Article /28.04.2021/BBC News

Richard Pusey: Australian jailed for filming dying officers

28.4.2021

An Australian man has received a 10-month jail sentence for filming and mocking police officers as they lay dying at a crash scene.

Last month Richard Pusey pleaded guilty to the rare charge of outraging public decency, as well as other offences.

The 42-year-old has already been in custody for nearly 300 days, so he will probably complete his sentence within days.

The sentencing judge called his actions "heartless, cruel and disgraceful".

Still, families of the victims were disappointed with the length of the sentence in a case that has stirred huge public anger.

Last month, Judge Trevor Wraight said the media had demonised Pusey to the point where he was "probably the most hated man in Australia".

What did Pusey do?

The mortgage broker had been speeding in his car on a Melbourne freeway last year when he was pulled over by four officers.

While they were making his arrest, all four were struck by a lorry that had veered out of its lane.

Senior Constables Lynette Taylor and Kevin King, and Constables Glen Humphris and Josh Prestney died at the scene.

Pusey had been standing a few metres away and avoided the crash, but afterwards pulled out his phone and began filming numerous videos, some of which ran for more than three minutes.

The court had heard that Pusey stood over and taunted Senior Constable Taylor as she remained pinned under the lorry. Experts said she was most likely still alive at the time.

"There you go. Amazing, absolutely amazing," he said, according to vision from the constable's body-worn camera which was tendered to a court.

"All I wanted was to go home and have some sushi," he added, before using expletives to blame the officers for ruining his Porsche sports car.

He fled the scene on Melbourne's Eastern Freeway shortly after. The next day he was arrested at his home and initially charged with speeding, drug possession and reckless conduct offences.

However, police then also discovered Pusey's video and that he had shared it among friends.

The lorry driver, Mohinder Singh, was jailed earlier this month to 22 years for the deaths.

A court found that the truck driver had been high on drugs, suffering delusions and hallucinations, and driving erratically when he ploughed his truck into the officers.

What did the judge say?

On Wednesday, Judge Wraight condemned Pusey's behaviour while noting he was only being sentenced for his actions. Pusey hadn't caused the deaths of the officers, contrary to some public opinion, the judge said.

"Your conduct in recording the police officers in their dying moments, together with the words you used as you recorded, was not only derogatory and horrible... but it was also callous and reprehensible conduct," Judge Wraight said.

He noted that Pusey had a history of mental health problems, including a complex personality disorder "which may go some way to explaining your behaviour". But he said it did not excuse his actions.

Pusey had previously testified he felt ashamed about the videos and that he often said offensive things "because that's how [it] comes out of my head".

Pusey was also fined A$1,000 (£557; $774), put on a two-year good behaviour bond, and had his drivers licence suspended.

How have people responded?

Families and supporters of the police officers criticised the sentence after it was handed down in Victoria's County Court.

Stuart Schulze, the husband of Constable Taylor, said he felt "almost unbearable" pain every time he remembered how his wife was treated in her final moments.

"This sentence is totally inappropriate of this offending," Mr Schulze told reporters outside court. He argued it was the court's duty to "set the appropriate standard" in penalising such behaviour.

The offence of outraging public decency has rarely been prosecuted in Australia, and the charge carries no set penalty.

The head of Victoria state's police union also criticised the sentence.

"Four upstanding heroes died on that day and… one soulless coward lived," Wayne Gatt said.

How to write an Opinion Letter to the editor\ Unit 6

 

Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices 

SD and EM	Description	Example
Onomatopoeia звукоподражание, ономатопея	Is a combination of speech-sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature, by things, by people and animals.	Ding-dong, buzz, bang, cuckoo, roar, ping-pong
Alliteration аллитерация	Is the repetition of similar sounds, in particular consonants, in close succession, often in the initial position.	"Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before." (E.A. Poe)
Rhyme рифма, ритм	Is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words. In the verse rhyming words are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.	"I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers." (Shelly)
Rhythm ритмичность, гармония	Is a flow, movement, procedure, etc.,	“The high-sloping roof, of a fine sooty pink was almost Danish, and two “ducky” little windows looked out of it, giving an impression that every tall servant lived up there” (J. Galsworthy)

Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

 

