Run From The “Blade Runner”

“A sociopath is one who sees others as impersonal objects to be manipulated to fulfill their own narcissistic needs without any regard for the hurtful consequences of their selfish actions."

~R. Alan Woods

While I always attempt to keep an objective perspective in my posts, in my opinion based on all of the facts and information I have read about the death of Reeva Steenkamp, Oscar Pistorius is a murderer. His sense of self-entitlement and constant adulation from the public only stoked his tremendous ego and delirious concept of himself. He is a person who feels that he can do whatever he wants and get away with it. Can you say OJ Simpson? (at least OJ is now in prison for something) I hope, on behalf of the young lady he slaughtered, that the public does not continue to be enamored with him, and that he spend the rest of his miserable life in prison.

Let me tell you why I believe the above about the “Blade Runner.”

When I watched Oscar Pistorius run in these past Olympics, I was deeply moved by the fact that he had overcome so many obstacles in his life to reach his goals. Being a world class track star with no legs was simply amazing to me. The trials and tribulations he overcame in his life gave me such inspiration. Knowing that if a person really believes in themselves, and works hard towards a seemingly impossible goal, makes them a hero.  I was so proud and happy for him. By all accounts, all South Africans also considered him a hero and placed him on a towering pedestal, which glorifies everything that is good and pure about sports. The concept of overcoming overwhelming odds and reaching success is a story that deeply resonates with all of us.

I must admit, that when the story broke that his beautiful, educated girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, had been killed in his home, I initially did not pay much attention to the media coverage. Since we are constantly blasted by news day and night, and in all different manners, I have been admittedly desensitized and rarely pay attention to the news. Like a lot of people, I assumed that some burglar broke into Pistorius’ house. Fearing for his safety, he fired shots to protect himself. Sadly, the person on the other side of the door was his girlfriend, and she was killed. It wasn’t until I started hearing arguments and heated discussions that I decided that I would take a closer look.

Facts About The Case

The pertinent facts are as follows:

Early on Valentine's Day morning, Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee Olympian who is arguably South Africa's biggest sporting star, shot through a bathroom door at his home in Pretoria and killed his girlfriend, 29-year-old model and law school graduate Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius says he walked to the bathroom on his stumps, and then shot through the door. Investigators say the angle of the bullet holes suggest Pistorius was standing tall on his prosthetics. The police theory, they claim, gives credence to a charge of premeditation. If Pistorius had time to put on his prosthetics, they'll argue, then he wasn't getting out of bed quickly to pursue an intruder.

A front page article in The Times (of South Africa) quoted a police officer who said he had contact with Pistorius after Wednesday's hearings. "He's convinced he'll be out by the weekend and back on the track before the end of the year," the officer said. Would an innocent man be that confident? Could a guilty man be that delusional? If that quote is accurate, psychologists could have a field day dissecting it.

Police found two boxes of testosterone, syringes and needles in a bedroom cabinet. Later, a police spokesman admitted the contents of the box were unknown. Testosterone is a banned substance by the IOC. The defense says the boxes contained an herbal remedy commonly used for sexual enhancement purposes. Pistorius is 26 years old.

Pistorius has argued in court that he was closing his balcony doors Feb. 14 when he heard a noise from the bathroom. Fearing an intruder, and without his prosthetic legs on, he grabbed a gun from under his bed and fired through the closed bathroom door, he told the court.

But prosecutors say that's implausible, arguing that the gun's holster was found under the side of the bed where Steenkamp was sleeping, and that Pistorius would have seen she wasn't there.

Prosecutors argue that Pistorius, a double-amputee, took the time to put on his carbon-fiber prosthetic legs and walk to the bathroom, where he fired the gun, hitting Steenkamp three times. Their insistence that Pistorius took a moment to put the legs on indicates that he thought out and planned to kill Steenkamp.

There was a "deliberate aiming of shots at the toilet from about 1.5 meters [about 5 feet]," prosecutor Gerrie Nel said.

They also say the angle at which the shots were fired shows that Pistorius was already wearing his prosthetics when he fired.

