Claire Harvey's view is similar to mine. It is noteworthy that these are the views of a woman. I am sure Fruity will find something to counter Harvey's view that "we all" need to take responsibility for our own security.
The Daily Telegraph
This isn’t victim blaming. It’s common sense
Claire Harvey
June 16, 2018 9:00pm
Subscriber only
DON’T walk through lonely parks after dark.
Don’t let your children walk home by themselves.
Don’t get drunk and fall asleep in the front seat of an Uber.
Why not? Because there are monsters out there in the dark and no amount of righteous fury is going to make them go away. We tell our kids there are no dragons, no crocodiles, no Gruffalos in the blackness.
But the truth is — and every adult knows it — that terrible things happen in lonely places after the sun goes down. MORE FROM CLAIRE HARVEY: Women are at war over Eurydice Dixon The 10 comments that shocked me most
I’m terrified of the dark, and I’m embarrassed to admit it. As a feminist, an independent woman, I feel a bit weird asking someone to come to the carpark with me when my shift finishes after midnight. RELATED: Eurydice Dixon honoured in song by friends
But I’d rather be embarrassed — or be a wimp, or shred my credentials as a happy feminist — than be dead.
So why, when police dare to point out one of these truths, does a raging tide of abuse turn on the police themselves?
Smart, brave, talented 22-year-old comedian Eurydice Dixon was raped and murdered in a Melbourne park early on Wednesday morning, as she walked the seven kilometres home from a stand-up gig. Less than an hour before her death, she messaged her boyfriend: “I’m almost home safe, HBU?”
Eurydice Dixon.
A man, 19-year-old Jaymes Todd, has been charged with her sexual assault and murder. He has not entered a plea. Police will allege he followed her from the city’s fringes and raped and killed her in the park. They didn’t know each other. His lawyer said he has autism and will be vulnerable in jail because he finds stressful situations difficult.
Victoria Police superintendent David Clayton said, after police found Eurydice’s body, that the case should be a reminder to women to show “situational awareness”, to keep a phone on them, and to make sure someone always knows where they are.
And then came the predictable surge of outrage, from just about every woman you know, slagging off the police for daring to “victim-blame”. Someone even suggested we need another march, like the one after Jill Meagher’s murder, to tell men to stop raping and murdering women.
For Christ’s sake. The police aren’t blaming Eurydice. They are trying to stop this happening to another woman tonight. RELATED: This rage at the police is misdirected
Also, “men” didn’t kill Eurydice Dixon. One man did. The courts will decide who he was. It’s totally unfair to blame all men — who, by the way, are also victims of terrifying random crime, and who also feel fear when they walk through the dark — for this.
And to all those angry women lashing out at the police and mankind in general, I suspect if you were the cop who had to feel for a pulse on a cold human being and lift her into a body-bag, you’d be telling girls not to go out alone at night, too.
I understand Eurydice didn’t have money for an Uber. I get the fact she was working late. And I am as enraged as everyone else that someone robbed her of life and made her last moments unbearably frightening.
But it is not sexist or cold to suggest that there’s a lesson from Eurydice’s death.
Members of the public leave flowers at a makeshift memorial to Eurydice Dixon. (Pic: Wayne Taylor)
What’s the lesson from the disappearance of William Tyrrell? Don’t let preschoolers go into an unfenced front yard by themselves. What about the murder of Jill Meagher? Get into a taxi with a girlfriend instead of walking home by yourself. And Daniel Morcombe? Young teenagers are too vulnerable to wait at isolated bus-stops by themselves.
That’s not about blame. None of these people are responsible for the heinous actions of others. It’s just about observing the world we live in, and trying to stay alive.
Police cannot anticipate and prevent every crime. We can run all the education and gender equity programs in the world: they’re not going to stop some future mentally ill rapist from killing you.
So please, look after yourself. Be a scaredy-cat. Do whatever you can to keep yourself safe.
I remember, at the age of about 25, arguing with my Dad about whether it was a good idea for some hypothetical woman to go jogging at night by herself. Our conversation was spurred by the notorious gang rape and murder of Trisha Meili in New York’s Central Park, for which five men were wrongly convicted before the real killer confessed. RELATED: The thought on every woman’s mind after vigil for Eurydice Dixon
My Dad, an idealist and a sweetheart, was the one arguing women should be able to do whatever they want, and should be completely free to wear anything they choose, without fear of harassment.
Yes Dad, you were right. I wish the world you believed in was the world we truly inhabit. But we aren’t. We can’t. It isn’t.
Eurydice did not deserve this death. She should be doing stand-up tonight at some bar. She’s not to blame for the way her life ended.
But we won’t get her back by raging against the invisible horrors of the night. Claire Harvey is the deputy editor of the Sunday Telegraph. @chmharvey
