Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Pay For Your Petrol People

Big news today. A man was shot dead after not paying for petrol. There is more to the story than just the headline. He was possibly a Victorian, based on the licence plates of his vehicle which, incidentally, was a Holden Commodore. Obviously the man had some serious issues to deal with.

The police officer involved may be flown to Perth by the Royal Flying Doctor Service as he may be suffering from bleeding on the brain. He has a broken nose and other facial injuries.

So, the guy allegedly drove off from a petrol station without paying for his fuel. His actions were reported to the police and the guy was tracked down. The police officer was on individual duty, i.e. no partner, so perhaps the driver felt he could overpower the officer. We won't find out what happened for a few days at least but it will be interesting to hear. What brought the police officer to the conclusion that he was required to use his weapon, which is considered to be a method of last resort?

What can we do to avoid being shot by the police?

Pay for your petrol.
Don't portray yourself as a Victorian (perhaps he had done the right thing by leaving Victoria with the reputation of the Victorian TRG - I guess we'll find out later).
Stop driving Holdens. You're just making yourself a target.

3 comments:

honkeie said...

LOL, we dont have any of those problems here in NJ. We are not allowed to pump our own gas, its illegal here :)

Joe said...

Ugh...

Thank god we never have violence here in the U.S.

Hammy said...

Further information on this case has been brought to light. The guy is a Victorian, so there is some justification, and has a history of drugs and police officer abuse. I'm assuming that means he has been assaulting police officers. It's slightly worse than stealing some petrol.

I remember being in Vegas in '95 with a hire car. Pulled into a petrol station and spent several minutes trying to locate the petrol cap. Then I inserted the pump and damn me if nothing happened. Only once I approached the attendant and discovered that you had to pay for the fuel first did I get the bowser running. This still hasn't happened in Australia but we are headed down that path.

Joe - "we never have violence here in the U.S." - You crack me up.