Man wants to gun down ‘the animals’ after wife’s car bricked
A Cape Town man received encouragement from his friends on Facebook, who seem to believe an automatic rifle would be a solution.
Picture: Facebook/Johan Bower
Durbanville, Cape Town, resident Johan Bower was so furious on Sunday that he took to Facebook to post photos of what was left of his wife’s car’s windscreen and declare that he’d enjoy “emptying a few magazines into the rubbish”.
He said that the brick was tossed at the car early on Sunday evening when his wife was travelling home from Sunningdale. He said the brick had gone through the windscreen and hit his wife in the chest.
“Hit my wife in the chest, can I have my R1 riffle [sic] back with a case of ammo to act like the animals we must live with. These animals have got no respect towards human beings. To them it means nothing to kill does not matter what race, color, believe [sic], it is just criminals on the run…. sal dit darem geniet om so paar magasyne leeg te maak op die gemors [I would at least enjoy emptying a few magazines on this rubbish].”
Picture: Facebook/Johan Bower
Bower presumably has a military background as the R1 rifle was the weapon of choice for army recruits from the 1960s onwards.
Many of the comments to the post either sympathised with the Bowers or encouraged the man to act on his vigilante instincts. No one advised him against taking the law into his own hands.
Arjan van den Bosch told him to “Go for it.”
Andre Crause said: “I agree. We must fight fire with Fire.”
Helen Smith wrote: “These terrorists are spawn of satan.”
Only Paul Mansfield was disapproving, but not because Bower wanted to go on a shooting spree – he simply didn’t agree with the choice of weapon. “Why an R1? Why don’t you carry a decent Handgun and spare mags? At least it’s on your person. Calling for an R1 is almost an excuse for not getting a handgun to carry daily. But I agree… savage gemors.”
Late last month, Police Minister Bheki Cele warned communities against vigilantism.
