The killing season

its reported in the herald that 8 people have meet violent deaths this month. whats wrong with our little country, is it just cause its near xmas or are people going crazy in general?

I blame society! it's the youth these days ya know, all that violent loud music.

Yeah! What about those people getting killed at the RSA?!

Old men going postal down at the rizza, man, every time I've poked my head in there it's been like a fuckin' library, and twice as musky smelling.

11 people in 2 weeks i think.

Who the fuck kills little girls and old people?!

I blame tv.

Must be Counterstrike's fault? I hear that's the computer game of choice these days?

Police are blaming the rise in meth use, it will be interesting to see what the suppressed charges turn out to be.

11 deaths in 2 weeks. If in two months time there have been no more deaths, do we think "11 deaths in 10 weeks, thats not bad".

Yeah exactly. A two week 'blip' doesn't necessarily mean anything fundamental has changed, if you ask me.

It's not exactly enough to establish a trend!

Still it's not good.

People get stressed this time of year with money problems. so what better way to solve your xmas shopping worries than to reduce your shopping list by killing everyone you have to buy for.

i blame the lack of money for the mental health system - seriously screwed people who need help can't get it and end up hurting people...

hmmm be interested to see how many of the
murderers are victims of our failing mental
health system.
My guess, the profile is more your average have
not, leading a poor existance, fucked off with the
world and venting his frustration on those he
feels are less powerful than himself.
Add some alcohol or any other readily available
substance to the mix, hey presto, instant
psycho. Generally those with a debilitating
mental illness are more harmful to themselves.

It is a sad case these days when you see a story on the news after a person has gone and killed someone, and the family is on the news recounting how all the mental institutions couldn't offer any help. It basically comes down to the fact that not enough money is being put into the mental health sector, or the money that is there is being mismanaged.

Yeah, do agree about the lack of funds in the
mental health system.
Coming up to to 3 year anniversary of a friends
suicide, which can be attributed to this.
No spare beds in I.C.U put into an open ward,
goes for a walk off grafton bridge.
Why is it more important to debate the aesthetic
merits of keeping safety barriers off the bridge,
while in the meantime people continuine using
it as their final precipice?

I think when they had safety barriers, people still climbed on top of them. If you are really determined you are going to find a way, if its not jumping off grafton bridge it is possibly going to be something else.

Exactly, if people want to commit suicide they are going to do it. Putting saftey barriers up on an isolated bridge isn't going to stop them, and it's jsut going to annoy everyone else.

People are often quite quick to blame the 'system' whenever someone commits suicide, or whenever someone kills other people. Although undoubtedly the system needs more funds and isn't optimal - we have to put responsiblity elsewhere too. The roots of suicidal feelings for instance, the family support, the responsiblities of the community.

We can't save everyone, and prevent everyone from mental illness - as much as some people would like to believe putting more money into the systme would do. Even if you put infinite amounts of money in, I think you would still have people killing other people and themselves, and escaping the system. It's sad, but probably true.

As someone who has experienced both mental illness and suicide close to me, I feel the system has worked pretty well. That's no proof, of course.

hear what you're saying voice.
every situation is different, having a brother with
a mental illness, have experienced a wide
range of issues, emotions relating to this.
You're right can't save everyone, but accessing
care efficiently, (not always possible if you're
unfamiliar with the system) can go along way to
supporting people and their family.

I think that some people who commit murder are mentally unstable but sometimes theres just no way of knowing that they are going to do it, they won't show signs or anything they just do it.
I agree with voice, we can't always blame the system a lot of the time it's the way the person was raised and the type of family they have.

Indeed. A lot of people seem to expect the government to fix everything, and blame the government, or the 'system' whenever someone gets killed or something goes wrong. Although sometimes the system is at fault, it's not usually the cause of problems at the root.

Mental illness needs to be treated and taken responsiblity for by more than the government and the system.