Red Whines: Pistorius'd Off

Would I get a gold medal for title wit?

Back on February 14th, Paralympic runner-turned-Olympian Oscar Pistorius of South Africa was taken into custody for the murder of his supermodel girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. After much tears and testimony, Pistorius was granted bail on Friday, but will not be permitted to return to his house or leave the district in which he lives in. He will have to return to court in June.

To say the least, the numerous news reports had many people drawn-and-quartered as far as leads and what kind of evidence was being presented. For example, there were numerous reports on how Pistorius lived life on the edge, the possibility that "roid rage" was involved, how he had a love of guns, and how there may have been claims of a rough relationship between Pistorius and Steenkamp. There were even reports on how people were making the plea for him that he wouldn't survive in a South African prison because he's handicapped.

In a way, I'm sort of glad that Pistorius was granted bail. Based on the research that I did, the South African prison system that he would have been a part of could be seen as unsafe and inhumane according to middle-class standards. Whether he's an Olympian or not, no man would be given a fair enough treatment in a place like that. Then again, since he's an internationally-known star athlete, he may or may not have been given a more special treatment. Despite my opinion and research on this matter, Steenkamp's family haven't taken this lying down, and they will be looking to fight for their daughter and strive for family justice in this case.

(If you want to read more about the prisons and more trial information, you can go here and educate yourself a little more on the matter.)

It was rather hard for someone like me (who, truthfully, overanalyzes anything and everything) to really draw out a decent conclusion as to what might have happened. Of course, there are more trials to come in June, but these "digital re-enactments" and other conclusions on Pistorius' personal life and hobbies outside of sport were a lot to swallow within a week's time. It was as if the whole idea of a "speedy trial" was heavily taken into consideration so that there was a quick overview for the magistrate on whether Pistorius would be imprisoned or whether he could post bail and wait for trial elsewhere. Nobody wants a dragged-out trial, but I was hearing enough "new information" every day that it was starting to make my head spin a little bit.

With the resume of the trial occurring in June, we should have more information straightened out and less falsehoods spewing out everywhere.

Side Note: I forget where I saw this, but someone called this the "next OJ Simpson trial." What? We're calling this by that term so early in this case? Okay then.

Of course, there will be the process for the next three months or so that there will be "new details" coming out about Pistorius and how there may have been a rocky relationship with Steenkamp and such. There has been enough of that already, but my response to that is this question: Have you ever played Jenga? I'm serious. Jenga.

What most media outlets will be doing for the next three months until the trial resumes will be taking old blocks of information that other news outlets may have mentioned in passing fairly early in the case. Then, they'll just pile it back on top of the tower and pass it off as "new details." In a not-sports-related example, they did the same exact thing in the Casey Anthony case. This will be no different.
There's a slight flaw with my theory though...I haven't decided what it may mean if the "Jenga tower of news" happens to topple over due to lack of concentration. You can figure that out for yourself on your own time, I guess.

To the average person that may be following this case, you may have already begun to form opinions and believe that testimonies have changed slightly and that the South African legal system is once again put in the spotlight. One thing's for sure is that this case will be a summer blockbuster [that hopefully Nancy Grace will not have to say "tot mom" for] in many sports conversations all around the world. It's never great to see a successful athlete like Pistorius in a position like this, but a questionable personal life outside of sports may begin to catch up to him and run him over. I am so sorry for that pun.

I'm not a person to really delve into details of an athlete's personal life, especially when it comes to their hobbies and their relationship status. However, this could be eye-opening for a lot of people when it comes to culture and international relations. We're watching a whole new ballgame with this case, and if people are really that invested in this case, we're going to see a lot of bickering between parties about codes of ethics and the psychology of why people do the things they do. It's quite inevitable, don't you think?

You know that if I thought about this case a lot, it's kind of a big deal. It's not that it makes me angry, but good gravy, there's a swirling nebula of confusion in my head about this case, that's for sure. Let's see what the next few months have to bring.


--AZ