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Magistrate clears cops of manslaughter over man's death · The Slippery Slope

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  All right, Jay Fallon, thanks for listening.
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  So there was a story that came out a while ago now about a
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  gentleman down in Victoria who was killed while in custody with
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  two police officers in Victoria has killed in I believe it was
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  the car park of a 711. So we've had an outcome from
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  from that and what's happened with those two police officers
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  who had believe faced charges. It's gone to court.
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  Just want to read through with you, share what's actually
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  happened, what's going on? So the headline says magistrate
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  clears cops of manslaughter over man's death Manslaughter charges
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  against 2 Victoria Police officers has been thrown have
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  been thrown out by a magistrate who contrasted the case with the
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  death of George Floyd. I don't know why we need to go
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  there all the time anyway. So Luke Briggs, 35, died 8 days
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  after he was arrested in a convenience store car park at
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  Hoppers Crossing in Melbourne Southwest in July of 2024.
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  Constable Alexander Papanastas Papanastasis Sorry for
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  mispronouncing the name there bro Papanostasis I think 30, and
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  Sergeant James Fitzgerald, 46, were each charged with negligent
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  manslaughter over his death, but they fought the charges at a
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  committal hearing. Here's the picture of the I've
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  got to bring up a picture of the gentleman there who who passed
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  away. Melbourne Magistrate Patrick
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  Soothie on Tuesday determined there was insufficient evidence
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  for the case to go to trial and dismissed the charges.
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  The evidence is so weak that the prospect of a conviction is
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  minimal. It may be the manner in which Mr
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  Briggs was restrained was the substantial and operative cause
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  of death, but we'll never know. Mr Briggs allegedly became
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  unresponsive during the arrest and the officers performed CPR
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  before calling for medical assistance.
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  The 35 year old died in a Melbourne hospital intensive
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  care unit July 23rd, 8 days after his arrest, surrounded by
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  family. Photos at the time showed
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  bruising on his arms as he lay in a hospital bed putting up
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  photos there of bruising on his arms.
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  OK. In delivering his ruling, the
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  magistrate referred to the high profile case of African American
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  man, otherwise just known as an American man, George Floyd in
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  the United States. Mr Floyd was murdered by a white
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  police officer who was arresting him in May 2020.
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  Not really sure he was murdered, but anyway, his dying words of I
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  can't breathe were also said by Mr Briggs, the magistrate noted.
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  So I've got a picture up here of the the officers in question.
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  It seems to me the parallels end there, the magistrate said.
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  There there is no comparison to this case where the police were
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  doing the best they could, it was not a perfect job but the
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  best they could do in all the circumstances, the magistrate
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  noted. And here is the circumstances,
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  OK, this is the real circumstances that he's talking
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  about. The magistrate noted Mr Briggs
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  was a large, powerful man whose behaviour had been irrational
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  due to methamphetamine use. It was an unfortunate, tragic
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  chain of events but in my view it does not amount to criminal
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  negligence. He awarded costs to Constable
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  Papanastasis and Sergeant Fitzgerald who have both been
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  suspended from duties since the incident.
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  Members of Mr Briggs family were visibly upset at the decision.
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  As the decision was handed down, the family is separately suing
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  the state, accusing the officers of breaching their duty of care
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  and Victoria Police of failing to properly supervise, control
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  or train their employees, officers and or agents.
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  Mr Southey indicated he's really had no basis on any civil
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  proceedings. OK, I got to say, I got to say
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  this. You know, he's, he's drawn these
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  parallels with what happened to George Floyd.
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  And I think they're really downplaying the drug use, the
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  drug use here. Here is the issue when you're
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  going, someone's behaving irrationally.
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  Obviously there's something that's happened and the need to
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  arrest him, the need to restrain him has been raised.
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  The issue is when you've got someone who's on drugs, who's on
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  methamphetamine or I think in George Floyd's case is on
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  fentanyl, you know, as as a police officer at the time, you,
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  you don't really know you. You can't know right then and
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  there what's in their system. You might have an inkling.
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  You can see from the behaviour something's not right and
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  thinking, OK, you know, something's not right.
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  And I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to arrest this
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  person. I'm going to have to restrain
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  them. But an individual's decision in
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  his personal life to take drugs, let let's not forget that
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  methamphetamine, fentanyl, all these drugs are very dangerous
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  to the individual and they're illegal.
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  So if you've gone out of your way, you're taking substances
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  that are illegal to use and yet you choose to put them in your
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  system, put them in your blood system, and then your behaviour
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  is so erratic that police have to then intervene.
