Island Life: The Guilt of Clayton Weatherston
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Well I liked it.
Me too :)
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On a personal note, I am a little disturbed at the beatification of Sophie Elliott. Can't we see some shades of grey - the world is not all black (Weatherston) and white (Saint Sophie Elliott).
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From Scott's blog:
But the "PC nonsense" theme doesn't really work for this story. O'Sullivan writes that Weatherston is clearly mad and shouldn't be in prison. This despite no evidence ever being presented during trial that Weatherston didn't know what he was doing, or that what he was doing was morally wrong (i.e. the legal definition of insanity).
So O'Sullivan's suggestion that Weatherston's personality disorder should have earned him a stay not in the slammer, but in the house with bouncy walls, is surely about as "PC mad" as you can get.
Well put Scott. I am surprised at O'Sullivan's line on this one. Although I'm not surprised to see her throw the "PC" label around in an utterly pointless fashion.
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A question for PAS readers:
If after reading this an exasperated Herald reader tools up with weaponry, grenades, RPGs and knives, walks into APN reception and then goes to work, is it manslaughter?
Apparently someone already got to the headline checkers ("Weatherstone"?!)
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And that summary of the Herald's frothing columnists doesn't even include what I thought were the two worst phrases to appear in the weekend's onslaught of Clayton-is-a-nutjob coverage, both from Kerre Woodham: "bedwetting, pill-popping, penis-envying psycho" and "pink-eyed, posturing pervert". In my view, the worst journalism in this coverage has been from the columnists (or, maybe, purple, posturing populists) who claim to have some special understanding of how the Elliotts must feel.
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On a personal note, I am a little disturbed at the beatification of Sophie Elliott. Can't we see some shades of grey - the world is not all black (Weatherston) and white (Saint Sophie Elliott).
Oh, I think there's a pretty clear line between the person who stabbed and mutilated a woman and his victim. I guess (and hope) the point you're trying to make is that the line would still exist even if she was ugly, stupid, unpopular and the castrating slut Weatherston's defence tried to paint her as.
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Not trying to make light of the situation or anything, but "pink-eyed, posturing pervert" is damn fine alliteration - and apposite.
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I notice that 60 Minutes tonight has stories on both the Weatherston and Anbach cases.
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Not trying to make light of the situation or anything, but "pink-eyed, posturing pervert" is damn fine alliteration - and apposite.
Seems to me Sacha, you sent us over to the sports thread just so you'd have the space to perfect your John Keating.
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Ah, the rippping of Mr Pritchard. Been a while.
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Back to the topic of the original posting, if only briefly. Did anyone catch the Weatherstons on 60 Minutes? I felt very sorry for them, really. The way they were describing him was so prescient, and yet, of course, they were unable to see it. Crying over not getting perfect marks in his last paper when he'd got them the whole way through his degree? Hmm. Hindsight. Oh, and also interesting, the report on the guy that killed Ron Brown (the case where provocation was "proved" because, yes, Ron Brown was gay and obviously deserved to die). How fucking ridiculous. Going home with an old bloke and then bashing the shit out of him because he touched you, supposedly inappropriately? God, the number of old bastards I could have killed, and got away with it. What was I thinking?
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Yes, I saw it. I felt very sorry for them too. I thought they came across very well actually, and they avoided saying anything controversial - which is good - after all, they all have to carry on living in their hometown after all this - and that must be pretty tough going sometimes.
The Banjo killing piece afterwards was a different story though. I was yelling at the TV (at the defence lawyer to be precise). What an utter utter *bleep*!
I confess that that trial kinda passed me by at the time (I don't generally watch much news these days), but OHMYGOD no wonder that poor man's family is distraught! Talk about making shit up! The lawyer's little speech about the events of that night being close to rape got me so angry.
Like, some old guy touches your thigh and as a young, strong, fit individual you're not capable of removing his hand from said thigh, politely saying "no thank you, that's not my style" and walking out of there? Give me a break!
I think the defence of provocation HAS to go, in order to stop any more 'gay panic' defences like that. Completely disgusting - and it pains my soul that a jury on more than one occasion in my fair country had decided that murdering some guy who makes advances is understandable if you're also a guy. Ugh.
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Oh, one thing that the Weatherstons mentioned that I found quite curious, was their reaction to the initial news report that something bad had happened in Sophie's neighbourhood.
What I mean is, if your son turning out to be a murderer is the very last possible thing you could ever imagine, why the racing around the city trying to find out if your boy is involved in a horrific murder so soon after it happened? Why would you imagine that initial news reports could possibly be referring to him?
