A**hole Police!

Of course nobody is infallible. We're all human.

The officer percieved a perfectly normal instance of choke driven high idle as 'suspicious'. Which betrays a complete lack of understanding of motorcycles, on which chokes are still very common. And he thereby decided he had an excuse to waste the time of an otherwise non-suspect road user. To then take the high ground and expect the biker to be completely deferential is, IMO, condescending.

Aside from that, you say he caused no harm? Wasting the time of law abiding road users, because of a lack of understanding on their part, is an abuse of power. That 5-10 minutes sat by the roadside going through a repetitive, pointless dialogue, is at least inconvenient and could, at worst, cause significant harm: It could cost someone their job. It could make someone late for an important meeting or hearing. Chaos theory.

I fully support the Police in carrying out their job in apprehending criminals. But that remit doesn't give them the right to treat the rest of us as though our time is worth nothing, nor expect us to treat them with unremitting reverence. Respect is earned by the person through their actions. It's not free with the job title.

 

i agree 100%
i got pulled in lancaster for using my fone on speakerfone in it's cradle... apparently 'that is not an acceptable form of hands free operation sir'
even though the officer could clearly see i had both hands on the wheel while talking... i was in a call when he pulled me over - and got the person on the other end to hang up, "you were talking while you were driving sir"
i said aw fk off, i couldve been talking to a passenger or singing along to the bleedin radio ffs.

he then proceded to breathalise me, even though i just told him id been on a nuclear power station all day and there is no bar on site.

then when i asked him to hurry it up please as i had to be somewhere, he then called his bum chum over to check my tyre depth... on a brand new lease car ffs

so as he was writing out my ticket, i wrote him one too, company headed worksheet.
"what are you doing sir?"

i'm invoicing you for my time. you've kept me here for 30 minutes, which i have to account for, so if you'll sign there please.........sir.


i was a bit disappointed that the boss didnt want to press for payment, but you're right. if more people did the same then maybe less innocent people would get their valuable time wasted in these pointless demeaning spot checks.
i only charge customers £45 a hr (no im not a fkin rent boy lol!) but can you imagine a solicitor or something charging them £200 a hr for a pull that doesnt result in a chargeable offence?

 

Had the same thing happen to me about 2 weeks ago, Just finished work got pulled over for a blown head light..

Got to say the 2 woman police officers were VERY fine :icecream:

 

my old dad was giving way when he was shunted from behind and when he regained consiousness the first thing the police did was shove a breathalizer in his mouth,now how does that work,it must have been because he's a biker and ten minutes earlier he was scaring old women and biting the heads of chickens.

 

I have no problem with a copper getting it wrong, i have a problem with the sh*t they come out with EG I gets pulled in my car not two weeks ago, cars not three years old yet,its 2.45 am, im big and bald and out after dark, Copper says iv pulled you because you look suspicious ? the ironey of it is theres some dude walking down the same street with a hoodie with the hood up and a bag on his back(probley on his way to work)......... and i look suspicious WTF

As for Robs attitude bollocks to the section 59 give him a pat on the back!

 

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

he didnt give me one....thats what i said it was a waste of his time and mine to even bother

 

haha cheers :thumbsup:

got nothing agaisnt law enforces when they do there jobs right instead of wasting police time and ours.....

not so long ago i was stopped in the street and givin a talking to because someone in the area aged 16 - 18 slim built wearing a black jacket and tracksuit pants and a low alpine hat (t**t hats)had broken into a property near by!! FFS im 20+ stone and had a pair of jeans on and a blue tshirt!!! how the f**k can they even justify that....the time it had taken them to tell me what had happened, why i had been stopped and to write out a stop form the real offender had probably long gone :banghead:

 

If an officer stops you and gives youa reason no matter how bollocks you may think it is he is then just in his power to stop you.

reasonable suspision could be your best friend one day. just because teh copper doesnt know everything about bikes doesnt mean he was wrong to stop rob. Do u know everything about every machine. doubtful.

and again you are going off perdsonal experience that is few and far between incident. I have done plenty of jobs were I was critiscised for doing things by bending teh rules sometimes or going off a hunch. sometimes it paid off and sometimes it didnt. the copper had a hunch there was a problem.

Oh and as for teh stop form rob its a legal requirement for him to give you one. whether it wastes your time or not. if you get killed getting back on your bike without that form the copper is in a whole heap of sh*t.

