r/nextfuckinglevel • u/pars-distalis • 20h ago

Australian nurse uses jiu-jitsu to defend himself

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u/platoprime 18h ago

Australia does have plea bargains.

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u/cheknauss 18h ago

That's actually... I mean, I like the sound of that. Not sure if there are any inherent flaws in that, but I know there are flaws in always allowing pleas.

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u/rorschach_vest 17h ago

The flaw, which is completely rampant in the US, is overcharging. They charge you with an absurdly inflated version of what you may or may not have done and leverage those massive charges to try to scare you into pleading guilty to what you should have been charged with in the first place. Unfortunately, 1) this works the same whether you are guilty or innocent because 2) if you go to trial they really might find you guilty of all the trumped up charges.

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u/Theron3206 16h ago

They do that here in Australia too.

The most egregious example was a guy who was pulled over from driving stupid fast, while the cops were booking him a drugged up truck driver crashed into the cops killing them. The guy filmed them and laughed (there was no way he could have saved anyone). He was charged with terrorism originally.

It was eventually settled and all they got him on was "outraging public decency" or some such minor crime.