Amid Drought, Australia Has First 'Water Rage' Death

[bananas]

edit to add: This story is more about pain treatment than drought restictions - the attacker was on a prescribed combination of morphine and other drugs to treat extreme back pain.

http://www.nysun.com/article/65747

Amid Drought, Australia Has First 'Water Rage' Death

By NICK SQUIRES
The Daily Telegraph
November 2, 2007A D V E R T I S E M E N T

SYDNEY, Australia — Australia has suffered its first "water rage" death as the country confronts its seventh year of crippling drought.

Strict water restrictions have already provoked countless neighborhood feuds, but this is the first time someone has lost his life over the increasingly precious resource. Ken Proctor, 66, was watering his lawn with a hose in a Sydney suburb when a passerby, Todd Munter, 36, made a remark about him wasting water.

Proctor then reportedly turned the hose on Mr. Munter, drenching him and provoking a fight. The younger man allegedly attacked him, pushing him to the ground while kicking and punching him. Proctor suffered a massive heart attack and died in hospital. Mr. Munter was tackled by two passersby, including an off-duty policeman.

The incident happened around 5:30pm on Wednesday, meaning the victim was complying with the city's tough water conservation regulations, which limit hose use to Wednesdays and Sundays before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m.

<snip>


http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22685686-5001021,00.html

'Hose rage' victim - first photo
By Gemma Jones at Sutherland Court

November 01, 2007 04:02pm

<snip>

THE man accused of Mr Proctor's killing was on a cocktail of prescription drugs, a court has heard today.

Sutherland Court today heard Todd Munter, 36, from Caringbah, is depressed is taking a cocktail of prescription drugs, including morphine, for a back injury.

The court was told Munter, close to tears during a brief appearance today, was told he had sought help for several screws coming loose in his back yesterday, just hours before he allegedly killed Kenneth Proctor, a truck driver for the Sutherland Shire Council's civil works and parks department for 28 years until retiring in 2002.

Friends have told the media that Mr Proctor's strong work ethic earned him the nickname of Don Bradman, with workmates saying once he got in the truck, it was very hard to get him out.

<snip>

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5730368,00.jpg
Ken Proctor ... known for his hard work.

[MrSlayer]

1. Sorry but beating an old man to death for spraying you with a hose is DP worthy.

I don't give a fuck how "depressed" or "drugged up" the dude was. It's a bullshit excuse. Maybe if he had minded his own business he wouldn't be in this trouble. I was always taught not to fight with old guys, if you win you look like an asshole beating up an old man and if you lose you look like an asshole who just got fucked up by an old man. It's a no win situation.

[izquierdista]

2. Beaten to death?

How do you know old Ken wasn't just waiting for a place to keel over? Kind of like the elder Mayor Daley -- just got out of the doctor's office, and his heart decided to give out right then and there. I wouldn't blame Todd for some kind of physical retaliation after the old fart turned the hose on him. I might have even gone over, grabbed the hose and shoved it down his trousers. Then I'd be blamed for the cold water stressing the old geezer and making his ticker conk out.
The whole news account sounds like it was written to inflame. How did Todd take this "cocktail" of prescription drugs, in a highball glass, or from a brandy snifter with salt around the rim?
I'm sure somebody reading Ken's obit is saying "he went out just like we knew him, a crotchety old asshole trying to piss someone off".

[MrSlayer]

3. You don't think being pummeled and kicked led to his death?

Perhaps he was already going into cardiac arrest from the sheer glee of squirting some meddling asshole with a hose and the subsequent beating from said asshole was immaterial to his death. You can still get the doped up, depressed dude for abuse of corpse.

[izquierdista]

4. Just the facts Ma'am

I think that this article was written by some tabloid sensationalist who was related to the decedent.

I think the coroner needs to examine the deceased to determine the severity of his injuries and whether they were in any way related to his heart attack. I think witnesses need to be interviewed to find out at what point in the confrontation the deceased became incapacitated and unresponsive.

I'm suspicious of how a man with screws in his back, probably causing him great pain, is able to be "pushing him to the ground while kicking and punching him". I'm suspicious of how someone on a prescription with sedative properties, like morphine, is suddenly not sedated. I'm suspicious of an article that starts out as as a report of an altercation and ends up as a testimonial to what a kind and wonderful man the deceased was.

I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night.

[XemaSab]

5. I was having a long talk with my friend the other night about public opinion

and I'd be interested in what the public thinks about having lawns in the community where this happened.

It's sad the guy died, but if the drought is that intractable, why are they allowing lawn watering at all?