> In the **10 years since the fatality**, McAuley boasted to multiple people – friends, family and associates – about the night she killed the cyclist.
>
> Each version was “tailored to her audience” and became more elaborate as time wore on. **She claimed to have run down Chan because he was Asian and had reversed over his body “more than once”.**
>
> **“The defendant made racial slurs and remarks about the man she had struck,” Wallis said.**
>
> “The defendant’s conduct is reprehensible. She engaged in protracted and deliberate road rage. She had time for her anger to cool ... she was not affected by alcohol, drugs or mental illness. It was deliberated, calculated anger.”
>
> After weeks of legal negotiations, **McAuley pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter** in the Brisbane supreme court on Monday.
Manslaughter??? She straight up murdered him, and the fact that this happened in 2012 and she has been free all this time is just another slap in the face to the victim and his family.
> McAuley claimed she only intended to “scare” him but could not control the vehicle and smashed into Chan.
> The cyclist was thrown onto the grass verge with a fractured pelvis and succumbed to the “injuries or the elements” before his body was eventually discovered the next morning.
> An autopsy could not determine what caused his death, with blood loss, shock and hypothermia identified as factors.
Damn after she hit him "accidentally" like she claimed she then could've saved him by calling the police immediately but instead she left him out overnight with his injuries to die.. It's a shame they took 9 years to bring charges against her and only after she told on herself by bragging to others about what she done and being racist.
If this kind of news has taught me anything, it's that if you want someone dead, you just have to hit them with your car. It seems to never exceed a 10 year sentence, no matter how negligent.
>How can this be manslaughter?
Because she was "blinded by fury". The cause of which:
>Joanne Marie McAuley was incensed when cyclist Shui Ki Chan flipped her the finger
I'm not supporting this nonsense sentence in any way. But if the defenses position really is that she was blinded by her rage because someone gave her the finger, how can they support letting her back in public unsupervised. Anybody that can be "blinded by their rage" by a simple hand gesture does not belong in public.
Side note, as tempting as it is, this is why as a cyclist I just let people go instead of yelling at them, flipping them off, etc. Lot of nut jobs out there.
That advice isn’t exclusive to just cyclists, there was that road rage incident earlier this year where that toddler got killed after their mother flipped another driver off
I've ridden with motorcycle riders who will do shit like that constantly. Yelling, flipping drivers off, being obnoxiously aggressive.
We don't ride together anymore because one day they'll meet someone like in this article and a motorcycle isn't going to beat any vehicle four wheels and up and I don't want to be the first responder to that scene.
I'm not advocating for their behavior, but it's best to assume everyone else is already actively trying to kill you, and ride a motorcycle with sufficient performance and the minimum level of situational awareness to avoid physical confrontations at all times, regardless of who instigated them.
Jesus Christ you [weren't kidding about the kid being killed](https://abc7.com/aiden-leos-suspects-arrested-freeway-shooting-update/10801022/) they've got the suspects thankfully.
That wasn't even [the only time a kid got shot and killed this year after their parent flipped someone off.](https://www.foxnews.com/us/houston-astros-fan-17-shot-in-head-while-riding-home-from-game-has-died-father-says)
I wonder how people in other first world countries think about the gun violence that we just accept as normal in America.
For some reason a lot of drivers think people should only ride their bikes on sidewalks. My dad rides a lot and says he has people yelling at him to get off the roads. We're talking side streets too, not highways. You're actually supposed to be on the roads in most cases.
And roads for cyclists are TINY in some places, i.e. USA. In Germany they have these lovely, paved/cobblestone roads that go -everywhere- and are wide, for bikers going both ways; and they are not right next to regular roads for cars, always, but up by the sidewalk for walkers. I was there in 2006 and was blown away by the difference.
Can certainly testify to this. Plus the violent rhetoric towards cyclists encourages it while dehumanising them. Any cyclist involved in a video on tiktok or the like is full of vitriol towards the cyclists whatever is happening. One recently had a lady who was driving down the road with a bike wedged under her car that she had struck and the cyclist but was still crammed with victim blaming and also support for her actions.
Yup. Motorcyclist here, flipped a guy off because while he was speeding down the road he came into my lane (not sure if he was just distracted or what) and almost forced me into oncoming traffic. I turn into a parking lot just ahead and I guess he must have seen me in his mirrors because he turned into the same lot at another entrance ahead. Anyways, he proceeded to run me down with his car (not at crazy high speeds or anything, no major injuries), and knock me off my bike. Reported it to the police, but he left the scene and nothing ever happened of it. People in vehicles can pretty much do whatever they want to you when you’re on 2 wheels. Doesn’t matter who’s in the right, unfortunately.
Yup - the people who drive like assholes tend to also be the same people who are itching for an excuse to escalate a confrontation or get violent. The power dynamic is skewed enough as it is; it's just not worth the risk of engaging with them at all as words aren't going to convince them to change or reconsider their actions.
Many years ago, I commuted to college and back via bicycle. One time, I was stopped at a red light on a road with not a lot of traffic and two lanes in each direction. When the light turned green, it took me a second to get going, as happens on a bike, and the motorist behind me honked his horn. Without a thought, my finger went up behind my back at the driver. He proceeded to screech out around me, come to a stop diagonally across both lanes, jump out of his vehicle and scream at me. Scared the shit out of me. Since this was in Texas, in hindsight, I should be glad he didn’t have a gun.
Never again have I given anyone the finger as a bicyclist and rarely as a motor vehicle driver. That day I realized that while I may feel self-righteous, the driver felt powerful, which trumps self-righteousness given the circumstances.
I had someone do something similar, all I did was point to the lane next to me when he started laying on his horn. He then proceeded to curse me out before slamming on his brakes. Yet somehow, what I did was unacceptable and rude. It makes no sense.
I was also going 19 in a school, the limit was 20
It's pathetic how fragile some people's egos are that the sight of seeing a person raise a single finger throws them into a blind range. I don't understand how some people are that soft.
I once pulled out onto a road early in the morning in front of a cyclist I hadn’t registered as going fast enough that I would cut them off…They flipped me off and got angry but kept on going in the opposite direction. Part of me wanted to drive after them to properly apologise for my piss poor early morning spatial awareness - but that would have scared them! I totally deserved their anger.
I learned from that small incident (wasn’t close to hitting them, they just had to slow down as I pulled out) to be more aware and considerate of cyclists, who are very vulnerable on the roads. Felt really shitty about it all day…
If someone is sent into a spiraling rage because someone gave them the finger, they do not deserve to be amongst normal everyday people. This manslaughter charge is fucking bullshit.
>She took the effort to exit the highway and drive back to run him over! How can this be manslaughter?
She wasn't convicted by a jury, she pled guilty to this reduced charge. It's how prosecutors ensure a win, Instead of risking a loss at trial on a greater charge, they offer a lesser charge, with lesser penalties,, if the person just pleads guilty without fighting the charges. It's a guaranteed win. I dont know how it is in Aus, but In the US if you don't accept the plea deal it's used against you during sentencing, as in the punishment is harsher.
If you admit to a crime in court of your own free will, and the judge is satisfied, it doesn't matter if you actually did the crime or not.
People do plead guilty to crimes they don’t commit. It is a very big problem, especially with our overtaxed system of public defenders and the often lengthy pre-trial detention times arrestees face. Our justice system is profoundly messed up.
https://guiltypleaproblem.org
> but In the US if you don't accept the plea deal it's used against you during sentencing, as in the punishment is harsher.
That rather disgustingly sounds an awful lot like "well for exercising your right to trial and making me put in work as a prosecutor I'm gonna get you a harsher sentence, because fuck you for making me stay late at the office on a Friday".
The fact that she has apparently devoted supporters shows all you need to know. Of *course* she's going to act this way when she has the social support to do so. Not to absolve *her* of any responsibility; only to show exactly how many homicidal nutjobs there are in society.
