“Has the Queen enacted it?”
An extremely patient Queensland police officer has been praised online for his tact, when dealing with a man who insisted he could not legally be breathalysed until he was shown a proclamation certificate signed by the Queen.
The driver recorded his tense conversation with the officer, the clip has since received millions of views online. Seven News also shared footage of the incident. The conversation goes for about 10 minutes.
Yahoo News: “Queensland driver tests cop’s patience insists breath tests are illegal“:
The driver, Christopher James David Summers demands to know if he is under arrest while repeatedly refusing to blow into the breathalyser. “You can be under arrest if you want,” the officer informs the man, while explaining that drivers are legally required to provide samples for road side breath tests, citing the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995.
“But has it been through the upper house, the lower house, and the Queen enacted it?” The driver demands to know. Eventually the officer appears to give up, but hinted that it may not be the end of the matter. “We’ll be seeing you later on, Mr Summer,” he said, after the driver refused to tell the police officer his name, insisting: “I am a man and I’m called many things”.
The officer kept his promise, police tracked him down four days later and ordered him to appear at Noosa Courthouse on December 13 2016. The Courier Mail: “Man’s fight over breath test refusal takes new twist“:
When Magistrate Hayden Stjernquist entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf, Christopher Summers declared that the magistrate “could be jailed for 10 years and “removed” for entering the plea. Besides all the other OPCA assertions, magistrates are actually required by law to enter a “not guilty” plea if a defendant refuses to enter a plea at all.
Christopher Summers was ordered to leave the court but refused, saying “we are not finished here” and continuing to talk. After refusing two more requests to leave, he was arrested. A man watching from the public gallery then stood up and yelled “we are all witness to this magistrate entering a plea for him”. He was also ordered to leave. A woman who started filming proceedings on her mobile phone was arrested when she refused to hand over the phone to a police officer, yelling “don’t touch me” as she was taken into custody.
He was found guilty when he returned to court on the 3rd March 2017. The Courier Mail: “Guilty, fined but defiant: Man’s breath test fight rages on“:
Read more about Christopher’s contention in Show me the Proclamation Certificate! and in The Abolition of the Upper House of Queensland Parliament
.