The arrest of Luke Marsh, a 39-year-old Aboriginal man who was tasered and pepper-sprayed by police in Canberra last November, has been referred to ACT Policing's professional standards unit after the ACT Magistrates Court dismissed the case. Prosecutors had charged Marsh with resisting police, but the court found that police had not established he was the source of a breach of the peace complaint, rendering their entry into his hotel room unlawful.
According to court documents, police were called to the area by paramedics who reported that an intoxicated male was hampering their work. Officers located Marsh and followed him to his hotel room, where he shut the door and refused entry. Police used a master key to enter the room, then tasered Marsh on his buttocks and upper legs as he resisted handcuffing. They also used pepper spray after Marsh grabbed one of the tasers.
Dramatic footage of the arrest, shown in court, captured Marsh repeatedly shouting, 'I've done nothing,' to which an officer replied, 'Because you are nothing but violent towards us.' Marsh also complained about the pepper spray, and an officer promised to get water to relieve the pain.
This is not the first time Marsh's arrest has been criticized. In May 2020, a magistrate found that police had 'cut corners' and engaged in a 'serious misuse' of their powers when they arrested Marsh for being drunk and disorderly and pepper-sprayed him while handcuffed in a police van. He was cleared of nearly all charges.
Karly Warner, chief executive of the Aboriginal Legal Service for the ACT and New South Wales, condemned the latest incident, saying it 'yet again exposed ACT Policing's culture of discrimination and violence against Aboriginal people.' She called for urgent accountability and a royal commission into the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the ACT's legal system, emphasizing the need for better cultural competence training for officers.