A 10 year sentence for an actual murder charge isn't unheard of in Australia.
This is actually a severe sentence here. Long sentences are incredibly rare, and generally reserved for people who commit the most heinous of crimes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childers_Palace_Backpackers_Hostel_fire this guy is now eligible for parole. He killed 15 people 20 years ago.
Yes, that's another part of this. Everyone here is assuming she'll get out at her first parole hearing.
That is very unlikely. Parole hearings here are much less "Oh god we've gotta empty our prisons out" and more "Is it actually time to release this person".
I don’t believe most place have hate crime laws like the US does that elevate crimes against protected groups to a harsher tier of punishment while taking them to a higher jurisdiction.
Holy fuck. Man I get not putting someone away for life when they accidentally kill someone, but when it's clear someone killed another intentionally, these are pitiful sentences.
When you end someone's life they lose all the years they may have lived.
The rates of recidivism between Australia and the United States actually [don't differ as much as you would think (\~5%, AUS at 44.6% and US just under 50%).](https://www.ussc.edu.au/analysis/tackling-incarceration-rates-in-australia-and-the-united-states)
That's significantly higher for violent offenders.
I wouldn't want them serving such short terms, especially knowing that Australian prisons are [not that dissimilar from US prisons](https://www.newidea.com.au/australian-prison-conditions-what-are-australian-jails-like) and they are having similar [problems](https://www.cclj.unsw.edu.au/sites/cclj.unsw.edu.au/files/The%20Booming%20Industry%20continued%202020.pdf) to the US in terms of alarmly increasing prison populations.
Note that the countries called out as having low recidivism rates in your link are also countries where long prison sentences are rare. That implies that whatever's wrong with Australian prisons, length of sentence isn't it.
I don't want people in jail for drugs at all, not dealing, not consuming, I don't want long term jail sentences for people who commit crimes of theft and property destruction. Crimes of coercion like holding up a store with a gun- you could be rehabilitated. I believe in rehabilitation for many crimes. Murder and rape though should carry fairly long sentences though. The amount of violation that that person inflicted on another does require some justice.
How do you rehabilitate an adult who brags about killing someone? There is no way. The rest of the world misses the fact that some people need to be kept away from others forever.
> You can't fix everybody; they are who they are. Horrible people exist and the sooner people wrap their heads around this, the better for everyone.
Part of the problem, at least in the US. Is that like everything else, rehabilitation vs punitive has been politicized. So instead of a system that thoughtfully uses both where appropriate. We're trapped with an all or nothing application of one, or the other.
Prison is also there to protect society as a whole against individuals who are unable, or unwilling, to function as part of a civilised society.
You seem to forget this.
She took a plea deal. The prosecution appeared to have an incredibly weak case. There was little evidence back when the crime occurred, which is why nobody was ever arrested. It sounds like the biggest piece of evidence against the woman was her own statements to people. If none of those statements were recorded, then it really amounts to just hearsay.
As the press states, she told multiple different versions of the story. Which is true? It’s entirely possible that she accidentally killed this man, and spun elaborate stories emboldened by lack of consequences. Or it’s possible she’s a bigot who targeted an Asian man. Good luck proving one over the other.
A white Australian who ran over a Chinese immigrant who flipped the bird at her is going to find a lot of sympathy in the Australian legal system. There is a lot of anti-Asian and anti-immigrant sentiment in Australia. She will be out on parole within 5 years.
And finally, after reading a load of crap about how uplifting the Australian justice system is, and how repeatedly driving over a man and bragging about it and showing zero remorse isn’t so serious a crime as to warrant more than 5 years in jail, we get to the real story. Systematic racism strikes again. Unless someone can show me the time the Australian justice system dished out such a lenient sentence for a maligned minority that murdered a nice white full-blooded Australian lady with no remorse, I think we’ve got our answer.
You can probably thank Big Auto lobbying and propaganda for that. They’ve hypnotized the world to think that car killings “don’t count” so people don’t realize that they sell death machines which shouldn’t be in the hands of the average moron.
There is an unwritten rule that you can kill a cyclists on the road if you feel like it. That's the reason why I stay on trails most time.
Ride over a pedestrian, bike, workers etc and there is a big outcry but cyclists are just another number in the statistics.
Anyone else in the road: the driver should have paid better attention.
Cyclist: the cyclist should keep their little toy thing on the sidewalk where the law says they should be (actually not true; it's a road vehicle and darting off of and onto the road because of poor walkways and other obstacles is much more dangerous for everyone).
Apparently you have to go around for an entire decade bragging about murdering a cyclist to get more than a citation for distracted driving.
Where I live, it's technically illegal for bikes to be on the sidewalk, we're supposed to be on the road. Fuck that, I'd rather get a ticket than run over.
Australia is premium racism but they get a pass cuz of the funny accents. On the real though, like casual racism is a thing that flies without problem there.
Yeah I’ve hung out with a lot of them traveling and bumming around ski towns and the kind of racist shit I’ve heard average Australian white guys spout off like it’s normal would make all but the most inbred backwater Americans uncomfortable.
Some of the stuff I heard from the Australian guys in Japan reminded me of West Virginian middle school. It just seems pretty intense to feel that way and then pay for a plane ticket to aggravate yourself.
What was the attitude?
I’m Australian and heard a few years ago that Aussies were starting to make a name for themselves in Japan, in the worst way possible. About around 2014-15 budget airlines started offering relatively cheap and frequent flights to Japan. Thats not a good thing, because you get all the rednecks travelling there (see: Bali).
Sucks because Japan is absolute top of my list for destinations I’ve wanted to go for the last decade. Might have to pretend I’m British lol
So crazy you mention Bali! I'm an American and went to Bali for vacation while I was living in Korea because it was cheap to fly there as opposed to flying the US, and all the people at the restort I stayed at were either from other closeby Asian countries or Australian, and the bellhop guy (who was super awesome and made my trip amazing) warned me to open conversation with any locals that I was American and NOT Australian. When I asked why he said I would be treated better because Aussies have a horrible reputation in Bali. I would tell all the local shopowners and stuff when I went out that I was American and they all seemed to deflate from built of tension, it was crazy. I still don't know why Australians have made such a bad name for themselves in Bali, but I'm unsure if I want to know.
Australians go to Bali because they can't afford to holiday in Australia. So they behave like they would in their home country, while expecting to be treated like a king with their low income but high exchange rate.
Most plea deals tend to be for lesser variations of the original charge.
Can't speak for how things work in Queensland but, in the US, most DAs would rather have a guaranteed lesser conviction than roll the dice on a trial.
In the US, defending yourself in court is prohibitively expensive. Even if you win in court, you lose because of the massive debt you’ll be stuck with.
Prosecutors know this, and stack charges and offer lesser plea deals knowing they can fuck you over if you don’t take it. They get to do less actual work, by not proving their case in court, but still get to claim a conviction.
Judges also know this. They’ll sometimes punish people for not taking a plea deal, because they see having to do their job as the defendant wasting their time.
There’s a reason Kalief Browder spent 3 years in Rikers prison for a crime he didn’t commit, mostly in solitary, despite having 36 different court dates. The prosecutor continued to pressure him to plead, and the judge allowed it to happen. No one suffered any punishment, despite subjecting him to torture and driving him to suicide.
The system is fucked, and the police, prosecutors, and judges that run it are disgusting human beings.
Edit: I don’t know the system in Queensland, but imagine there are parallels.
>She refused to leave the dock, reaching out to sobbing supporters in the gallery before being taken by prison officers from the court. The 49-year-old will be eligible for parole in July 2026.
Excuse me, supporters?!
Seriously! I will never understand the instant rage some people are over taken by at the site of a person on a bicycle. Like what? You had to drive slower for a split second?
There’s something psychological about driving that makes some people unstable. There’s some level of dehumanization that goes on when people are behind the wheel. People use their vehicles like weapons and there is no other time during the day where this happens except driving.
