Not So Peaceful Peaceniks

Watch out for the peaceniks. They can be quite dangerous.

In the proud peacenik tradition of axe-murderer Carlos Hartmann and brutal maniac Christiaan Briggs, antiwar activist Ricardo Cortez was arrested for murdering his wife last Sunday in Greeley, Colorado.

That was in September. Now we have yet another peacenik on the warpath:

Less than five years ago, Jock Palfreeman was a year 11 student at St Ignatius’ College, Riverview, a strapping young man handy with an oar and on the rugby field. He also had a left-leaning political consciousness - enough for him to organise student protests against the Iraq war ...

A photograph on the website of the Parramatta Advertiser shows him in school uniform in July 2002 posing behind bars in a “Ruddock Free Zone”, at a time when Mr Ruddock, as minister for immigration, was embroiled in detention centre controversies.

In 2003 Palfreeman joined students from across the state in opposing the war in Iraq. He joined the socialist youth organisation Resistance, and formed a Riverview Student Peace and Unity Congress. In an interview with Green Left Weekly he said: “There’s a large majority against the war, but still some people who support it. Most of the staff that I’ve talked to support the anti-war movement."

Immediately subsequent to his involvement in the Riverview Student Peace and Unity Congress, in 2004 peacenik Palfreeman reportedly wanted to join the Australian Defence Forces and lately claimed to have been working for the British Army. Weird. Anyhoo, he’s now charged with murder and attempted murder after allegedly stabbing two men during a brawl in Bulgaria.