last Friday. This was an incident nobody expected and most of us could hardly believe when the news first broke. Our beautiful, welcoming and quiet city was shattered by the heinous act of a murderous madman.

In the wake of the carnage doctors are still trying to save the lives of others hospitalised and who are critically injured. Eye-witnesses are seeking to come to terms with what happened when the 26-year-old driver ploughed his maroon Commodore at high speed into terrified shoppers, tourists and families, as he recklessly drove at speed through the pedestrian mall. Police had earlier called off a pursuit of the car in suburban Melbourne on safety grounds. At the mall, they rammed his vehicle and shot him after the carnage in the City. He has been arrested and is under guard in hospital.

The man, identified as Dimitrios Gargasoulas, was wanted for allegedly stabbing his brother before the mall murders, and for taking a woman hostage (she luckily escaped). He is believed to have been bailed last week for the assault of his mother's partner. Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said the man had no links to terrorism but an extensive criminal history linked to family violence. He also had mental health and drug-related issues.

At this point, the murderer is still in hospital and has not been interviewed by police; thirty-seven people have been treated in Melbourne hospitals after the attack and four remain in a critical condition. Five families are mourning the loss of their loved ones: A 3-month-old baby, a 10-year-old girl, two men, aged 25 and 33, and a woman, 32. The grief of the families is inconsolable, the murderer's action indefensible, the public outcry unable to be quelled and our bail laws in question.

While we all wish suspected criminals to be treated humanely and all suspects to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, common sense and a criminal history dictates that those who are a high risk for repeat offences should not be bailed. Had this murderer not been let out on bail, we would not now be mourning innocent lives unjustly taken.

Bach's “Agnus Dei” from the B Minor Mass sung by Andreas Scholl and accompanied by Collegium Vocale Gent, Conducted by Philippe Herreweghe is the only tribute I can pay to the lives lost in vain. May their souls rest in peace, may the grief of their families be lessened by time, may those who suffer from their injuries be healed. And may our society find some solutions to the increasing problems that our lifestyle and our augmenting urbanisation are creating.

3 comments:

  1. The reason Australia and other countries have higher moral values than the USA, for example, is because of the gun laws enacted in 1996. Yet Dimitrios Gargasoulas has shown that it was possible to obliterate a large number of people with a knife and a car. What a sad end for civilised society in Melbourne :(

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  2. A fitting tribute with a magnificent performance of the Agnus Dei. Just marvellous!
    Awful awful shock...we used to read about this sort of nightmare in other countries, while we were safely tucked away at the bottom of the world in " she'll be right mate" Australia....Alas no longer !

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  3. Sorry for the victim of this senseless killing:(
    Thanks for posting the beautiful Agnus Dei by Bach, my favorite composer.

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