If that's controversial, the Ozzies are farther gone than I'd hoped. :-(
If that's controversial, the Ozzies are farther gone than I'd hoped. :-(
You have to understand why the gun photo is so controversial. There’s a lot of anti-gun feeling in Australia anyway, so whoever was in it, might have sparked some comment, but it really was a major issue because of who the two men in it are.
One is Nick D’Arcy. In American terms, he’s a convicted felon, in anyone’s terms he’s a vicious, savage thug. He was banned from the Australian Olympic team in 2008 for a brutal attack on a fellow athlete - he fractured the man’s skull, and jaw, and broke his nose is well. He was convicted of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm, and only avoided going to prison because of his youth and his guilty plea - they suspended his sentence. He’s been given a second chance to represent Australia in London and so he should have been on his absolute behaviour and not doing anything that might have drawn any sort of negative attention to himself.
The person with him, Kenrick Monk, isn’t quite as bad, but he’s also been in trouble with the police and only very recently. He made a false report that he had been hit by a car while riding his bike to explain injuries that he actually sustained riding a skateboard, which he had been banned from doing by team officials in case he injured himself. He was very lucky to avoid criminal charges being laid for making a false report, but again, he’s been expected to be especially well behaved ever since.
If it had just been two random athletes, the picture probably wouldn’t have made the papers - but these two had journalists looking for a story about them doing something that could be turned into a controversy and they delivered - especially D’Arcy with his record of criminal violence.