I feel trapped. There isn’t a single time I attend where I don’t check my proximity to the exits, or imagine what I’d do if there was a fire, or worse, a shooter. The sense of being enclosed is unnatural, I can’t tell what time of day it is, I lose my sense of direction. It’s designed to be disorienting. It feels otherworldly. And never in a good way. They are designed to make you stay longer. They are by design, disorienting.
It makes people super vulnerable. Like a rat in a maze. A bug in a jar.
But it’s just shopping.
The worst is you’ll spend too much. It’s not a place anyone would have expected to die.
The setting is banal. It’s not a dark street. It’s not 1am. It’s 4.20pm.
Aren’t we safe in a public setting at 4.20pm?
But this weekend, for people in Bondi Junction, the unthinkable happened. They were chased and stabbed by a man with a knife while they were shopping in one of Australia’s fanciest Westfields.
It would have been challenging to get away. There’s a kind of daze you go into in those places which would have made registering what was happening slower.
I heard on the news that two women died outside Cotton On. I don’t know why, but that statement just seemed so strange and sad. I think of how young the staff are. I imagine their terror. I imagine two girls leaving Cotton On happy with their new t shirts, one still wondering if she should go back and get the grey one and then they’re stabbed and they die in a pool of blood. It’s a horror film. Except it’s real. It happened.
I can’t stop thinking about the baby. The sweet darling baby in the pram. How can anyone stab a baby? How can anyone stab anyone – but a baby? I think about all the families. The people who are now sitting with the unbearable grief of trying to work out what happened. Wondering ‘what if’. If one thing had been different and their loved one wouldn’t have been in the path of a very disturbed man. If they’d gone with them. If they’d gone to Chatswood. Or maybe just to Bondi for a swim.
I feel for the murderer’s family too. The shock that your son or brother could have caused such horror must be emotionally unfathomable. The red flags are so evident when there is an end point. Why don’t we see them before it’s too late?
The killings were gendered. Of the six people who were killed, five were women. Were the murders part of a misogynistic mission? Shopping centres tend to be populated by women. We are definitely more heavily represented in numbers on the ground. And first day of school holidays there are always lots of younger women. It’s somewhere 13-year-olds are allowed to go with friends with their birthday money. Because it’s safe.
So did Cauchi, the assailant, go there specifically to target women? I guess the police investigations will address this. I can’t see how this doesn’t add to the list of spaces where women die. We are not safe on the streets at night, not safe going for a mid-morning jog, not safe in our homes, and now not safe in public places at four in the afternoon. We live in a world where we can die at the shops. Where exactly are we safe?
Something is very very broken.
It has never been more important to understand what peace and non-violence actually mean.
Feminists have emasculated our men to the point that they won’t defend us on the streets.
Anti-white racists have demonized us to the point killing whitey simply for existing seems reasonable.
I think it’s always been best not to have to rely on a knight in shining armour. Who are they going to defend us against anyway KL – other women? Unfortunately they don’t seem to have emasculated the aggressors. Funny about that.
Please give us some examples of some anti white killings. Our history has plenty of the other sort though.
When young and boys are clinically emasculated, they become neurotic. Their altered demeanour can range anywhere from becoming feminised, through to permanently aggressive. They engage in societal and personally destructive behaviour and lifestyles. Their health outcomes, life expectancy, life satisfaction, and economic success, drops off precipitously.
Very interesting YH. Is this your personal experience? Professional opinion? Gleaned from peer reviewed research?
And my pseudonym “Ida Down” was rejected!!
Scared of shopping centres?
Liberal party staffer, Brittany Higgins wasn’t safe in a Liberal party Ministers office in Parliament house, from one of her Liberal party staff members. And she was not the only one? Rachel Wilson and many other Liberal females have complained of abuse from their own Liberal party. They’ve written books about it.
Higgins is still being abused by toxic RWNJ LNP/Media and still actually being harassed, intimidated and sued by her former boss who’s office she was raped in!
And you want to be a member of Parliament, walking the corridors and even out in open public where’s there’s no security, being open for 24/7 abuse, from all and sundry like Justine Elliot is by anyone and everyone, especially these toxic RWNJ LNP/Media predators? I fear everyday that this absolutely toxic media goes on unchecked it is getting worse. Probably the number one cause of the social unrest in this country. Take a look at the now toxic USA? You should be seriously considering what you’re attempting on getting yourself in for Mandy? Shopping centres are a walk in the park compared to what Justine Elliot has undeservedly thrown at her 24/7!
Yeah tweed agree with what’s happening in the
US ..the Russian’s or China could not have done
Better to take out it’s political opponent !
It’s laughable… and the democrats are concerned
Trump will destroy democracy !
Should be more worried about Trumps MAGA crazies than the charlatan Trump himself and the corrupted high court he stacked! Arizona state just passed 200 year old anti abortion laws that were introduced by a guy that married and deserted 3 pregnant around 12 year olds! Get some real news, “Hartmann report”! Colbert show 12pm channel 10!
The comedian?
Trumps Maga crazies tweed ? Seriously i could not careless if Trump wins..so
Entertaining to watch all the far left activists and
Media loss it when referring to Trump
Supporter’s or voter’s as far right ..
Most are just normal people’s wanting to
Vote Biden out ..he has destroyed America..
and Australia and the world needs a stable
America…more peace in the world and
Especially in the middle east when Trump
Was President..had the Arabs and Israelis
Shaking hands.. ! Mateeee …
Federal Parliament House is the biggest shopping Mall in Australia .. it just doesn’t have many shops.
It perfectly fits your description as .”The sense of being enclosed is unnatural, I can’t tell what time of day it is, I lose my sense of direction. It’s designed to be disorienting. It feels otherworldly. And never in a good way. They are designed to make you stay longer. They are by design, disorienting.”
If you are uncomfortable in Shopping Malls then you should forget about standing for Parliament.
The stabbing whilst a terrible event is a testament to our failed mental health support systems. Reportedly the man had schizophrenia, obviously he did not have the support he needed to prevent such an episode escalating to its terrible conclusion.
Our mental health services are short-staffed over worked and underfunded and underfunded public mental health services often mean patients do not receive the level of care they require which leads to horrific events like this.