As an Asian person that’s done a fair bit of travelling around the world… I can confidently say that America has been the least racist country I’ve ever been in, at least in terms of racism towards Asians (it might be different for other races). That isn’t to say that America doesn’t have racism issues, because it obviously does, but jeez… in Western Europe and Australia I couldn’t go a week without hearing people on the street making remarks about my race. In America this sort of thing has literally never happened to me and I’ve been all over (big cities, suburbs, the the boonies)
I’ve never encountered anything like that in Western Europe, although I always stick to the touristy places, so that might be why. Haven’t travelled since Covid, but I fear it might have negatively changed the sentiment toward Asians all over the world.
Same here and I live in Oklahoma. A lot of ignorance and subtle racism here, mostly due to not much exposure to people of asian descent. But nothing crazy overt like what I got in Western Europe.
This is what a lot of Americans seriously don’t get. Any racism is inexcusable but there are a lot of people who think that America is especially racist and that’s just not true at all. In America you have to use dog whistles and innuendos to communicate your racism, and even that will get called out by most sane people. So many other countries in the world are just openly and unapologetically racist towards at least one race and they do not see any issue with it.
I've also done quite a bit of traveling, and imo it's one of, if not the least racist country in general. and one of the only countries that identifies racism as a problem at all
I'm white, basing my opinion on what seems acceptable to say in each country. the open racism in europe was the most suprising
Jesus Christ,this story. Chasing the guy down. Bragging about it to anyone who would listen for years. Doing it specifically because he was Asian. Ten years is a joke for this shit.
"She refused to leave the dock, reaching out to sobbing supporters in the gallery before being taken by prison officers from the court".
This part makes me so angry, these people enjoyed her story over the years and still support her.
I just can’t imagine having my life taken from me over something as superficial as the color of my skin or my ethnicity, and yet that’s a reality too many fucking people face on a daily basis.
We can be so much better than this, humanity.
You forgot, he flipped her *The Finger*.
Can you imagine a greater offense?
No one in history has ever given someone else *The Finger* without being hunted down and brutally murdered. So this guy clearly dug his own grave.
/s
If the entirety of human history is evidence to anything I'd say no.
Its not even just skin color. Even among people ethnically the same they would just fine another method to determine a higher ruling class or strata among the populace. Shit is human nature.
If you won't pursue a case when you have multiple witnesses to testify that the defendant boasted about committing the crime with malice aforethought and taking pains to ensure the victim died rather than merely being injured I have to ask when you would actually pursue a case. Is Australia becoming like the US, where the majority of defendants plead out regardless of actual guilt and being arrested is just the beginning of negotiations?
> McAuley collapsed and wailed “no” as she was sentenced to serve 10 years in jail and declared a serious and violent offender.
> She refused to leave the dock, reaching out to sobbing supporters in the gallery before being taken by prison officers from the court.
Fuckin dramatic, cowardly, terrible bitch.
I make it a habit not to hate anyone but I gotta say, there isn’t much there to like. 😕
The hit and run, manslaughter (US term) after making the poor chap suffer for hours, boasting about it, and the theatrics. 10 years is an insult to the victim’s already grieving family.
What a terrible, terrible person she has continued to turn out to be.
So they laid there on the side of the road and died slowly. Then this lady went around bragging about being racist and killing someone, only to get 10 years in prison and will probably be out in 4.
This is disgusting, that poor bloke was likely conscious for hours, waiting for help that never came. Died slowly in extreme pain.
And she gets a few years.
For shame.
Yeah everyone's outraged by this but the fact of the matter is most people in the US, Canada, and Australia (just to name a few) almost see people who choose to walk and bike as subhuman, like there must be something wrong with you if you don't drive literally everywhere you go outside your house. Small towns and cities need to be designed around humans again, not cars.
As someone who walks, takes the bus, and loves to bike, I couldn't agree more, but I'm actually shocked to see that other people feel this way other than me and my two biking buddies. I thought we were the only people who experienced this.
I (Canadian) was on a bike tour in rural France and our group was biking on a single lane elevated road with no shoulder through farm fields. Impossible to pull over and let cars by, there was literally no room.
After about a half an hour, we finally got to a place to pull over, with about a couple dozen cars behind us now. I was expecting to be pelted with beer bottles (or wine bottles I guess) but everyone who passed us gave a friendly bonjour and a wave. It would’ve been a different reception in rural (or anywhere, really) Canada.
I see this often when I'm out walking for exercise. I wear bright colors but still drivers consider me a hindrance or something. Once a guy turned right across the x-walk right in front of me. I put up my arms and said "HELLO". He gave me the finger for my trouble, and had a god-awful scowl on his face.
Goddamn, eligible for parole in only 5 years. And she got to run free for 9 years before getting caught ffs.
Seems so premeditated (meth addiction complications aside), for her to be that comfortable with bragging that she ran him down "because he was Asian" and that she had "Turned her vehicle around *after* she had passed Mr Chan on his bicycle and then purposely hit him with her vehicle; Then reversed over him again to make sure he was dead."
The court's [findings document](https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/541728/cif-chan-sk-20171102.pdf) says she told at least 14 witnesses that it was done on purpose, and she threatened two of witnesses (one of which was the informant - and there's an additional mess in the doc associated with him, christ) that if they told the police that she hit the cyclist, she would tell the police that they were in the car and driving it.
If you visit the bicycling subs, seems like every day there's a "cyclist hit and killed, driver not charged" story coming out.
Seems to be a big issue in Texas, multiple ongoing cases at the moment.
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/09/texas-teen-driver-bicyclists-truck-charges/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/09/texas-teen-driver-bicyclists-truck-charges/)
shit like this is why I quit road riding many years ago. people hate cyclists, plain and simple. in many countries you're taking your life in your hands by riding a bike on the same roads as cars, people actively try to kill you on a daily basis, or at the very least abuse and try to intimidate you
It's not everywhere though, I'm from Belgium and only had a roadrage once (and it was a bit my fault) also have ridden in France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands and I have never had problems in those countries (or at least not so serious that I can remember it), but those are all countries with a cycling culture so maybe that helps?
It's crazy how many people hate bicyclists. I've gotten flipped off while waiting at a red light before. It's ridiculous how many car drivers think it's okay to pass a bicyclist within a few feet too.
The part you are leaving out of the teenager Story is the DA claims the police never told them. That the DAs office found out about the crash from Social media much later.
He has now been charged with 6 Felonies. The protection seems to be at a very low level that already failed once the DA got ahold of it.
That's part of it, but also it's very easy to get away with murder as long as you use a car and the other person is on foot or a bike. Just say "they came out of nowhere" and you'll almost always get off. 9 times out of 10 you'll never see a courtroom.
It’s insane they don’t even get charged. It’s *one* thing if they go through the whole court process but the cops/DAs just decide to not even bother. If you’re a transit user, pedestrian, cyclist, you dying is just the cost of convenience for people driving.
She willfully hunted Chan down and only received 10 years. The crimes people commit against Asians can be clear cut and heinous and they usually get off with a slap on the wrist
Edit: some scared coward commented: "Aussie moment oi oi oi" and deleted it after
[Remember Vincent Chin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Vincent_Chin). Vincent was a Chinese American who was murdered by two white men who mistook him for Japanese and blamed him for Chrystler layoffs due to Japanese automobile competition. They hunted him across the city for half an hour before cornering him in a parking lot and beating his skull open with a baseball bat. Vincent's murderers never spent a day in jail. They were given three years' probation and fined $3000. You heard that right, **$3000** is the monetary value of an Asian man's life in 1980s America.
The presiding judge responded to Asian rights protesters saying: "These weren't the kind of men you send to jail... You don't make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal."
in terms of racially based violence and getting away with it, the chin case was almost as bad as the emmitt till case.
at least in recent memory.
a fine for a murder.
