Elderly Man Killed By Neighbor for Watering Lawn in Australia
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY 
on 11. 1.07
According to CNN, a 66 year-old man was beaten to death on his front lawn by his 36 year-old neighbor for watering it yesterday in Sydney, Australia. Apparently, the pair started arguing over his water usage, and the victim sprayed his neighbor with water from the garden hose. Then the 36 year-old beat him severely, punching and knocking him to the ground where he kicked him repeatedly. And ultimately an off-duty police officer arrested the attacker, but the victim was pronounced dead at the hospital soon after.
Now amazingly, the victim had actually been following the guidelines on water restrictions for the Sydney area when this happened. Those state that you can, in fact, water your lawn before 10a.m. and after 4p.m. on Wednesdays and Sundays.
So was this the case of an overly zealous environmental advocate or simply the maniac next door?
I suggest it may be neither.
More likely it was the predictable results of what happens to people in general when resources become scarce. Just as problems get worse, the average citizen becomes more acutely aware of the shortage and how it is affecting their own personal lifestyle. Existing tensions become exacerbated by the problem, and conditions become ripe for tragedies such as this.
At least in my view, this is a perfect example of one of the potential "retail" effects of climate change as opposed to the "wholesale" effects of whole nations and states going to war with each other.
Let's hope we get our act together soon.
via:: CNN
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Sad...
You know...why does Treehugger have to post sensationalist news on this site. I could go to any other major news network site and read that. I guess that it was a fight over water usage that it counts but I'd rather hear about two large corporations fighting each other on who's adhering to EPA water quality standards better...That would mean a bit more to me.
So was this the case of an overly zealous environmental advocate...
You're joking, right?
wow! it is amazing how some people can get so angry over a nice waterd laws. If the 66 year old man was obaying the restrictions the 36 year old man must be punished. I wonder if the 36 year old had any mental issus.
wow! it is amazing how some people can get so angry over a nice waterd laws. If the 66 year old man was obaying the restrictions the 36 year old man must be punished. I wonder if the 36 year old had any mental issus.
wow! it is amazing how some people can get so angry over a nice waterd laws. If the 66 year old man was obaying the restrictions the 36 year old man must be punished. I wonder if the 36 year old had any mental issus.
Clearly a case of "the maniac next door" and/or something that we didn't get to learn from the report. The behavior of the younger man is so far from responsible behavior that the question shouldn't even been asked.
This, to me, is a case of terrible reporting. These guys got into an altercation and one guy totally lost control of himself. (Perhaps both did.)
And, dear doofus reporter, 66 is not "elderly".
Bob.
Age 63, and irritated.
Had the oldtimer been watering his lawn on the incorrect day or during a ban, I might say his untimely death was justified. However, the aggressor was wrong in this case, and there's nothing worse than someone enforcing an incorrect ruling (be it in hockey or driving).
This sort of environmental retribution was also witnessed with the vandalizing of SUVs years ago.
So you're blaming *this* on the global warming too. You can't possibly admit that the more likely scenario is this guy is a radical enviro-fascist out to regulate everyone's use of water.
I hope he gets beaten every day in prison.
this guy is a radical enviro-fascist out to regulate everyone's use of water
You have no idea where he stands on things. Neighbor relations can get ugly and have nothing to with what you're mentioning, though I bet you feel real good using that kind of nasty language here at Treehugger.
I hope he gets beaten every day in prison.
That says everything we need to know about you, sicko.
This sounds like someone with serious self control problems. Of couse there are radical enviro-fascist loose in the world like the Earth Liberation Front but while they mainly burn large houses and SUV's but they don't kill people. Too bad because if they picked a slightly less radical method of protest they could be raising awareness in people. When many people hear about things like the ELF burning things "for the earth" they end up thinking enviromentalists are a bunch of nuts when it's really acts of a very few misguided people.
"Had the oldtimer been watering his lawn on the incorrect day or during a ban, I might say his untimely death was justified."
really? honestly, really?
@brennan
"Had the oldtimer been watering his lawn on the incorrect day or during a ban, I might say his untimely death was justified."
Maybe you should reconsider your value system. That kind of thinking is not justified or desired in a civilized society.
"If the 66 year old man was obaying the restrictions the 36 year old man must be punished."
"Had the oldtimer been watering his lawn on the incorrect day or during a ban, I might say his untimely death was justified"
What the HELL is wrong with you people? IF the 66 year old was obeying restrictions? Your implication being that if he wasn't obeying the restrictions then the 36 yearold shouldn't be punished? Dear GOD you need a reality check. I've got no doubt at all that you'd be the first out on the street with a placard if a demonstration/plea for clemency for some mass murderer/rapist on death row came up, but if someone waters their lawn on the wrong day then you think it's fair enough that they're murdered? It is jibbering morons like you who destroy the credibility of the environmental movement.
I'll write to God and ask him to amend the 6th commandement - "Thou shalt not kill, unless thy neighbor is watering their lawn on the wrong day in which case GO NUTS!"
As to the original article, at least you didn't go so far as saying the murder is justified, but your conclusions are still a pretty desperate reach. Your use of the term "average citizen" and your perceived motivation is ridiculous. The average citizen does not commit murder in Sydney for water overuse. There needs to be some significant alternate motivation, whether mental state or previous conflict or whatever - even if global warming did somehow contribute indirectly to events reaching flash point it's pretty irrational to blame it for the wrong thing. That's like driving at 300km/hr through downtown new york and blaming the resulting car crash on one of your tyres being very slightly flat.