"[The angle] seems to me down. Fired down," officers told the court Feb. 20, suggesting that Pistorius was standing high up on his artificial legs.

Pistorius says he did not put on the prosthetics, and was on his stumps, and felt vulnerable when he shot through the bathroom door.

Police said no calls to the police or ambulance service were made on any of the four cell phones -- two iPhones and two BlackBerrys -- found in the bathroom and bedroom of Pistorius' home. Investigators said that guards at the gated estate called Pistorius, who told them he was "all right." The call was not disconnected and they could hear him crying, police said.

Pistorius says he called the manager of the housing estate, and asked him to place a call for an ambulance. He says that he also called a private paramedic service. According to his lawyers, there was a fifth phone that Pistorius used to make the calls.

There had been previous incidents at his house involving allegations of domestic violence.

My thoughts regarding the above information is, if he knew that his girlfriend was sleeping at his house, why would he not confirm it was her by yelling her name out loud, or asking if it was her through the bathroom door?  After all, he was armed with a gun.

Why did he shoot four bullets through a bathroom door---without having a clue where his girlfriend was located in the house? Also, why would he not immediately call the police or an ambulance after finding his girlfriend shot to death? Why were all of the shots perfectly aimed at the upper body and head?

Finally, if he did have his prosthetics on, which he does not sleep with, why would he take the trouble to put them on if he truly thought there was an intruder in the house? It takes time to put prosthetics on, and by all accounts he can easily move without them.

The savage shooting that occurred in this case, prompted a long conversation with my wife wherein we discussed how many women are either abused or killed by spouses or significant others.  I think the following statistics are going to shock you, the way they did to us. We had absolutely no idea of the following:

According to domesticviolencestatistics.org,

• Every 9 seconds in the US a woman is assaulted or beaten.

• Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. Most often, the abuser is a member of her own family.

• Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women—more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined.

• Studies suggest that up to 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually.

• Nearly 1 in 5 teenage girls who have been in a relationship said a boyfriend threatened violence or self-harm if presented with a breakup.

• Everyday in the US, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends.

• Ninety-two percent of women surveyed listed reducing domestic violence and sexual assault as their top concern.

• Domestic violence victims lose nearly 8 million days of paid work per year in the US alone—the equivalent of 32,000 full-time jobs.

• Based on reports from 10 countries, between 55 percent and 95 percent of women who had been physically abused by their partners had never contacted non-governmental organizations, shelters, or the police for help.

• The costs of intimate partner violence in the US alone exceed $5.8 billion per year: $4.1 billion are for direct medical and health care services, while productivity losses account for nearly $1.8 billion.

• Men who as children witnessed their parents’ domestic violence were twice as likely to abuse their own wives than sons of nonviolent parents.

• In a 1995-1996 study conducted in the 50 States and the District of Columbia, nearly 25% of women and 7.6% of men were raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or dating partner/acquaintance at some time in their lifetime (based on survey of 16,000 participants, equally male and female).

Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, at iii (2000), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm

• Approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States.

Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 183781, Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, at iv (2000), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/183781.htm

Traits of Professional Athletes

As I continued to hear about the shocking statistics of domestic violence and murders, I decided to also learn more about Pistorius. I wanted to learn more about the man, whom I had greatly admired, along with all of South Africa. I also wanted to examine whether his status as an elite athlete may have impacted his actions on the night that his girlfriend was killed.

There are 12 predominant traits of an abuser. These are as follows: 1)Charming; 2)Jealous; 3) Manipulative; 4) Controlling; 5) Claim to be a Victim; 6) Narcissistic; 7) Inconsistent; 8) Critical; 9) Disconnected; 10) Hypersensitive; 11) Vicious and Cruel; 12) Insincerely Repentant. 

Quoting, Laura Petherbridge, 12 Traits of an Abuser.