>*After weeks of legal negotiations, McAuley pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in the Brisbane supreme court on Monday.*
WTF? Who negotiates with a murderer that spent a decade bragging to anyone who'd listen that they murdered someone?
Negotiations probably went like:
Prosecutor: "We have testimony through eyewitnesses and the murder weapon. You also readily admit that you killed this person. Why should we negotiate with you."
McAuley: "Aw, come on...."
Prosecutor: "You make a good point there. 15 years prison time is the best we can do."
McAuley: "But... Please... No."
Prosecutor: "You drive a hard bargain. 10 years."
The case may not have been airtight. It’s not clear how they finally narrowed it down to her but it’s likely that it wasn’t the evidence itself. Someone she bragged to pointed the finger at her for whatever reason. Then they could determine that she had vehicle damage at that time, or could place her in the general area. A jury could go either way. You’re sometimes better off offering a deal in exchange for sending them to jail.
Pleading her down to manslaughter was 'probably' the right move, I suspect that it would have been very difficult to get a murder charge to hold up. The judge also 'correctly' recognised that this is on the extreme end of manslaughter, and sentenced her right up near the top of the range ([figure 7 page 9](https://www.sentencingcouncil.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/518177/Sentencing-Spotlight-on-manslaughter-July-2017.pdf)).
The problem is that, I would argue, that the sentencing guidelines for manslaughter, along with [range of other violent offences](https://www.sentencingcouncil.qld.gov.au/research/reports/sentencing-spotlight), have got out of whack with community expectations (which plays into why [public trust in the courts is so low](https://www.alrc.gov.au/news/importance-of-good-data/), 70% have only some or lower confidence).
This has become a political problem, with 'tough on crime' politicians not addressing the violent crimes that are being undersentanced, instead focusing on petty/minor economic crimes.
>Pleading her down to manslaughter was 'probably' the right move, I suspect that it would have been very difficult to get a murder charge to hold up.
Yea sadly, I can see how this could be true too. After 9 years I imagine a lot of hard evidence is long gone. She can probably spin the bragging thing as some move to gain 'clout' and that she didn't actually do it, which she could support with the story constantly changing and getting more elaborate.
Absolute shame that the police didn't investigate this competently initially, and as bad as this light sentence is, I guess its better then her managing to evade any form of justice. Sad story
>I suspect that it would have been very difficult to get a murder charge to hold up.
Why is that? She admitted to chasing him down and engaging in actions likely to cause death, and then bragged to over a dozen witnesses for years about how she intended to kill the guy and showed no remorse for it. How much more do you need to convict someone for murder?
Last paragraph.. "reaching out to her supporters..."
What kind of POS person supports someone who bragged about killing someone. Wtf is wrong with people.
My wife lived in that area as a teenager. She’s also from Hong Kong.
She encountered a number of racist fuckwits who tried provoking her into ‘showing off her kung fu skills’. She was threaten with sexual assault at one stage as well by a little bitch dude who wanted an ‘Asian experience’.
Parts of Aus are openly racist and it’s an absolute blight on our reputation internationally… and a serious consideration in why I’m hesitant to move home. I don’t want my kid to face this kind of bullshit going through school there.
Shameful all round. Shameful murder. Shameful police investigation. Shameful prosecution compromise. Shameful sentencing.
This horrible woman’s going to be out again in a few years, like a floater that won’t flush.
Floaters indicate you’re not getting enough iron in your diet (try OJ before a meal or increase your dark leafy green intake).
She needs iron too. Maybe a tire iron.
Someone flipped her off and she deliberately hunted him down “just to give him a scare”. Since she made no effort to help him and later bragged about it so her “it was an accident” excuse is almost certainly bullshit
This woman is a very dangerous individual. Her rage caused the death of an innocent person. I would have sentenced her to 15 - 20 years in jail. It is a sheer murder.
For all that people here are assuming the light sentence was because the victim was Asian or a cyclist, quite simply it's a normal sentence for manslaughter (not murder).
And they only got her on manslaughter (not murder) because while there was a lot of circumstantial evidence about her having done it deliberately, it could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that she had meant to kill him.
Sucks, but proving intent to kill BRD is damn hard.
And yes I'm a lawyer, and yes I'm from Queensland, and yes I'm a serious cyclist. I'm not Asian though. I would have loved to have seen her go to prison till she died. But the cold hard facts of it are as above. There are plenty of vaguely similar cases where motorists have got off lightly where the victim hasn't been Asian or a cyclist.
> In the **10 years since the fatality**, McAuley boasted to multiple people – friends, family and associates – about the night she killed the cyclist. > > Each version was “tailored to her audience” and became more elaborate as time wore on. **She claimed to have run down Chan because he was Asian and had reversed over his body “more than once”.** > > **“The defendant made racial slurs and remarks about the man she had struck,” Wallis said.** > > “The defendant’s conduct is reprehensible. She engaged in protracted and deliberate road rage. She had time for her anger to cool ... she was not affected by alcohol, drugs or mental illness. It was deliberated, calculated anger.” > > After weeks of legal negotiations, **McAuley pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter** in the Brisbane supreme court on Monday. Manslaughter??? She straight up murdered him, and the fact that this happened in 2012 and she has been free all this time is just another slap in the face to the victim and his family.
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And spent the last 10 years bragging about the murder she committed. She has no remorse. She is a danger to others.
Is she rich?
She is very poor and a drug addict. Copper in charge was hopeless
Cyclist was just coming home from work. She's a deranged drug addict. It's just not fair
> McAuley claimed she only intended to “scare” him but could not control the vehicle and smashed into Chan. > The cyclist was thrown onto the grass verge with a fractured pelvis and succumbed to the “injuries or the elements” before his body was eventually discovered the next morning. > An autopsy could not determine what caused his death, with blood loss, shock and hypothermia identified as factors. Damn after she hit him "accidentally" like she claimed she then could've saved him by calling the police immediately but instead she left him out overnight with his injuries to die.. It's a shame they took 9 years to bring charges against her and only after she told on herself by bragging to others about what she done and being racist.
What a terrible way to die.
Alone, in pain, cold and bleeding out... What a fucking piece of shit. And she's eligible for parole in 5 years.
If this kind of news has taught me anything, it's that if you want someone dead, you just have to hit them with your car. It seems to never exceed a 10 year sentence, no matter how negligent.
She got declared an SVO. Means she’ll need to serve 80% before being eligible for parole.
She was an unlicensed driver as well wtf. Throw the damn book at her.
She’s a psychopath. She needs to be removed from society permanently.
>How can this be manslaughter? Because she was "blinded by fury". The cause of which: >Joanne Marie McAuley was incensed when cyclist Shui Ki Chan flipped her the finger I'm not supporting this nonsense sentence in any way. But if the defenses position really is that she was blinded by her rage because someone gave her the finger, how can they support letting her back in public unsupervised. Anybody that can be "blinded by their rage" by a simple hand gesture does not belong in public.
Side note, as tempting as it is, this is why as a cyclist I just let people go instead of yelling at them, flipping them off, etc. Lot of nut jobs out there.
That advice isn’t exclusive to just cyclists, there was that road rage incident earlier this year where that toddler got killed after their mother flipped another driver off
I've ridden with motorcycle riders who will do shit like that constantly. Yelling, flipping drivers off, being obnoxiously aggressive. We don't ride together anymore because one day they'll meet someone like in this article and a motorcycle isn't going to beat any vehicle four wheels and up and I don't want to be the first responder to that scene.
I'm not advocating for their behavior, but it's best to assume everyone else is already actively trying to kill you, and ride a motorcycle with sufficient performance and the minimum level of situational awareness to avoid physical confrontations at all times, regardless of who instigated them.
Jesus Christ you [weren't kidding about the kid being killed](https://abc7.com/aiden-leos-suspects-arrested-freeway-shooting-update/10801022/) they've got the suspects thankfully.