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  Surely, surely you as the individual who've chosen to take
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  drugs like that, surely the burden, the onus is on you, the
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  onus is on you for your behaviour if you've gone and
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  you've chosen to do that, to take those drugs and these drugs
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  cause just outlandish, if not illegal behaviour and behaviour
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  that is often, it's not just a detriment to yourself, but it's
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  a danger to greater society. You know, I'm all for pulling
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  police up. I'm all for pulling police up
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  when they behave badly and when they go out of their way to, to,
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  to mistreat people who don't deserve it.
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  You know, they and they not just behave badly, but they behave
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  illegally. They don't follow the rules, the
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  regulations. If you're in Queensland, you
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  know, you have the PPRA, they don't follow the PPRA.
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  I'm all, I'm all for holding police accountable when they
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  don't, when they don't obey the rules, when they don't obey the
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  very legislation that guides them.
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  However, police are also doing dangerous work.
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  And if you've come across people, and I have come across
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  people when I was in, in GDS who were obviously they're highly
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  motivated and they're, they're definitely on drugs.
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  Their behaviour is not, it's not behaviour that you can, you
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  know, you can just allow them just to walk around and do
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  whatever they want. You're going to have to restrain
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  them because they're a danger to themselves and to other people.
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  And if you don't intervene, something worse could happen.
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  And if they're doing something illegal and something that poses
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  a threat and a danger to the wider public, then as a police
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  officer, you are obligated. You're obligated to intervene.
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  And then if that person is struggling and unfortunately, as
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  in this case, may be struggling to breathe, but their struggles
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  are heartened, their struggles are brought to a dangerous C
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  crescendo because of their drug use, well, then they that person
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  bears the bears the responsibility.
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  They're the ones that chose to put those drugs in their system.
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  And I feel for the family, OK, Like the magistrate seems to
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  indicate, maybe things could be done differently, could have
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  been done better. But hey, if that person hadn't
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  have gone and decided to put methamphetamine in their system,
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  you'd guarantee, I hope that they wouldn't be acting a fool,
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  that they wouldn't be creating this situation where police
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  needed to intervene in the 1st place.
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  It's a it's difficult. It's difficult for police, it's
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  difficult for family. There are no winners here.
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  But you can't go and blame police every time.
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  Police are doing the best that they can.
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  And then someone who's gone out there running around causing a
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  danger to grave society, and then they pay the ultimate price
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  with their life because they've chosen to go on out and use
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  drugs. Like I said, I'm all for holding
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  police accountable when they do things wrong.
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  But you know, drug use so prevalent in their society,
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  people seem to think sometimes that they overlook, they
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  overlook the drug use and they they use it as this excuse.
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  I wasn't, I wasn't in fully, fully control.
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  I wasn't fully control of my myself, my person at that time.
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  Well, you're the one that chose to put drugs in your system.
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  You chose it. And these are the ramifications.
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  This is what happens when you put that crap in your system.
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  That's what happens. It affects your mind, it affects
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  your body. You cannot control your mind.
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  You cannot think clearly, you think irrationally, you behave
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  irrationally, and then when police intervene, things quite
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  often go awry. Unfortunately, this gentleman
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  might have been the nicest guy in the world when he wasn't on
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  methamphetamine, but at that time he paid.
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  Unfortunately, he paid the ultimate price.
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  Anyway, all this is just my opinion.
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  I think it's something for greater society to think about
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  and these families that want to go and blame police for
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  everything to think about. Maybe, maybe, OK, we need to
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  remember that if you want to go and use them, legal substance,
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  illicit substances, this is what can occur.
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  And it would be, I think it'd be better if education systems
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  focused, you know, all these people that get around and say,
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  Hey, let's, let's, let's get all these centres in where we can
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  test substances. I think it'd be a lot better if
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  if these same people went around and and pointed out, hey, how
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  easy it is to die. Life is fleeting.
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  It is fleeting and you can be taken away.
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  None of us are guaranteed our next breath and we we just treat
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  life as a we. We gamble with our lives far too
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  often and we'd be far better off rather than going around trying
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  to trying to test legal substances, substances so that
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  our young people can take drugs. Educating young people on how
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  easy it is to lose your life because of drug use and how We
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  don't know. We cannot be sure of what's
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  being put in to make some of these drugs and how you know
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  where they're actually made in toilets and disgusting
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  situations that they're made in, the chemicals that you would not
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  normally put into your body and you go and willingly choose to
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  put it in. How about instead of trying to
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  test substances to say if they're safe, convincing young
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  people, hey, it's far too easy to lose your life.
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  We need to be better educated and that's just my opinion on
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  the whole thing. We we just too many allowances,
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  too many excuses for our drug use shouldn't be going on
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  anyway. Let me know what you think I'm
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  Jay Fallon. Thanks for listening.
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  They.