There is no question that elite athletes are narcissistic men. They have to be because anybody in the pursuit of greatness are people whom the ends always justify the means. The problem with the mythologizing of professional athletes, is the notion that they stand for something special beyond the field of play. They don’t, but that doesn’t stop us from trying to make them equal to the image we insist on having for them. This often affects their personal decisions wherein they believe that they are above the rest of us and deserve to get and do whatever they want. There is selfish entitlement that comes with nonsensical idolatry that seals them in an airtight bubble regardless of their feigned ability to act humble in post game interviews.

Pistorius also liked adrenaline rushes. He liked to drive cars 155 miles per hour on wet roads, crashed his speed boat requiring 172 stitches, had a huge interest in guns and shooting, and kept dangerous animals as pets.

Quoting, Buzz Bissinger., The Unwarranted Mythology of Oscar Pistorius.

According to uk.eurosport.yahoo.com, Pistorius was accused in 2012 of threatening to cause bodily violence against another man whom he accused of cheating with his girlfriend. The man who Pistorius threatened stated that the girl at the center of the controversy was not even Pistorius’ girlfriend, and admitted that he was “scared for his life.” A charge of defamation was also brought against Pistorius. As it stands, both men have made conflicting accusations against each other.

Oscar Pistorius subjected Reeva Steenkamp to such intense emotional pressure in the early days of the relationship that her best friend's father was forced to warm him to "back off". 

Cecil Myers, who Miss Steenkamp lived with in Johannesburg said he had found Pistorius to be "very moody" as he wooed the young model who felt caged in by his attentions. 

"Very nice and charming to us when they started dating. Then he always came in to say hello. But when they began to date steadily, he just dropped her and picked her up. 

"That's not right. I call it respect. If you're in a relationship and you pick up the 'daughter' in the house, at least come in and say hello." After the couple's first date, Pistorius "would not leave her alone," Mr. Myers said. 

"He kept pestering her, phoning and phoning and phoning her. Oscar was hasty and impatient and very moody – that's my impression of him.

"She told me he pushed her a bit into a corner. She felt caged in.”

"She was my little girl, and he shot her four times from behind a closed door,” Mr. Myers said.

Miss Steenkamp had lived with Mr. Myers, a commercial printer, and his wife Desi since September, and the couple's daughter Kim was the model's closest friend in the city. 

People will stay away from him now. Women too, they will be too afraid, no girl wants to risk being killed. And if my daughter wanted to go out with him, the shi[_]would hit the proverbial fan. Mr. Myers said he had decided to talk to the newspaper because, "everywhere you go, it's just Oscar, Oscar". 

"Reeva was the victim, her voice must be heard too. People must know who Reeva Steenkamp was," he said. 

Miss Steenkamp did not originally plan to stay with Oscar Pistorius the night she died but changed her mind because it became too late for her to drive home safely, her best friend's father has said. 

Miss Steenkamp, who grew up in Port Elizabeth, used to introduce him to her friends as her "Joburg dad". 

"I've got this thing with all three children (Reeva, and his daughters, Kim and Gina), if they don't come home at night, they must text me," Mr. Myers told South Africa's City Press newspaper. 

"Then Reeva sent the (SMS) message: 'Hi guys, I'm too tired. It's too far to drive. I'm sleeping at Oscar's tonight. See you tomorrow'. 

"Tomorrow never dawned for her I have nightmares at night thinking how frightened she must have been. Can you imagine how terrified she was?" 

Quoting, Mike Pflanz

Conclusion

I know they teach you in law school that a person’s guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, etc. But, often when you walk into a courthouse, the lawyers will tell you that you follow the law, but you do not leave your common sense outside the courtroom door. 

Given the overwhelming facts that have been provided, there is absolutely no question in my mind that this animal killed Reeva Steenkamp. She unfortunately crossed paths with a homicidal killer. One can only hope that the fascination with Pestorius’ story and legend does not outweigh the terror that abruptly ended a young girl’s life. While he showed that he did accomplish greatness in sport, this does not transcend all of the facts that show, in the end, he is just another plain killer.

Will celebrity outweigh tragedy? Keeping my fingers crossed it doesn’t.

~Leonardo G. Renaud