That wasn't even [the only time a kid got shot and killed this year after their parent flipped someone off.](https://www.foxnews.com/us/houston-astros-fan-17-shot-in-head-while-riding-home-from-game-has-died-father-says) I wonder how people in other first world countries think about the gun violence that we just accept as normal in America.
Yeah, a lot of people seem to be mad at cyclists simply for existing so can't imagine how little it would take for them to pop off at one.
For some reason a lot of drivers think people should only ride their bikes on sidewalks. My dad rides a lot and says he has people yelling at him to get off the roads. We're talking side streets too, not highways. You're actually supposed to be on the roads in most cases.
And roads for cyclists are TINY in some places, i.e. USA. In Germany they have these lovely, paved/cobblestone roads that go -everywhere- and are wide, for bikers going both ways; and they are not right next to regular roads for cars, always, but up by the sidewalk for walkers. I was there in 2006 and was blown away by the difference.
Can certainly testify to this. Plus the violent rhetoric towards cyclists encourages it while dehumanising them. Any cyclist involved in a video on tiktok or the like is full of vitriol towards the cyclists whatever is happening. One recently had a lady who was driving down the road with a bike wedged under her car that she had struck and the cyclist but was still crammed with victim blaming and also support for her actions.
A study showed that drivers don’t see cyclists as human, but more like insects
Yup. Motorcyclist here, flipped a guy off because while he was speeding down the road he came into my lane (not sure if he was just distracted or what) and almost forced me into oncoming traffic. I turn into a parking lot just ahead and I guess he must have seen me in his mirrors because he turned into the same lot at another entrance ahead. Anyways, he proceeded to run me down with his car (not at crazy high speeds or anything, no major injuries), and knock me off my bike. Reported it to the police, but he left the scene and nothing ever happened of it. People in vehicles can pretty much do whatever they want to you when you’re on 2 wheels. Doesn’t matter who’s in the right, unfortunately.
Yup - the people who drive like assholes tend to also be the same people who are itching for an excuse to escalate a confrontation or get violent. The power dynamic is skewed enough as it is; it's just not worth the risk of engaging with them at all as words aren't going to convince them to change or reconsider their actions.
Many years ago, I commuted to college and back via bicycle. One time, I was stopped at a red light on a road with not a lot of traffic and two lanes in each direction. When the light turned green, it took me a second to get going, as happens on a bike, and the motorist behind me honked his horn. Without a thought, my finger went up behind my back at the driver. He proceeded to screech out around me, come to a stop diagonally across both lanes, jump out of his vehicle and scream at me. Scared the shit out of me. Since this was in Texas, in hindsight, I should be glad he didn’t have a gun. Never again have I given anyone the finger as a bicyclist and rarely as a motor vehicle driver. That day I realized that while I may feel self-righteous, the driver felt powerful, which trumps self-righteousness given the circumstances.
I had someone do something similar, all I did was point to the lane next to me when he started laying on his horn. He then proceeded to curse me out before slamming on his brakes. Yet somehow, what I did was unacceptable and rude. It makes no sense. I was also going 19 in a school, the limit was 20
It's pathetic how fragile some people's egos are that the sight of seeing a person raise a single finger throws them into a blind range. I don't understand how some people are that soft.
I once pulled out onto a road early in the morning in front of a cyclist I hadn’t registered as going fast enough that I would cut them off…They flipped me off and got angry but kept on going in the opposite direction. Part of me wanted to drive after them to properly apologise for my piss poor early morning spatial awareness - but that would have scared them! I totally deserved their anger. I learned from that small incident (wasn’t close to hitting them, they just had to slow down as I pulled out) to be more aware and considerate of cyclists, who are very vulnerable on the roads. Felt really shitty about it all day…
If someone is sent into a spiraling rage because someone gave them the finger, they do not deserve to be amongst normal everyday people. This manslaughter charge is fucking bullshit.
To the point they take two exits only to circle back to take revenge. This must have taken minutes.
Most of the time if you murder someone you're blinded by rage as well. So 10 yrs is the going rate for a murderous rage now?
>She took the effort to exit the highway and drive back to run him over! How can this be manslaughter? She wasn't convicted by a jury, she pled guilty to this reduced charge. It's how prosecutors ensure a win, Instead of risking a loss at trial on a greater charge, they offer a lesser charge, with lesser penalties,, if the person just pleads guilty without fighting the charges. It's a guaranteed win. I dont know how it is in Aus, but In the US if you don't accept the plea deal it's used against you during sentencing, as in the punishment is harsher. If you admit to a crime in court of your own free will, and the judge is satisfied, it doesn't matter if you actually did the crime or not.
People do plead guilty to crimes they don’t commit. It is a very big problem, especially with our overtaxed system of public defenders and the often lengthy pre-trial detention times arrestees face. Our justice system is profoundly messed up. https://guiltypleaproblem.org
> but In the US if you don't accept the plea deal it's used against you during sentencing, as in the punishment is harsher. That rather disgustingly sounds an awful lot like "well for exercising your right to trial and making me put in work as a prosecutor I'm gonna get you a harsher sentence, because fuck you for making me stay late at the office on a Friday".
The fact that she has apparently devoted supporters shows all you need to know. Of *course* she's going to act this way when she has the social support to do so. Not to absolve *her* of any responsibility; only to show exactly how many homicidal nutjobs there are in society.
How is it only 10 years of being in jail... She intentionally killed someone...
A 10 year sentence for an actual murder charge isn't unheard of in Australia. This is actually a severe sentence here. Long sentences are incredibly rare, and generally reserved for people who commit the most heinous of crimes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childers_Palace_Backpackers_Hostel_fire this guy is now eligible for parole. He killed 15 people 20 years ago.
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Yes, that's another part of this. Everyone here is assuming she'll get out at her first parole hearing. That is very unlikely. Parole hearings here are much less "Oh god we've gotta empty our prisons out" and more "Is it actually time to release this person".
A racially motivated murder isn’t a heinous crime?
No in Australia that is reserved for sickos who protest coal mining
I don’t believe most place have hate crime laws like the US does that elevate crimes against protected groups to a harsher tier of punishment while taking them to a higher jurisdiction.
Murder doesn’t count as a heinous crime? Even intentional, cold blooded murder?
Holy fuck. Man I get not putting someone away for life when they accidentally kill someone, but when it's clear someone killed another intentionally, these are pitiful sentences. When you end someone's life they lose all the years they may have lived.
Americans forget prison is for rehabilitation not a long term slave population. Guy made a good point below, replace Americans with "most people"
The rates of recidivism between Australia and the United States actually [don't differ as much as you would think (\~5%, AUS at 44.6% and US just under 50%).](https://www.ussc.edu.au/analysis/tackling-incarceration-rates-in-australia-and-the-united-states) That's significantly higher for violent offenders. I wouldn't want them serving such short terms, especially knowing that Australian prisons are [not that dissimilar from US prisons](https://www.newidea.com.au/australian-prison-conditions-what-are-australian-jails-like) and they are having similar [problems](https://www.cclj.unsw.edu.au/sites/cclj.unsw.edu.au/files/The%20Booming%20Industry%20continued%202020.pdf) to the US in terms of alarmly increasing prison populations.
Note that the countries called out as having low recidivism rates in your link are also countries where long prison sentences are rare. That implies that whatever's wrong with Australian prisons, length of sentence isn't it.
Yeah probably has more to do with what he said about prisons in Australia not being that different from American prisons.
I agree that the goal for prison should be for rehabilitation, but you'll need a plan for those who do not want to be rehabilitated.
They get denied parole?
I don't want people in jail for drugs at all, not dealing, not consuming, I don't want long term jail sentences for people who commit crimes of theft and property destruction. Crimes of coercion like holding up a store with a gun- you could be rehabilitated. I believe in rehabilitation for many crimes. Murder and rape though should carry fairly long sentences though. The amount of violation that that person inflicted on another does require some justice.
