Friday, July 07, 2006

Christiaan Briggs: Human Shield and Batterer



You hear the story and wonder if it can be true. A former human shield harasses a guy's girlfriend on the bus, then when he's called on it, gets off the bus with the guy and clobbers him. The guy, Billy Leeson, lead singer for the British band Les Incompetents now lies in a coma.
From Moonbattery:

Peace Activist Beats Singer Into Coma

Rising pop star Billy Leeson, lead singer for the British band Les Incompetents, was riding on a London bus last week when some maniac started harassing his girlfriend. An altercation ensued. After the two men got off the bus together, the maniac threw a punch that resulted in Leeson fracturing his skull and going into a coma. The madman ran off laughing. His name: Christiaan Taylor Briggs, peace activist.

Briggs is best known for leaving his New Zealand home in 2003 to serve as a human shield, defending the genocidal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein in the name of peace, love, and the children.

Can this be? A human shield, a person who feels so strongly about armed conflict that he is willing to give his life to protect others, a guy like that not only picks the fight, he cracks his skull, then runs off laughing? Well, look at the guy and make up your own mind. Does this look like someone who would do such a thing?

(Bonus question: When alcohol addiction hits the mean-drunk stage, isn't it time for you to give it up?) From Flickr's public images:

Most images have been removed. No, not because I had to, because "Morph", the owner of the pictures, didn't hit anyone and may be the salt of the earth for all I know. It really didn't feel right, showing all the other people at the party as well. So ok, pictures are down.
Should the "peace activist" run amok again though... well, the innocent could be photoshopped out.




***Update II:
Les Incompetents on Youtube.

Also- Thanks Tim Blair for the link, and the original pointer to this story on Florida Cracker.

Gateway Pundit is keeping up with the story. (and has an amusing image of freedom-fighter Briggs, hiding his face behind a kafiya, because, well you know, reprisals)
***Final Update: Briggs was convicted, sentenced to less than a year, and has done his time.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an utter wanker. I do love how the likes of Idiot from NRT are suddenly telling all and sundry that bashing someone and running away laughing is the sort of thing anyone could do, just an unlucky set of circumstances really... Fuck, how hypocritical. I hope he goes to jail for a long time and he should thank his lucky stars he's not facing manslaughter charges.

Anonymous said...

And by the way, he's not a human shield - he's a guy who went to Iraq for three weeks well before the conflict started and then got out, and since then seems to have spent his time loudly pontificating about how morally upright he is

Anonymous said...

"It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right."
-Thoreau

That's from Brigg's website. Now he'll have to modify it to "It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, or the right."

Anonymous said...

Apparently "Tough" is Briggs' middle name.

http://last-straw.net/2006/02/hi-to-the-cowards-at-the-cia/#comments

Anonymous said...

Come one. That's a glass of water he's holding in one of those pics. He must be trying to avoid a hangover...

Anonymous said...

or is it a glass of vodka?

Anonymous said...

Uh, the guy gets pissed at his own 30th and now he's a drunk??

lumberjack said...

No, I'd say running amok and putting an innocent busmate in a coma would hint at a drinking problem. The pictures speak for themselves.

Anonymous said...

"running amok and putting an innocent busmate in a coma would hint at a drinking problem."

It doesn't hint at any such thing. Doing so drunk and having a reputation for getting drunk would hint at such a thing, but you have no evidence that suggests either.

In any case being drunk is a mitigating factor in a case like this, why give him the benefit?

"The pictures speak for themselves."

Uh, yeah they do, the guy throws a good birthday party.

Instead of engaging in such wild speculation maybe you should wait until the case has been through court before commenting?

lumberjack said...

You're right, I appear to have no evidence. But how do you know that? Do you have proof that I have no further evidence? No! It's pure speculation on your part.

Anyway, unwelcome advances on someone else's girlfriend, late night, and on public transport ? Then an assault from which he runs away laughing? Sure, those could be the actions of a sober man. It could have been the purple Knight bus from Harry Potter, too, but I doubt it.

Anonymous said...

My point was, what you've provided in you post (photos of the guy's 30th) is not evidence that this guy is a drunk and yet you inferr that he has an alcohol addiction.

"Anyway, unwelcome advances on someone else's girlfriend, late night, and on public transport ? Then an assault from which he runs away laughing?"

Even these claims are problematic. I've read through the news reports and according to the police it is *alleged* that he made unwelcome advances. I also can't find where, according to the police, that he is alleged to have "run" away.

