As we all know, Saint George Floyd was brutally murdered by a policeman’s knee. The fact that he had imbibed three times the fatal dose of Fentanyl had nothing to do with it.
Just like the meth-head who tried to rob a Bunnings store in Melbourne, in 2016.
Anthony Georgiou had stolen a gas cylinder and saw blade from the Frankston store on September 12, 2016, when two Bunnings loss prevention officers (LPOs) attempted to stop him from getting away.
Well, that’s just, like, violating his civil rights and stuff.
A three-minute struggle broke out where Mr Georgiou was put in a headlock by one of the LPOs. A witness heard him shouting “help me, help me, let me go” and Mr Georgiou said he could not breathe.
The 31-year-old fell unconscious and was taken to Frankston Hospital once emergency services arrived. He died the following day.
Victorian Coroner Darren Bracken found he would not have died if it was not for that struggle.
“There seems little doubt that had Mr Georgiou not been involved in the struggle … he would have walked away from Bunnings that day,” he said in his report released on Tuesday.
Those of us of a more cynical bent might think that, had he not been a meth-head trying to nick stuff.
Forensic pathologist Heinrich Bouwer conducted Mr Georgiou’s autopsy and determined his cause of death was “complications of methylamphetamine use in the setting of physical restraint in a man with cardiomegaly” (an enlarged heart).
By a strange coincidence, cardiomegaly can be caused by heavy drug misuse.
The two LPOs said they approached Mr Georgiou near the store’s doors and told him they thought he had stolen items in his pocket. But he ignored them and aggressively told them to “f**k off”.
He was then told that he was under arrest, but Mr Georgiou continued to walk away.
“The guy just ignored us and kept walking. I was on the guy’s right side behind his shoulder and I tried to grab him across his chest with my right arm and place a leg behind him to try and get him to the ground, but he was so strong that when I grabbed him he lifted me up,” one of the contractors said […]
Bunnings’ code of conduct makes it clear that the LPOs violated its rules by using force to arrest Mr Georgiou.
This is not uncommon. Acquaintances in retail affirm that many big stores have policies that mean that staff aren’t actually allowed to apprehend people stealing. “We’re supposed to just let them walk out.”
But Mr Bracken found the duo had neither seen the code or attended the relevant training despite purportedly signing Bunnings code of conduct documents.
The coroner was not satisfied that the LPOs were aware of those obligations on September 12 […]
The coroner made three recommendations for Bunnings, including to consider training store managers on supervising LPOs, especially during physical confrontations.
News.com.au
No recommendations, oddly, to not take meth or steal stuff.
Next stop, California…
