A Hard Day In Melbourne Town

Today has been a hard day for all Melbournians after a difficult week, with the discovery of Jill Meagher's body and then the arrest of someone in relation to her death in the wee small hours this morning.

Jill Meagher

Social media, local radio and TV has been full of the events and everyone's reactions, grief and shock.  To be killed just 200 metres from your door, in your neighbourhood, in an inner city suburb of Melbourne that everyone knows so well, makes the danger very immediate and very personal.  Yes, we know this was a random attack and more unusual than usual, but it still strikes at your heart.

In terms of the vilification of the man arrested, that's just disappointing. From a position of humanity not to mention legality.


Here's a bit of a different angle.  When my brother was killed he was riding a bike and was knocked down by a P Plate drunk driver who was  pimply and 18 years old. He was convicted and got 8 years in prison.  Before all those outcomes, amidst her grief, my mum called the mother of the arrested guy a few days after the incident. She wanted to give support to the mother who's son was now being jailed and going to court.  She put herself in the place of that person and empathised with her. What would it be like knowing a child of yours had killed someone? What would it be like to be the 18 year old? Drunk, driving, feeling invincible and then, spalt.  You've killed a 7 year old boy on a bike.

I learnt about empathy from my mother at that time. I learnt that no matter what has happened, there are contexts and circumstances for everyone that deserve respectful behaviour and treatment.   Everyone was heartbroken. It just came down to that.

Today, vilifying the accused does not help Jill, her family, the court case or the family of the accused.  I fully believe that if found guilty he should pay for his crime. I'm not defending him in any way. Everyone is answerable for their actions. However, I will leave judgements to others and the comments to the judge. I'm not defending him, I simply think we shouldn't stoop to that kind of behaviour.

On another note, it is a relief that we're shocked by this. It does not happen so often in our lovely city that people accept and ignore a sudden death like this.  One time a friend from Los Angeles was staying  with me and there was a shooting in the city which was looped and looped on the news. He was puzzled as to why it was even covered at all, given no-one died. Yes, I take the point from Catherine Deveny that we should the small things more often than we do. Of which there are many.

I think apologies are also due to the chap listed in the phone book with the same initial as the accused who has received abusive phone calls all day today.   Oops.  Years ago our family phone number was only one digit different to that of Maritza and Mathew Wales of the "Society Murders".   The spitting hatred of callers was cut short and turned to sheer embarrassment when they were told they had the wrong number...

All of our thoughts are with Jill's family and friends and her colleagues at the ABC.  Despite the last week, this is still a wonderful city. For Jill's memory and for her family, let's all be gentle with eachother.