Human victims
We’ve just had the trial of the young men who killed a young African woman and the two-year old toddler she was baby-sitting and almost killed a young Turkish woman.
Apparently he’s guilty and accountable for his actions. His motive was racism, which makes the murders even worse according to the court.
And yet I’m convinced that he’s innocent. Yes, he killed these people, wounded another one and ruined her life and the lives of the family of his victims. He was caught redhanded, he confessed and there’s no doubt about what he did. He did those horrible things. And still I think he’s a victim as well.
The young man is caught smoking in his boarding school and is to be expelled. He then decides to die. The lawyers of the victims and the prosecutor tell us that this young man has no psychological problems whatsoever and is completely accountable for his actions. Their psychiatrists confirm this. Psychiatrists of the defendent claim that their client has the asperger syndrom and that this has driven him to his next gruesome acts. I’m not sure whether this young man suffers from any form of autism. I do know that he didn’t have any conscious choices. The young man leaves a goodbye note to his parents, claiming that he’ll “die in battle”. He then goes to a weapons’ store and buys a hunting rifle and bullets. Because it’s a sports weapon, he can simply buy it and leave, despite our country’s heavy regulations on firearms. On the street he starts shooting people, preferably immigrants, because he hates them. He’s been bullied and harassed by immigrants and so he doesn’t see them as innocents. He also claims that this way he avoids killing anyone his family knows. Yet he had friends of Indian origin. The result is horrible. The nation is shocked.
Can anyone explain me please how someone who wants to die, doesn’t have any psychological or emotional problems? Can anyone explain to me how he can be seen as a clear-thinking, coldblooded murderer? After the trial everyone seems to agree, this young man needs help. Even the prosecution and the lawyers of the victims, who vehemently denied that he had any psychological problems, agree that he needs help. Yet they wanted him put away in jail, where this help is not readily available. I think that an institution and psychological help would have been far better for this young man who became so lost in this world that he himself and many other people became a victim to it.
The horrible nature of this case struck me deep. When I heard about the death of the toddler, I couldn’t help but think of my own wish to become a mother. The grief of the victims and their family struck me deep. How the parents of the little girl sought out the parents of the young murderer and showed compassion, struck me deep as wel. But what struck me deepest was the young murderer’s quiet words: “I want to become human.”