Sydney stabber

It was shocking to hear last night that a man wielding a knife had run rampant in a shopping mall, killing a number of people. This morning seven deaths were confirmed, including that of the attacker and one of the stabbed women who later died in hospital. This woman had a young baby who also received stab wounds. How sick is a person who feels the need to attack a baby as well as random shoppers. Apparently, there are many more wounded too.

I would say that last night was the night that the rest of the world came to Australia. We live in relative safety here, or so we think. We have had our share of mass murders, the mosque attacks being a prime example, but most of these have been targeted in a specific area, targeting specific people. This attack in Australia seems like it was not aimed at anyone in particular, rather those who unfortunately happened to be in close proximity to the knife-man. The police announced last night it was not a terror attack, but how does one define that term. To me this was very much a terror attack. It certainly created terror amongst the many people who happened to be shopping there.

I have just looked up the Britannica definition of terrorism and it reads: Terrorism is the calculated use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective. Apparently, the attacker was known to the police; that alone should be suspicious. Why was he known? Was it the company he kept, his internet searches? What?

I guess it is too early to have these questions answered. Perhaps he had mental health issues, but to my thinking, if he was known to police, he had either broken the law before or he was doing something that caused concern. Was he a born and bred Australian or an immigrant? It is a bit of a worry when we let people in from other countries, who have different ways of thinking to our own and different alliances and religions. Whilst 99 percent of these people will appreciate their new opportunity and settle well, there is always a risk that the odd one might have nefarious intentions. And that includes travellers too. Thousands of people visit our two countries each year. If this man was a local, what went wrong in his life that caused him to do this? Let’s hope the police are correct in believing the attack was not terror related, and that he acted alone.

My heart goes out to all those affected by this man’s actions, especially to the man who lost his wife, and whose baby is now fighting for its life.