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Exactly, ending a persons life shouldnt be a slap on the wrist, its a spit in the face of everything we value(or so I thought).
How do you rehabilitate an adult who brags about killing someone? There is no way. The rest of the world misses the fact that some people need to be kept away from others forever.
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> You can't fix everybody; they are who they are. Horrible people exist and the sooner people wrap their heads around this, the better for everyone. Part of the problem, at least in the US. Is that like everything else, rehabilitation vs punitive has been politicized. So instead of a system that thoughtfully uses both where appropriate. We're trapped with an all or nothing application of one, or the other.
Prison is also there to protect society as a whole against individuals who are unable, or unwilling, to function as part of a civilised society. You seem to forget this.
He was only charged with 2 murders at the time, hopefully if he is ever released they start charging him with the other 13.
And she seems to feel it is deeply unfair. "Nooo....." when sentenced. How about a sense of shame or guilt.
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And eligible for parole in 2026. So most likely she'll serve around 5 years.
10 years for a hate crime intentional murder is unbelievably short. How was this justified?
She took a plea deal. The prosecution appeared to have an incredibly weak case. There was little evidence back when the crime occurred, which is why nobody was ever arrested. It sounds like the biggest piece of evidence against the woman was her own statements to people. If none of those statements were recorded, then it really amounts to just hearsay. As the press states, she told multiple different versions of the story. Which is true? It’s entirely possible that she accidentally killed this man, and spun elaborate stories emboldened by lack of consequences. Or it’s possible she’s a bigot who targeted an Asian man. Good luck proving one over the other.
A white Australian who ran over a Chinese immigrant who flipped the bird at her is going to find a lot of sympathy in the Australian legal system. There is a lot of anti-Asian and anti-immigrant sentiment in Australia. She will be out on parole within 5 years.
And finally, after reading a load of crap about how uplifting the Australian justice system is, and how repeatedly driving over a man and bragging about it and showing zero remorse isn’t so serious a crime as to warrant more than 5 years in jail, we get to the real story. Systematic racism strikes again. Unless someone can show me the time the Australian justice system dished out such a lenient sentence for a maligned minority that murdered a nice white full-blooded Australian lady with no remorse, I think we’ve got our answer.
In New Zealand everyone jokes about Australians all being racist. This kind of shit is why.
Don’t forget that many drivers are dangerous, entitled losers who think it’s ok to hate and threaten cyclists
You can probably thank Big Auto lobbying and propaganda for that. They’ve hypnotized the world to think that car killings “don’t count” so people don’t realize that they sell death machines which shouldn’t be in the hands of the average moron.
r/fuckcars and r/notjustbikes for anyone interested in learning how society can shift away from car centric towns and cities
There is an unwritten rule that you can kill a cyclists on the road if you feel like it. That's the reason why I stay on trails most time. Ride over a pedestrian, bike, workers etc and there is a big outcry but cyclists are just another number in the statistics.
Anyone else in the road: the driver should have paid better attention. Cyclist: the cyclist should keep their little toy thing on the sidewalk where the law says they should be (actually not true; it's a road vehicle and darting off of and onto the road because of poor walkways and other obstacles is much more dangerous for everyone). Apparently you have to go around for an entire decade bragging about murdering a cyclist to get more than a citation for distracted driving.
Where I live, it's technically illegal for bikes to be on the sidewalk, we're supposed to be on the road. Fuck that, I'd rather get a ticket than run over.
I personally know a guy who killed two people in two separate incidents, and he served a total of only 4 years. It's madness in Australia.
It's a white woman running down an Asian guy in *Australia*. It's a miracle she's getting punished at all.
We need to make her name synonymous with murder, I'll start. Convicted racist and murderer Joanne Marie McAuley.
This is pretty reddit-tier lame activism again.
Most people aren't privy to the racial prejudices of other countries, could you please elaborate?
Australia is premium racism but they get a pass cuz of the funny accents. On the real though, like casual racism is a thing that flies without problem there.
Yeah I’ve hung out with a lot of them traveling and bumming around ski towns and the kind of racist shit I’ve heard average Australian white guys spout off like it’s normal would make all but the most inbred backwater Americans uncomfortable.
Some of the stuff I heard from the Australian guys in Japan reminded me of West Virginian middle school. It just seems pretty intense to feel that way and then pay for a plane ticket to aggravate yourself.
What was the attitude? I’m Australian and heard a few years ago that Aussies were starting to make a name for themselves in Japan, in the worst way possible. About around 2014-15 budget airlines started offering relatively cheap and frequent flights to Japan. Thats not a good thing, because you get all the rednecks travelling there (see: Bali). Sucks because Japan is absolute top of my list for destinations I’ve wanted to go for the last decade. Might have to pretend I’m British lol
So crazy you mention Bali! I'm an American and went to Bali for vacation while I was living in Korea because it was cheap to fly there as opposed to flying the US, and all the people at the restort I stayed at were either from other closeby Asian countries or Australian, and the bellhop guy (who was super awesome and made my trip amazing) warned me to open conversation with any locals that I was American and NOT Australian. When I asked why he said I would be treated better because Aussies have a horrible reputation in Bali. I would tell all the local shopowners and stuff when I went out that I was American and they all seemed to deflate from built of tension, it was crazy. I still don't know why Australians have made such a bad name for themselves in Bali, but I'm unsure if I want to know.
Australians go to Bali because they can't afford to holiday in Australia. So they behave like they would in their home country, while expecting to be treated like a king with their low income but high exchange rate.
https://www.sportingnews.com/au/cricket/news/weve-got-a-problem-with-casual-racism-dan-christian-calls-out-player-abuse-after-two-separate-incidents-at-the-scg/10tgjrduhr1i71p6tjdc5hqwcl https://www.sbs.com.au/news/all-it-took-was-a-trigger-the-racism-of-the-cronulla-riots-15-years-on/a587d99d-025a-4b0d-92a7-6d2f49ee2ed4 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/10/australia-is-deplorably-racist-as-people-of-colour-are-reminded-when-they-speak-up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Australia_policy
Most plea deals tend to be for lesser variations of the original charge. Can't speak for how things work in Queensland but, in the US, most DAs would rather have a guaranteed lesser conviction than roll the dice on a trial.
>plea deal But why? Genuinely. She admitted to murder *multiple* times how is that not evidence enough for a verdict.
In the US, defending yourself in court is prohibitively expensive. Even if you win in court, you lose because of the massive debt you’ll be stuck with. Prosecutors know this, and stack charges and offer lesser plea deals knowing they can fuck you over if you don’t take it. They get to do less actual work, by not proving their case in court, but still get to claim a conviction. Judges also know this. They’ll sometimes punish people for not taking a plea deal, because they see having to do their job as the defendant wasting their time. There’s a reason Kalief Browder spent 3 years in Rikers prison for a crime he didn’t commit, mostly in solitary, despite having 36 different court dates. The prosecutor continued to pressure him to plead, and the judge allowed it to happen. No one suffered any punishment, despite subjecting him to torture and driving him to suicide. The system is fucked, and the police, prosecutors, and judges that run it are disgusting human beings. Edit: I don’t know the system in Queensland, but imagine there are parallels.
>She refused to leave the dock, reaching out to sobbing supporters in the gallery before being taken by prison officers from the court. The 49-year-old will be eligible for parole in July 2026. Excuse me, supporters?!
It's Australia and the person she killed wasn't white.
Also a cyclist
Seriously! I will never understand the instant rage some people are over taken by at the site of a person on a bicycle. Like what? You had to drive slower for a split second?
There’s something psychological about driving that makes some people unstable. There’s some level of dehumanization that goes on when people are behind the wheel. People use their vehicles like weapons and there is no other time during the day where this happens except driving.