Commenting on such matters, let alone wildly speculating, is little more than noise at this point.

lumberjack said...

You're right of course. I'm sure the man hardly ever drinks. He's probably innocent of this crime as well. In fact, I'll bet Billy Leeson was trying to beat himself into a coma and young Chris just tried to stop him.
And it was that magical Harry Potter bus.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't sound like he's innocent to me. He reportedly handed himself in.

I'm simply saying that your wild speculation adds nothing to the situation and, frankly, doesn't seem all that considerate towards the victims family either.

lumberjack said...

My wild speculation? I said:
"Well, look at the guy and make up your own mind. Does this look like someone who would do such a thing?"
Feel free to come to whatever conclusion you want to.

Anonymous said...

"Well, look at the guy and make up your own mind. Does this look like someone who would do such a thing?"

Well, he's already proved that he's willing to become complicit in the murders of millions of Iraqis by a genocidal madman, and to protect that dictator's regime; I guess beating someone nearly to death and then running away laughing isn't out of the question.

pst314 said...

"Even these claims are problematic...according to the police it is *alleged* that he made unwelcome advances."

It's always "alleged" until he's tried and convicted, so that doesn't prove anything.

lumberjack said...

I agree. Trial first. Then we kick Christiaan's "alleged" ass.

BTW- Good news about Billy.

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/07/musician-escapes-from-coma-after-peace.html

Anonymous said...

Well looks like the alleged assualt was proven and the 'peaceful' man gets sent down for a number of months.....not enough in my book, he should also be sent back to his own country since he is convinced that this country is so bad and evil? OXYGEN THIEF!!

Anonymous said...

This man, Christiaan Briggs, is a blight on our society, and it is shameful he was only sentenced to eight months. He will only serve half of that, in any case, which is desgusting. He has ruined Billy Leeson's life, not to mention Billy's family's, and he deserves a far, far heavier sentence.

Anonymous said...

You people are far to quick of the mark aren't you! Do you know Christiaan at all? Will I do and he is not the horrible person everyone is making him out to be. this is a very unfortunate situation, he is not proud of it but he also is not a hard criminal and this time in jail is not going to make him a better person because he already is a good person
who has already learnt from this mistake and just how do you think his family is feeling, this is two familys lives turned around and neither of these famillys deserve or need this in their lives. Christiaan made a terrible mistake and yes he is paying for it and thank god Billy is going to be ok, but i disagree with you he does not need to be in jail longer than he already is in fact I dont think he should be there at all.

lumberjack said...

Briggs already is a good person? Yikes, save me from the good people then.

One comfort though, he'll be sharing a cell with other good people. You know, good, except for their "little oopsies". Mainly good.

Anonymous said...

The reason Briggs does indeed need to be in prison, and for a lot longer than eight months, is because sickening crimes like this cannot go unpunished. If they do, then would-be-thugs would have no reason to not attack and lash out at innocent victims like Billy Leeson. I understand that the person who wrote the comment a space or two above is a friend of the guy's, but, hey you, perhaps he should have thought about what he was doing instead of just doing it. I have worked in the criminal justice system and far too many of these attackers of previous good character get ridiculous sentences that in no way reflect the atrocity of the crime and make a mockery of the hurt they have caused.

Anonymous said...

It has to be handed to the thug that he did hand himself in and this, I am sure, will have been taken into consideration by the judge in his sentence. This does not, however, in any way, lessen the severity of the attack and its terrible consequences.

Anonymous said...

Agreed. I live with a house of 6 people, and he was a housemate of ours for about 8 months. Cannot possibly condone what he did here but, suffice to say, he was one of the most friendly, easygoing people i've met. Weird, ain't it?

Anonymous said...

I live in Islington and have been following this story. As the judge said to Christiaan Briggs, random unprovoked violence is a scourge of modern urban life. The person who knows this man and describes this as "a very unfortunate situation" and says that s/he "doesn't think he should be in jail at all" is living in cloud cuckoo land. The "very unfortunate situation" is entirely of his own making through his aggression and loss of self-control. Why should he not be punished by the criminal law exactly like anyone else who has broken that law? No-one is too good for prison if the facts of their offence merit a custodial sentence. His behaviour is all the more shameful because he has trumpeted values which are at odds with his thuggish action. Neither he nor you have any claim to moral high ground here. And you ask for sympathy for his family but say very little of his victim, who has suffered greatly from your friend's nasty, brutish, unacceptable behaviour.

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