Land of milk and honey

[syed putra]

Courtney Herron: Melbourne woman killed in 'horrendous bashing'

• 6 hours ago

• Share this with Facebook
• Share this with Messenger
• Share this with Twitter
• Share this with Email
• Share

Image copyrightVICTORIA POLICEImage captionCourtney Herron was killed in a Melbourne park, police say
The brutal killing of a young, homeless woman has renewed discussion in Australia about violence against women.
The body of Courtney Herron, 25, was found in a Melbourne park by walkers on Saturday, police said.
"She died as a result of a horrendous bashing - that's the only way to describe it," said Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper.
Police have arrested a 27-year-old homeless man. Henry Hammond appeared in court on Monday charged with murder.
His lawyer told the court he had some mental health issues. Mr Hammond was remanded in custody following his brief court appearance. His next trial hearing is in September.
Ms Herron's death has sparked a wave of public grief and anger following a number of similar cases in Melbourne in the past year.
Her body was discovered just a short distance from another inner-city park, where comedian Eurydice Dixon was allegedly raped and killed by a stranger last June.

• How dangerous is Australia for women?
• Vigil held for murdered Australia comedian

What have police said?
Police believe Ms Herron was attacked in Royal Park in the suburb of Parkville early on Saturday, and attempts made to conceal her body.
Police described it as a "particularly horrendous attack". Initial post-mortem results showed no evidence of sexual assault.
Det Insp Stamper said Ms Herron's family was "heartbroken". Their daughter had experienced mental health and drug abuse problems and she had only "sporadic contact" with her family, he said.

Image copyrightVICTORIA POLICEImage captionMs Herron had a distant relationship with her family
In recent times she was believed to have been "couch surfing with friends and possibly rough sleeping as well," said Det Insp Stamper.
'This is about men's behaviour'
Addressing media on Sunday, Assistant Police Commissioner Luke Cornelius said Melbourne was a safe city but men's attitudes towards women needed to change.
"Violence against women is absolutely about men's behaviour," he said.

Image copyrightEPAImage captionLocals have left flowers and notes at the park where Ms Herron's body was found
The premier of Victoria state, Daniel Andrew, made a similar statement saying: "This is not about the way women behave... this is most likely about the behaviour of men."
He has previously blamed sexist attitudes in the wake of other killings. In January, 21-year-old Israeli Arab student Aya Maasarwe was allegedly attacked by a stranger while walking home.
The UN has said violence against women in Australia is "disturbingly common", but experts say it is not an outlier among developed nations.
According to government figures, one in five women, and one in 20 men, have experienced sexual violence or threats since the age of 15.

 

[glockman]

Oz has never been known as the land of milk and honey.

 

[Rogue Trader]

Criminal genes

 

[nightsafari]

funnel webs, saltwater crocs, irukandji's, redbacks, great whites.

 

[syed putra]

Homepage
Become a memberSign inGet started

The Land of Milk, Honey and Opportunity
[IMG]https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/fit/c/100/100/1*RFeXcc8xePeRulfVFLylPA.png[/IMG]
Be Positive BloggerFollow
Apr 9
4 April 2019 is our tribe’s 20th anniversary in Australia. What a 20 years it has been. My husband and I have reflected on our migration many times over the years, always with the same view. We have no regrets, but knowing what we know, we would probably not be sufficiently brave to do it again or if we were we would do it differently.
Brave, because we were not fleeing a war torn country, although our country had been at war for 30 years, it had come to an end and we were supposedly living in peaceful times. We ultimately thought we were leaving a violent, unsafe culture that was on a severe economic decline; stupid, because we had done insufficient research into South Australia particularly and relied on who we now call ‘misinformants’; dreamers, because we were dreaming about the grass being greener, and; most importantly, naïve, because we never contemplated the significant level of emotional loss we and our children would incur.
In 1995 we were invited to attend a lifelong friend’s wedding in Geelong, he had met an Australian girl at the October Beerfest and had never come back. We were tempted with the idea and then after a really long night of fun fuelled by alcohol we thought what the hell, why don’t we put an application in for migration because it was almost the same level of bureaucracy as a tourist visa!
The rest as they say is history…. after a fleeting trip we felt Australia was very similar to our own country and would be relatively easy to settle into. We had heard that Australians love us and our work ethic…. A few years later we heard directly from the horses mouth that what Australian’s actually meant when saying our work ethic was good was that we were perceived to be ‘arrogant, aggressive and competitive’ all things the parochials of Adelaide hated!!!
During our initial years we questioned and compared many things. We found the regulation stifling, it appeared there were so many rules, almost even one to get out of bed in the morning!! In particular, when it came to Occupational Health and Safety in the workplace, the training was relentless and for an educated nation we were staggered to hear that billions of Australian dollars were spent each year on Workers’ Compensation, as many billions as the GDP of small countries!!! We could not believe how parents blamed the government for the way their children turned out, we were astounded that at primary school children could learn a language for 8 years and never be able to read, write or speak it! We couldn’t accept that as long as you paid $25 for your child to play school sport regardless of them attending a game, at the end of the season they won a trophy. We were dumbfounded that up to 50% of Tasmanian adults were illiterate. Again, how people complained about the health system that they never paid for and most of all how freedom of speech meant that you could berate any person of any standing in society without any consequence.
We had periods of questioning our decision and wondering what the answer was for our family in particular. We never had any intention of returning and therefore we had to reach a level of comfortable acceptance. There were options of course. We could stalk our fellow home landers and start our own enclaves where we could exist in familiar surroundings; we could find all the stray expats in our City and hang with them; or we could remember the real reason we moved and accept that wherever we went and particularly if we had stayed behind, that nowhere is perfect. However, we could make our own Utopia by harnessing the strengths of our new country, enjoying and bestowing on our children freedom, safety and opportunity that they would never have experienced and being grateful for our own opportunity by volunteering and helping others.
Australia is so different to where we come from, it’s different to anywhere anyone comes from because of course, every country, city, community, let’s face it has its own culture, we naively thought we were moving east on the same line of latitude under the equator!
Anyway here we are after 20 years and two grown up children later who have really had the lives of riley. They are truly two very independent children who have been able to live the life that every child on earth deserves.
I believe that whilst it has taken some time to reach a balanced approach of where we were born and where we live, which are in fact, two completely separate lives, as a migrant we have no right to expect Australia to be the same as our homeland. We have no right to expect Australia to change its fundamental core to accommodate us and our family’s needs. We have no right to complain or criticize the way of life or political, economic and social systems.
Of course, we do have some rights because guess what? By the kind invitation from the Australian Government, we get to live in their country. We have the right to democracy, a right billions across the globe are denied, we have the right for everyone to be equal and included, we have the right to safety, we have the right to vote, we have the right to exceptional health resources, we have the right……. In fact, what we have in our new country, something that millions of us have never had before, we have the right to freedom!
Thank you Australia