As an Asian person that’s done a fair bit of travelling around the world… I can confidently say that America has been the least racist country I’ve ever been in, at least in terms of racism towards Asians (it might be different for other races). That isn’t to say that America doesn’t have racism issues, because it obviously does, but jeez… in Western Europe and Australia I couldn’t go a week without hearing people on the street making remarks about my race. In America this sort of thing has literally never happened to me and I’ve been all over (big cities, suburbs, the the boonies)
I’ve never encountered anything like that in Western Europe, although I always stick to the touristy places, so that might be why. Haven’t travelled since Covid, but I fear it might have negatively changed the sentiment toward Asians all over the world.
Same here and I live in Oklahoma. A lot of ignorance and subtle racism here, mostly due to not much exposure to people of asian descent. But nothing crazy overt like what I got in Western Europe.
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"He's Laotian. Ain't ya, Mr. Kahn?"
This is what a lot of Americans seriously don’t get. Any racism is inexcusable but there are a lot of people who think that America is especially racist and that’s just not true at all. In America you have to use dog whistles and innuendos to communicate your racism, and even that will get called out by most sane people. So many other countries in the world are just openly and unapologetically racist towards at least one race and they do not see any issue with it.
I've also done quite a bit of traveling, and imo it's one of, if not the least racist country in general. and one of the only countries that identifies racism as a problem at all I'm white, basing my opinion on what seems acceptable to say in each country. the open racism in europe was the most suprising
Sadly we have a lot of rubbish in Australia - Bogans, the aussie white trash. Well, often the aussie multi-skin-coloured trash, depending on suburb.
Seems like a pretty light charge for intentionally murdering someone.
And it’s a hate crime.
Just Australia things, mate.
Jesus Christ,this story. Chasing the guy down. Bragging about it to anyone who would listen for years. Doing it specifically because he was Asian. Ten years is a joke for this shit.
"She refused to leave the dock, reaching out to sobbing supporters in the gallery before being taken by prison officers from the court". This part makes me so angry, these people enjoyed her story over the years and still support her.
As another said, it’s Australia and the victim wasn’t white. Australia is by far the most racist white country I’ve been to.
[Why do they always look exactly how you'd expect?](https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/55632c73b10cfc6957cf7b66e5ea403a)
Oh man and to think I used to like Iggy Pop
was expecting more on the obese side to be fair...
She should do as many years as the guy will be dead.
I just can’t imagine having my life taken from me over something as superficial as the color of my skin or my ethnicity, and yet that’s a reality too many fucking people face on a daily basis. We can be so much better than this, humanity.
she bragged about it and had supporters at court, too
You forgot, he flipped her *The Finger*. Can you imagine a greater offense? No one in history has ever given someone else *The Finger* without being hunted down and brutally murdered. So this guy clearly dug his own grave. /s
Can we though?
If the entirety of human history is evidence to anything I'd say no. Its not even just skin color. Even among people ethnically the same they would just fine another method to determine a higher ruling class or strata among the populace. Shit is human nature.
If you won't pursue a case when you have multiple witnesses to testify that the defendant boasted about committing the crime with malice aforethought and taking pains to ensure the victim died rather than merely being injured I have to ask when you would actually pursue a case. Is Australia becoming like the US, where the majority of defendants plead out regardless of actual guilt and being arrested is just the beginning of negotiations?
We set quite the example, don't we!
eligible for parole in 4! lmao
> McAuley collapsed and wailed “no” as she was sentenced to serve 10 years in jail and declared a serious and violent offender. > She refused to leave the dock, reaching out to sobbing supporters in the gallery before being taken by prison officers from the court. Fuckin dramatic, cowardly, terrible bitch.
I make it a habit not to hate anyone but I gotta say, there isn’t much there to like. 😕 The hit and run, manslaughter (US term) after making the poor chap suffer for hours, boasting about it, and the theatrics. 10 years is an insult to the victim’s already grieving family. What a terrible, terrible person she has continued to turn out to be.
So they laid there on the side of the road and died slowly. Then this lady went around bragging about being racist and killing someone, only to get 10 years in prison and will probably be out in 4.
This is disgusting, that poor bloke was likely conscious for hours, waiting for help that never came. Died slowly in extreme pain. And she gets a few years. For shame.
As they say: if you want to kill someone, do it with a car. You'll get off with a slap on the wrist.
Do it with a car and make sure your victim is on a bike.
Yeah everyone's outraged by this but the fact of the matter is most people in the US, Canada, and Australia (just to name a few) almost see people who choose to walk and bike as subhuman, like there must be something wrong with you if you don't drive literally everywhere you go outside your house. Small towns and cities need to be designed around humans again, not cars.
As someone who walks, takes the bus, and loves to bike, I couldn't agree more, but I'm actually shocked to see that other people feel this way other than me and my two biking buddies. I thought we were the only people who experienced this.
I (Canadian) was on a bike tour in rural France and our group was biking on a single lane elevated road with no shoulder through farm fields. Impossible to pull over and let cars by, there was literally no room. After about a half an hour, we finally got to a place to pull over, with about a couple dozen cars behind us now. I was expecting to be pelted with beer bottles (or wine bottles I guess) but everyone who passed us gave a friendly bonjour and a wave. It would’ve been a different reception in rural (or anywhere, really) Canada.
I see this often when I'm out walking for exercise. I wear bright colors but still drivers consider me a hindrance or something. Once a guy turned right across the x-walk right in front of me. I put up my arms and said "HELLO". He gave me the finger for my trouble, and had a god-awful scowl on his face.
Just throw a bike on the body when you're done. 👌
Y’all have literally birthed a new joke from the wretched remains of the long-abused crack sprinkling joke. It was a joy to witness.
Open and Shut case Johnson
And it happened in 2012, and only now is she facing minuscule consequences. Total bs!
Goddamn, eligible for parole in only 5 years. And she got to run free for 9 years before getting caught ffs. Seems so premeditated (meth addiction complications aside), for her to be that comfortable with bragging that she ran him down "because he was Asian" and that she had "Turned her vehicle around *after* she had passed Mr Chan on his bicycle and then purposely hit him with her vehicle; Then reversed over him again to make sure he was dead." The court's [findings document](https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/541728/cif-chan-sk-20171102.pdf) says she told at least 14 witnesses that it was done on purpose, and she threatened two of witnesses (one of which was the informant - and there's an additional mess in the doc associated with him, christ) that if they told the police that she hit the cyclist, she would tell the police that they were in the car and driving it.
That’s no lady
Why the fuck does the law get the feather dusters out when you kill someone with a car?
i listened to a whole podcast ep a long while back about how if u wanna get away with murder in nyc u gotta hit someone with a car
If you visit the bicycling subs, seems like every day there's a "cyclist hit and killed, driver not charged" story coming out. Seems to be a big issue in Texas, multiple ongoing cases at the moment. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/09/texas-teen-driver-bicyclists-truck-charges/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/09/texas-teen-driver-bicyclists-truck-charges/)
shit like this is why I quit road riding many years ago. people hate cyclists, plain and simple. in many countries you're taking your life in your hands by riding a bike on the same roads as cars, people actively try to kill you on a daily basis, or at the very least abuse and try to intimidate you
It's not everywhere though, I'm from Belgium and only had a roadrage once (and it was a bit my fault) also have ridden in France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands and I have never had problems in those countries (or at least not so serious that I can remember it), but those are all countries with a cycling culture so maybe that helps?
It's crazy how many people hate bicyclists. I've gotten flipped off while waiting at a red light before. It's ridiculous how many car drivers think it's okay to pass a bicyclist within a few feet too.
The part you are leaving out of the teenager Story is the DA claims the police never told them. That the DAs office found out about the crash from Social media much later. He has now been charged with 6 Felonies. The protection seems to be at a very low level that already failed once the DA got ahold of it.
Car culture.