SD and EM	Description	Example
Bathos ложный пафос, неожиданный переход от возвышенного стиля к вульгарному	Means bringing together unrelated elements as they denoted things equal in rank or belonging to one class, as if they were of the same stylistic aspect. By being forcibly linked together, the elements acquire a slight modification of meaning.	"They grieved for those who perished with the cutter and also for the biscuit-casks and butter." (Byron)
Metaphor метафора, образное выражение	Is a figure of speech that says that one thing is another different thing. This allows us to use fewer words and forces the reader or listener to find the similarities between objects! WITHOUT using as or like!	Time is money.                  Frozen with fear. The world is a stage.
Metonymy метонимия	Is the term used when the name of an attribute or object is substituted for the object itself. It is based on some kind of association connecting two concepts which are represented by the dictionary and contextual meanings.	The Stage =the theatrical profession; The Crown =  the King or Queen; a hand = a worker
Irony ирония, осмеяние	Is incongruity between the literal and the implied Meaning	She turned with the sweet smile of an alligator. It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one pocket.
Zeugma зевгма	Is a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses	John and his driving license expired last week. Whether the Nymph Shall stain her Honour or her new Brocade or lose her Heart or necklace at a Ball. (Pope)
PUN игра слов, каламбур	“Play upon words” is an amusing use of a word or phrase with two meanings	–        Did you miss my lecture? –         Not at all. What is the difference between a schoolmaster and an engine-driver? One trains the mind and the other minds the train.
Epithet эпитет	Is unusual description of an object	stone-cold heart, wild wind, loud ocean, heart-burning smile, slavish knees
Reversed epithet	Is composed of two nouns linked in an of-phrase. The subjective, evaluating, emotional element is embodied not in the noun attribute but in the noun structurally described	" …a dog of a fellow"(Dickens); " a devil of a job"(Maugham); "a little Flying Dutchman of a cab"(Galsworthy)
Oxymoron оксюморон	is a figure of speech that combines contradictory objects (combination of incongruous with negative meaning).	delicious poison, alive souls,                     hot snow, low skyscraper, pleasantly ugly, sweet sorrow, proud humility
Antonomasia антономазия	Is a part of Metonymy, which is a substitution of any epithet or phrase for a proper name.	Napoleon 1, Alma Mater, “I suspect that the Noes and Don’t Knows would far outnumber the Yesses” (The Spectator)
Simile сравнение	Is where two or more unlike objects are compared. Structure: Object1 is like/as Object2	He is like a stone,              He stood as a pole, "I saw the jury return, moving like underwater swimmers…"
Periphrasis (circumlocution) Перифраз, замена прямого значения описательным выражением	‘Speaking around’ is longer-phrase which is used instead of a shorter one word.	To tie a knot - to get married ,  a gentleman of the long robe – a lawyer, the fair sex – women, a play of swords – a battle
Euphemism эвфемизм	is one word which can replace grosser or vulgar word in a sentence	They think we have come by this horse in some dishonest manner.  To pass away / to join the majority = to die A four-letter word = an obscenity.
Hyperbole гипербола, преувеличение	Is exaggerated statement or claims to create a strong emotional response.	I've told you a million times. A thousand pardons scared to death  I’d give the world to see him
Cliché клише, избитая фраза	Is an expression that has become hackneyed and trite.	Rosy dreams of youth, to grow by leaps and bounds, the patter of rain,  to withstand the test of time.
Allusion намек, ссылка, упоминание	Is and indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythological, biblical fact or to fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing.	"Pie in the sky" for Railmen" = means nothing but promises (a line from the well-known workers’ song: "You’ll get pie in the sky when you die")
Comparison сравнение	Is where two or more objects of the same class are compared, Structure: Object1 is like/as Qbject2.	You’re like your mother
Metonymy метонимия	Is based on association, the name of one thing is used in place of the name of another, closely related to it. Is used to show a part of the whole.	He writes a fine hand. She works with a               Newspaper.   New faces at the meeting
Antithesis антитеза, контраст	Is a figure of speech that combines contradictory objects sharp.	War and peace                 Our force is truth
Personification	Is a figure of speech that gives the qualities of a livingthings to lifeless objects.	The sun goes down Car’seyes gazed at me
Under- statement/ meiosis	Is the exaggeration of objects.	She wore a pink hat, the size of a button.
Litotes	Is a structural part of meiosis which gives to the objects underestimation by the means of negation  (un-, not).	It's not bad The situation was not        unusual

