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Family Suicide in LA Reminiscent of Cartier Incident
With no job and 5 kids, 'better to end our lives,' man wrote
"It was described as one of the most grisly scenes Los Angeles police had ever encountered: the bodies of five small children and their parents, all shot to death, in two upstairs rooms of the family's home.
...
But even more incomprehensible to some was the story that emerged after the bodies were found Tuesday: A father who, after he and his wife were fired from their jobs, killed all six family members before turning the gun on himself."
I just came across this article on CNN.com, and was immediately reminded of the Cartier affair in France, back in 2002. I first heard of the Cartier's when I began more seriously studying the work of Bernard Stiegler last year. Stiegler is a French philosopher, who after discovering philosophy while inprisoned for armed robbery, began a serious study of technology called Technics and Time. Stiegler wrote about the Cartiers in Mécréance et Discrédit: Tome 2, Les sociétés incontrolables d'individus désaffectés (2006). An extract was published in English translation as The Disaffected Individual. (according to wikipedia.) The story goes something like this. After returning home from dinner, Patricia and Emmanuel Cartier had decided to end their lives, and the lives of their 5 children. Patricia was working as a caregiver to the elderly, and injected her children, aged 11 months to 13 years, with insulin, telling them they were being vaccinated before going on holiday. She then gave herself the same injection, and her husband attempted to slit his wrists. The dose proved not to be fatal, however, and only 11 year old Alicia would later die from the injection. Coincidently, on the same day that Alicia passed away, the children's grandmother, whose custody they were under, also died in a car accident. The Cartier's claimed that desperation from being over 250,000 Euros in debt led them to wish to end their lives. They claimed that they were caught in an "infernal spiral" of consumer spending and debt, and blamed societies consumerism for their actions. "After 15 years of marriage, the Cartiers, described by a psychiatrist as "immature, emotionally insecure and depressed", had six different bank accounts, 21 distinct consumer loans and 15 credit cards. They earned €1,300 (£900) a month each, with an extra €500 in family allowances." Patricia and Emmanuel were later convicted of attempted murder and murder, and sentenced to 10 and 15 years respectively. I'm not sure why Patricia, who took the insulin from her job and administered the injections, got a lighter sentence than her husband, who was also 7 years her junior (not that that's particularly relevant.)
The family in LA, who also had 5 children, claimed to be driven to despair by economic causes, being terminated from their jobs, though they didn't directly blame consumerism, and their method of carrying out their task was far more pragmatic, and effective. The things that struck me, aside from the superficial similarities, is the immaturity of the acts. I suppose things like this have always occurred, but it seems to me that there is something about modern life that not only creates citizens who are unable to take care of themselves, but also drives them to such deep despair that they see murdering their own family as the only way out.
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On a lighter note, I spent two weeks in San Francisco (with brief trips to Davis, Los Angeles and Lake Tahoe,) seeing friends, visiting museums and galleries, and meeting with professors at the graduate programs I've applied to. I saw an excellent show at SFMOMA called the art of participation, in which I was blessed to yet again experience a Janet Cardiff piece. I also saw a wonderful show on Afghanistan at the Asian Arts Museum. I will try and post my reviews of these shows shortly. The Art of Participation in particular, which was a retrospective of works from the 1950s to the present, had many recent new media pieces with online components, so I think it will be quite fun for those who read it.
"It was described as one of the most grisly scenes Los Angeles police had ever encountered: the bodies of five small children and their parents, all shot to death, in two upstairs rooms of the family's home.
...
But even more incomprehensible to some was the story that emerged after the bodies were found Tuesday: A father who, after he and his wife were fired from their jobs, killed all six family members before turning the gun on himself."
I just came across this article on CNN.com, and was immediately reminded of the Cartier affair in France, back in 2002. I first heard of the Cartier's when I began more seriously studying the work of Bernard Stiegler last year. Stiegler is a French philosopher, who after discovering philosophy while inprisoned for armed robbery, began a serious study of technology called Technics and Time. Stiegler wrote about the Cartiers in Mécréance et Discrédit: Tome 2, Les sociétés incontrolables d'individus désaffectés (2006). An extract was published in English translation as The Disaffected Individual. (according to wikipedia.) The story goes something like this. After returning home from dinner, Patricia and Emmanuel Cartier had decided to end their lives, and the lives of their 5 children. Patricia was working as a caregiver to the elderly, and injected her children, aged 11 months to 13 years, with insulin, telling them they were being vaccinated before going on holiday. She then gave herself the same injection, and her husband attempted to slit his wrists. The dose proved not to be fatal, however, and only 11 year old Alicia would later die from the injection. Coincidently, on the same day that Alicia passed away, the children's grandmother, whose custody they were under, also died in a car accident. The Cartier's claimed that desperation from being over 250,000 Euros in debt led them to wish to end their lives. They claimed that they were caught in an "infernal spiral" of consumer spending and debt, and blamed societies consumerism for their actions. "After 15 years of marriage, the Cartiers, described by a psychiatrist as "immature, emotionally insecure and depressed", had six different bank accounts, 21 distinct consumer loans and 15 credit cards. They earned €1,300 (£900) a month each, with an extra €500 in family allowances." Patricia and Emmanuel were later convicted of attempted murder and murder, and sentenced to 10 and 15 years respectively. I'm not sure why Patricia, who took the insulin from her job and administered the injections, got a lighter sentence than her husband, who was also 7 years her junior (not that that's particularly relevant.)
The family in LA, who also had 5 children, claimed to be driven to despair by economic causes, being terminated from their jobs, though they didn't directly blame consumerism, and their method of carrying out their task was far more pragmatic, and effective. The things that struck me, aside from the superficial similarities, is the immaturity of the acts. I suppose things like this have always occurred, but it seems to me that there is something about modern life that not only creates citizens who are unable to take care of themselves, but also drives them to such deep despair that they see murdering their own family as the only way out.
-----------------------------------
On a lighter note, I spent two weeks in San Francisco (with brief trips to Davis, Los Angeles and Lake Tahoe,) seeing friends, visiting museums and galleries, and meeting with professors at the graduate programs I've applied to. I saw an excellent show at SFMOMA called the art of participation, in which I was blessed to yet again experience a Janet Cardiff piece. I also saw a wonderful show on Afghanistan at the Asian Arts Museum. I will try and post my reviews of these shows shortly. The Art of Participation in particular, which was a retrospective of works from the 1950s to the present, had many recent new media pieces with online components, so I think it will be quite fun for those who read it.
posted by tno at 18:38
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