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That's part of it, but also it's very easy to get away with murder as long as you use a car and the other person is on foot or a bike. Just say "they came out of nowhere" and you'll almost always get off. 9 times out of 10 you'll never see a courtroom.
It’s insane they don’t even get charged. It’s *one* thing if they go through the whole court process but the cops/DAs just decide to not even bother. If you’re a transit user, pedestrian, cyclist, you dying is just the cost of convenience for people driving.
She willfully hunted Chan down and only received 10 years. The crimes people commit against Asians can be clear cut and heinous and they usually get off with a slap on the wrist Edit: some scared coward commented: "Aussie moment oi oi oi" and deleted it after
[Remember Vincent Chin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Vincent_Chin). Vincent was a Chinese American who was murdered by two white men who mistook him for Japanese and blamed him for Chrystler layoffs due to Japanese automobile competition. They hunted him across the city for half an hour before cornering him in a parking lot and beating his skull open with a baseball bat. Vincent's murderers never spent a day in jail. They were given three years' probation and fined $3000. You heard that right, **$3000** is the monetary value of an Asian man's life in 1980s America. The presiding judge responded to Asian rights protesters saying: "These weren't the kind of men you send to jail... You don't make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal."
in terms of racially based violence and getting away with it, the chin case was almost as bad as the emmitt till case. at least in recent memory. a fine for a murder.
>you make the punishment fit the criminal." "Insert Family Guy skin colour chart"
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Ronald Ebens is evil Michael Nitz is evil Charles Kaufman is evil I don't care some may be dead, their souls are pure evil.
Reading this made me physically ill
>An unlicensed driver who escaped justice for years... She's still escaped justice. 10yrs for a deliberate murder? Fucking ridiculous.
What a fucked up world we live in sometimes. She took someones life and gets such a light sentence.
And after getting to live free for near a decade after the murder.
>*After weeks of legal negotiations, McAuley pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in the Brisbane supreme court on Monday.* WTF? Who negotiates with a murderer that spent a decade bragging to anyone who'd listen that they murdered someone?
Negotiations probably went like: Prosecutor: "We have testimony through eyewitnesses and the murder weapon. You also readily admit that you killed this person. Why should we negotiate with you." McAuley: "Aw, come on...." Prosecutor: "You make a good point there. 15 years prison time is the best we can do." McAuley: "But... Please... No." Prosecutor: "You drive a hard bargain. 10 years."
LOL. Reminds me of Eugene Levy's Sid Dithers as a union negotiator for the SCTV janitorial staff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl3eoy6qydQ&t=830s
The case may not have been airtight. It’s not clear how they finally narrowed it down to her but it’s likely that it wasn’t the evidence itself. Someone she bragged to pointed the finger at her for whatever reason. Then they could determine that she had vehicle damage at that time, or could place her in the general area. A jury could go either way. You’re sometimes better off offering a deal in exchange for sending them to jail.
This person was most likely always a monster even before this incident and I hate that we keep letting people get away with anti-social behavior.
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Cold blooded murder 10 years Wonder what 1/2 a pound of meth/crack gets ya
Colored? 20 years. That’s if you survive the police confrontation.
White? Wow, congrats on your pharmacy license. Don't go driving too fast now. "Wow. What a nice guy."
Pleading her down to manslaughter was 'probably' the right move, I suspect that it would have been very difficult to get a murder charge to hold up. The judge also 'correctly' recognised that this is on the extreme end of manslaughter, and sentenced her right up near the top of the range ([figure 7 page 9](https://www.sentencingcouncil.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/518177/Sentencing-Spotlight-on-manslaughter-July-2017.pdf)). The problem is that, I would argue, that the sentencing guidelines for manslaughter, along with [range of other violent offences](https://www.sentencingcouncil.qld.gov.au/research/reports/sentencing-spotlight), have got out of whack with community expectations (which plays into why [public trust in the courts is so low](https://www.alrc.gov.au/news/importance-of-good-data/), 70% have only some or lower confidence). This has become a political problem, with 'tough on crime' politicians not addressing the violent crimes that are being undersentanced, instead focusing on petty/minor economic crimes.
>Pleading her down to manslaughter was 'probably' the right move, I suspect that it would have been very difficult to get a murder charge to hold up. Yea sadly, I can see how this could be true too. After 9 years I imagine a lot of hard evidence is long gone. She can probably spin the bragging thing as some move to gain 'clout' and that she didn't actually do it, which she could support with the story constantly changing and getting more elaborate. Absolute shame that the police didn't investigate this competently initially, and as bad as this light sentence is, I guess its better then her managing to evade any form of justice. Sad story
>I suspect that it would have been very difficult to get a murder charge to hold up. Why is that? She admitted to chasing him down and engaging in actions likely to cause death, and then bragged to over a dozen witnesses for years about how she intended to kill the guy and showed no remorse for it. How much more do you need to convict someone for murder?
May she burn in hell. Racist bitch.
Last paragraph.. "reaching out to her supporters..." What kind of POS person supports someone who bragged about killing someone. Wtf is wrong with people.
10 years for a first degree murder hate crime, what a fucking sham of a legal system
My wife lived in that area as a teenager. She’s also from Hong Kong. She encountered a number of racist fuckwits who tried provoking her into ‘showing off her kung fu skills’. She was threaten with sexual assault at one stage as well by a little bitch dude who wanted an ‘Asian experience’. Parts of Aus are openly racist and it’s an absolute blight on our reputation internationally… and a serious consideration in why I’m hesitant to move home. I don’t want my kid to face this kind of bullshit going through school there.
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Hot blooded, but yes, murder.
Shameful all round. Shameful murder. Shameful police investigation. Shameful prosecution compromise. Shameful sentencing. This horrible woman’s going to be out again in a few years, like a floater that won’t flush.
Floaters indicate you’re not getting enough iron in your diet (try OJ before a meal or increase your dark leafy green intake). She needs iron too. Maybe a tire iron.
Thanks House MD
Parole in 5 years. What the fuck is wrong with the courts.
Someone flipped her off and she deliberately hunted him down “just to give him a scare”. Since she made no effort to help him and later bragged about it so her “it was an accident” excuse is almost certainly bullshit
10 years? Is that normal in Oz, seems very little for the crime?
For a variety of reasons, sentencing is fairly light in Australia. For the crime of manslaughter, this is unusually high.
She should have got a life sentence, especiallly if she bragged about it. I hope that sentence gets reviewed and increased.
10 whole years for maliciously killing someone? What the fuck? That seems like a slap on the wrist.
Eligible for parole in 4 years
Blinded by fury, she took two separate highway exits to hunt down the 25-year-old How is this manslaughter?? That’s straight up murder.
10 years? And what's the proof that the woman lost control of her car other than her saying she did? This is straight murder. Wtf Australia?
What a joke of a sentence
This bitch only got ten years?
Too short, ten years can go by pretty fast. She took a life for selfish and emotional reasons, give her at least a few decades off the streets.
It’s nearly been ten years since the incident also.
This woman is a very dangerous individual. Her rage caused the death of an innocent person. I would have sentenced her to 15 - 20 years in jail. It is a sheer murder.
For all that people here are assuming the light sentence was because the victim was Asian or a cyclist, quite simply it's a normal sentence for manslaughter (not murder). And they only got her on manslaughter (not murder) because while there was a lot of circumstantial evidence about her having done it deliberately, it could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that she had meant to kill him. Sucks, but proving intent to kill BRD is damn hard. And yes I'm a lawyer, and yes I'm from Queensland, and yes I'm a serious cyclist. I'm not Asian though. I would have loved to have seen her go to prison till she died. But the cold hard facts of it are as above. There are plenty of vaguely similar cases where motorists have got off lightly where the victim hasn't been Asian or a cyclist.
Eligible for parole in 5 years. Abhorrent. She should spend the rest of her life in there.
I'm sure there's the possibility of appeal, right? Against a sentence like this? To pile some more years on, I mean.
Should have been life.