Syntactical Stylistic Devices

 

Parallel construction	Is a device in which the necessary condition is identical, or similar, syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of a sentence in close succession.	"There were,…,real silver spoons to stir the tea with, and real china cups to drink it out of, and plates of the same to hold the cakes and toast in".
Chiasmus (reversed parallel construction)	Is based on the repetition of a syntactical pattern, but it has a cross order of words and phrases.	"Down dropped the breeze, The sails dropped down.”" (Coleridge) "His jokes were sermons, and his sermons were jokes." (Byron)
Repetition	Is an expressive means of language used when the speaker is under the stress or strong emotion?	"I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that. I am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that. I can act with philosophy in such case as that." (Dickens)
Anaphora	Is when the repeated word (or phrase) comes at the beginning of two or more consecutive sentences, clauses or phrases.	She knew of their existence by hundreds and thousands.She knew what results in work a given number of them produce… She knew them in crowds passing… like ants or beetles. But she knew from her reading…more of the ways of toiling insects, than of these toiling men and women (Dickens).
Epiphora	Is when the repeated unit is placed at the end of the consecutive sentences, clauses or phrases.	Now this gentleman had a younger brother…who had tried life as a cornet of dragoons, and found it a bore; and afterwards tried it in the train of an English minister abroad, and found it a bore; and had then strolled to Jerusalem, and got bored there; and had then gone yachting about the world, and got bored everywhere (Dickens).
Anadiplosis	Is structured so that the last word or phrase of one part of one part of an utterance is repeated at the beginning of the next part, thus hooking the two parts together.	And a great desire for peace, peace of no matter what kind, swept through her. (A.Bennet)
Framing	Is an arrangement of repetition in which the initial parts of a syntactical unit, in most cases of a paragraph, are repeated at the end of it.	Never wonder. By means of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, settle everything somehow, and never wonder (Dickens).
Enumeration	Is a stylistic device by which separate things, objects, phenomena, actions are named one by one so that they produce a chain, the links of which are forced to display some kind of semantic homogeneity, remote though it may seem.	"Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and his sole mourner." (Dickens)
Suspense	Is arranging the matter of a communication in such a way that the less important, subordinate parts are amassed at the beginning, the main idea being withheld till the end of the sentence. Thus the reader’s attention is held and his interest is kept up.	"Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. was obliging enough to read and explain to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw." (Charles Lamb)
Climax (Gradation)	Is an arrangement of sentences (or homogeneous parts of one sentence) which secures a gradual increase in significance, importance, or emotional tension in the utterance.	"Little by little, bit by bit, day by day, and year by year the baron got the worst of some disputed question." (Dickens)
Anticlimax	Is an arrangement of ideas in ascending order of significance, or they may be poetical or elevated, but the final one, which the reader expects to be the culminating one, as in climax, is trifling or farcical. There is a sudden drop from the lofty or serious to the ridiculous.	"This war-like speech, received with many a cheer, had filled them with desire of flame, and beer." (Byron)
Antithesis	Is based on relative opposition which arises out of the context through the expansion of objectively contrasting pairs.	"A saint abroad, and a devil at home" (Bunyan) "Better to reign in the hell than serve in heaven." (Milton)
Asyndeton	Is a connection between parts of a sentence or between sentences without any formal sign, the connective being deliberately omitted.	"Soames turned away; he had an utter disinclination for talk, like one standing before an open grave, watching a coffin slowly lowered." (Galsworthy)
Polysyndeton	Is the connection of sentences, or phrases, or syntagms, or words by using connectives (mostly conjunctions and prepositions) before each component part.	"The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect."(Dickens)
Ellipsis	Imitates the common features of colloquial language, where the situation predetermines not the omission of certain members of the sentence, but their absence.	"Nothing so difficult as the beginning." (Byron)
Break-in-the-narrative (Aposiopesis)	Is a break in the narrative used for some stylistic effect	"You just come home or I'll..."
Litotes	Negative constructions aimed at establishing a positive feature in a person or thing.	"He was not without taste ..." "It troubled him not a little …"