Unless of course the specifics of the initial news report were something like "Student living in *whatever her suburb was* murdered by her 30-something economics tutor ex-boyfriend" - ok, then I guess that would narrow the field quite considerably, otherwise - not so much.
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webweaver, I was on the Otago campus (as an innocent Summer school student) and people there had it nailed within 2 days of Sophie's memorial going up.
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You mean the initial details in news reports were very specific, Islander? Specific enough for the family to immediately recognise that it must be Clayton and couldn't be anyone else?
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No webweaver - the initial news reports were very guarded (as they have to be.) But the campus gossip - and that place is an utterly leaky sieve- had everything out there very quickly. AND the Weatherstons were on to it.
O goodness: I really would hate to be in their position. By all accounts (ok, more Otago gossip) they are an interesting family, and their -now notorious- son has been problematic before.
But - how would a mum come to terms with the fact that her son had savagely killed & mutilated someone you had entertained to dinner?
Myt mother said, and she has huge knowledge of humanity- "I can see you* killing someone who life- threatened you, and I can see te mea (other family members) doing the same. But I know you'd never mutilate a corpse."*Me.
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could Nigel Latta -- who has precisely NO clinical relationship with Weatherston -- please sit down, and take a long pull on his fuckupachino.
A couple of quotes from the Sainsbury interview that stuck...
“…he was Mr Average, he was Mr Bland, He was thirty something years old and a tutor, I was a tutor when I was doing third year papers, you know.”
“…how many white middleclass academics walk around with a carving knife in their bag?”
N.Latta
How many academics indeed.
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One of the best quotes from 60 MInutes, near the end of the Ambach segment, was the one on what provocation says about our society. I missed seeing who the man was, but his words should be printed out in large font, on A0 paper, and plastered all over the House.
For those who missed it, paraphrased horribly (and the episode isn't yet up on TV3's website, so I can't transcribe), he said that the very existence of the defence of provocation says that society considers violence, in certain circumstances, to be a reasonable response. After all, it is how a "reasonable" person would respond, is it not?
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he said that the very existence of the defence of provocation says that society considers violence, in certain circumstances, to be a reasonable response. After all, it is how a "reasonable" person would respond, is it not?
Off slightly but relevant, the police seem to think so.I'd hate for my child to have a tantrum in the wrong place.Anything can now be considered a weapon.One man and a meat cleaver, bunch of cops, just aim and shoot. Sorted.But, but, he had a knife.
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But, but, he had a knife.
They reported the man's weaponry on NatRad as a meat cleaver and two knives, and I kept thinking 'how many hands does this dude have?'
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Every time I hear Nigel Latta talk, he talks about his own substantial achievements. That they are, in comparison to maybe his clients, but thats not what I'm interested in hearing from a celebrity physiologist.
I certainly hope his day job doesn't include giving clinical assessments of people he's never even been in the same room with, because that's clinically and ethically problematic on so many levels it's not funny. But, if you're the kind of person who has elevated psychology into a secular religion, not so much I guess.
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Every time I hear Nigel Latta talk, he talks about his own substantial achievements. That they are, in comparison to maybe his clients . . .
While not all shrinks are given to big-noting themselves à la Latta, there are those who find little problem dealing with their clients' craziness because it's pretty miniscule compared to their own.
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Off slightly but relevant, the police seem to think so.I'd hate for my child to have a tantrum in the wrong place.Anything can now be considered a weapon.One man and a meat cleaver, bunch of cops, just aim and shoot. Sorted.But, but, he had a knife.
Sofie, pray, tell, do you not consider a knife or meat cleaver to be a weapon? Really? The man was armed. The police shot a man who was armed with weapons perfectly capable of killing a person. Didn't Mister Weatherston, the founding topic of this thread, use a knife and scissors to murder and mutilate his ex girlfriend?
Do you really, seriously, have a problem with the police using firearms in response to a person who's armed with lethal weapons? This wasn't a kid with a pocket knife, this was a grown man with real knives and a cleaver. Who was, no doubt, told that the cops were armed and would shoot him if he didn't stop.
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. . . the kind of person who has elevated psychology into a secular religion . . .
"The freud will see you now," said the nurse, and Mrs. Garvy tottered into his office. His traditional glasses and whiskers were reassuring. She choked out the ritual. "Freud, forgive me, for I have neuroses."
C. M. Kornbluth, The Marching Morons.Latta is the kind of person who seems happy to fast-track us to that very dystopia.
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Strange that they were waiting for a Taser and a qualified operator when it went down. I was under the misguided impression that...I don't know... just point and shoot, point and shoot.
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