The simple fact that you're still ALLOWED to water your lawn at all is proof that the situation is not sufficiently critical to justify murder. NOR WILL IT EVER BE!
For a bunch of people who are supposed to be in favour of commensalism and mutual support there are certainly some rabid psychos on here!
Ahhhhh, Brennan, you reveal yourself.
"My mom irks me when she makes cardboard pancakes from a packet rather than taking the time to mix 5 dry ingredients and 3 wet ones to make superior flapjacks".
Man... take a long look in the mirror my friend. The world doesn't exist to meet your every need. There are two types of people on this site in general - those who work towards a change for the better, and those who are content to whinge about the status quo. You're firmly in the latter group at the moment - if you want to do something positive start by making your own pancakes!
how terrible... no matter how bad it gets violence of any sort is not justifiable when it comes to enforcing laws like these... how terrible!
They needed to beat each other to death over the water...hence freeing up the water for a (slightly) diminished population.
It's the system regulating itself...overcrowing leads to rage which leads to murder which fixes the overcrowding ;) !
Yes...this is in jest!
People, read the article. He wasn't killed for watering his lawn (and this article really says nothing about the environment).
He was killed because he was an ass and provoked a fight by spraying his neighbor with the hose. If he hadn't done that, he might still be alive. Did he really expect his neighbor to just take the hosing and calmly walk away with his dignity intact?
The neighbor went too far, but that doesn't mean the elderly man wasn't being an asshole. It's not necessarily what you say, but how you say it that can make all the difference.
OH! Because that changes EVERYTHING! I'll resubmit my commandment change application.
"thou shalt not kill - unless someone sprays you with a hose"
I accept your point about it having little to do with the original perceived offense, but I still take huge issue with the fact that several people - yourself now included Berkana - seem to be of the view that it was a justified response on some level. I could MAYBE accept that running up and spraying him back would be justified assuming you were some insecure socially inept retard who was incapable of walking away from a stupid confrontation, but at no level were his actual actions vaguely justified.
That's like saying "A parent killing their child for throwing their dinner on the floor is understandable, because the kid aggrivated them - they just went too far". What happened to self control and foresight, you know, that little thing that's supposed to separate us from amoebas, and theoretically allows societies and individuals to peacefully interact
Wow. This post certainly stirred up far more debate than I ever anticipated when I wrote it this morning.
The reason I chose to post about it was really to call attention to the fact that we in the first world are not impervious to the fact that a limited supply of any resource, particularly water and food, puts stress on people that makes them act in bizarre ways.
I am perfectly willing to suspect that these two may not have been the best of friends to begin with. But what was the 36 year old frustrated by other than the fact that his neighbor was watering the lawn during a drought, and that the lack of water in general was negatively affecting his own life?
Does anyone honestly believe that if the water supply in Sydney was equal to that in my hometown of North Babylon, NY that they would ever have been fighting over water?
I truly suspect not.
And so my point, again, is that the mismanagement of resources and the realities of drought in the future due to climate change make it all the more likely that neighbors will be fighting it out over water in the future.
After all, whole countries and states are already beginning to spar politically over the issue... And what is one set of people living in one country next door to another set of people in another country besides neighbors on a grander scale than these two?
Please note that the report is misleading -
According to the more detailed news reports we got in Australia, the old man died of a heart attack five minutes after the attack rather than from the punches or kicks.
This of course doesn't absolve the younger man of responsibility, but it is very different to the picture painted by the article, which implies that the attack was so violent that the older man died because of the injuries inflicted.
The killer was definitely a maniac next door - this took place in Sutherland Shire!! If you are from Sydney, you know what that means ... bogans and drop kicks!
....Had the oldtimer been watering his lawn on the incorrect day or during a ban, I might say his untimely death was justified...."
I'm speechless at the cold, selfrighteous and reckless attitute displayed in this post.
A death sentence is not to be carried out by one civilian against another. That is factual ANARCHY. I hope the person who made this post doesn't also take matters in their own hands.
You people are scary. Scary!
ONE MORE THING!
Nobody knows what really perspired between the 2 neighbors. Let law enforcement figure it out and DO NOT MAKE NEWS OUT OF AMATEURISH SUGGESTIONS OR GUESSWORK.
It freaks everybody out and should be considered lousy journmalism!
Doesn't belong on TreeHugger, I agree!
wow thats intense, i guess people will go mad if our sources our cut off
wow thats intense, i guess people will go mad if our sources our cut off
Sad as it may be this is a direct result of the new policy to dob in your neighbor. It should be unconstitutional for Australians to be pit against each other for such pedantic reasons. More often than not the dob-in-an-enemy has created much community unrest and wars are breaking out between neighbours all over Australia. In this case I believe that even though these people may not have been neighbors the same smell of the governments role in such nonsense seems a contributor to the violence between Australian citizens. The distrust and misuse of such dobber systems is creating a citizen that worries more about what our neighbors do to a point where the dobber has no life other than to lash out against anyone that may look different. The damage that has been done to our already human rights deprived communities is going to take a good decade and we have not seen the final outcome of this abuse of system upon Australians.
I do not agree with the murderers action by no means but the old guy seemed like a target from the opinion that old guys love to dob in people for using water and now we start seeing the damage.