Violence, Meaning and the Law: Responses to Garry David

Abstract

Garry David, the Victorian gunman who required special legislation to detain him indefinitely because of his ‘dangerousness’ has become a classic Australian case example of ‘law and order’ politics. This paper uses a post-Structuralist approach to argue that the core dynamic in the case is the production of representations of the uncontrollable and incomprehensible. Politicians have been drawn to ever more dramatic display of the need for law and order. Inflated images of violence become the dominant public discourse and are used to legitimate increasingly punitive measures directed against representations of the Other.