 

ok danny, what about this.... years ago i was walking back from a mates after band practice with a holdall on my shoulder with leads & pedals etc... got stopped at pocket nook in st helens by 2 plod in a patrol car.
they said there had been burglaries in the area and could they look in my bag...
i said yeh np, but wouldnt tell them where id been cos my mate wouldve been asleep by then (and had a house full of weed lol)
anyway, they search me and i totally forgot i had a tiny spliffs worth of squidgy black in my pocket.
so they take it out my pocket and start taking the p*ss, rolling it out bigger on the car bonnet, shining the torch on it and saying i was fkt, going away for a long time for it..

anyway, then one gives it me back and says there, go home and smoke it in peace, man..... (taking the pis)

i walk off toward the chinky, order a meal and when i go to pay i realise they have took a crisp £20 note out my pocket when they searched me the wankers.

so ok, i couldve had the inconvenience of being took to the station and cautioned / charged for possession of 0.1g of weed, but then again the basterds fkin mugged me.
bleedin street robbery off 2 plod. wtf!

 

Never got a stop form so theres another thing hes done wrong then haha....its not a big political debate im just sayin that the copper that stopped me obviously an arsehole, had nothing better to do, thought to himself need to stop anyone and everyone that i see just because i cant go back to hq (or watever) and say oh yeah i didnt arrest anyone last night, didnt catch any crimals, seize any vehicals..... cause then it will make him look sh*t....

yeah most police officers do a good job and that but most of the time there out there stopping anyone and everyone for next to nothing instead of focusing on the more important things happening, gun/knife crime, burglarys/theft, killings ect... they would rather stop people in the cars/bikes on there way to work just to do a standard check

 

Reversing questions doesn't prove any point. Of course we, as individual members of the public, don't typically know everything about every machine. But then it's not our profession. However, it is the profession of a traffic officer. The more he or she knows about every area and nuance of their work (that is, vehicles, roads, drivers and the law surrounding all those things), the better informed their 'hunches' and suspicions may be. Which in turn ensures that they make appropriate and effective use of the discretionary powers, that we (the public whom the police are put there to serve) bestow upon them.

It may be within an officer's 'power' to stop anyone for any suspicion. But the use of that power should be proportionate, well considered, and not a matter of routine. It doesn't mean that we should necessarily respect the use of that power without question. As I said above, respect is earned through the person and their actions. There are some very knowledgeable and experienced police officers who, I'm sure, exact excellent judgement on a very consistent basis. But it isn't a myth that there are similarly police officers out there who are pretty clueless about certain areas of the law, and certain types of road user and vehicle. And, in my experience, and from many accounts, it seems to me that many traffic police are often very ignorant about motorcycles and motorcyclists. That ignorance leads to a lot of poor judgement, the inappropriate use of discretionary powers, and a lot of wasted time.

When the police make poor decisions because of their ignorance, they should very well expect the individual they have wrongfully inconvenienced to be rightfully disgruntled, and express that dissatisfaction in a manner other than, "yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir".

It's up to the police to get it right. And at the very minimum have an extensive knowledge base from which to base their suspicions. It's not up to the public to accept incompetence. If I'm no good at my job, I expect to be damn well told so, by managers, colleagues and customers alike. It's no different for a Police Officer.

 

A suspiscion is just that. regardless of its origin. I (as a store detective) often based my suspisions on suspects clothing, teh way they walked or tehir facial appearence, but a scruffy guy might just be a guy who doesnt care about his appearence, or he could be a user, a skinny haggered woman could be a user, or she could have a medical condition affecting her weight. sometimes i was wrong and wasted time following them, other times i was right and saved my store £100's

And i have been stopped, searched and pulled by officers a lot, am a tall scouser with a skinhead an i lived in anfield for 7 years. av bin pulled for driving 30 in a 30 and for wearing a hat in my car and i can say in the last 9 months I have been stopped 8 times for running ... it just so happens that I run at night cos the roads are quiet but to a copper a guy running in the middle of the night wearing a tracksuit is suspiscious.. on closer inspection when i get stopped they see my ipod and my stopwatch. but sh*t happens, they still get the yes sir no sir approach even though they have ruined my 1.5mile time attempt.

If the coppers took a alid back approach you would all be then saying that they dont do enough stop searches and such.

 

i think the maddest thing ive been pulled for was going through prescot in my works car, a stonechip hit my window from a car on the other side, and it looked like it had chipped right through, so i reached forward and touched the mark on the screen to feel if it had....

seconds later i heard a screech and sirens and was stopped by an unmarked car, pulled out of my car and asked did i think it was funny to make a shooting gesture to a police officer


ah sez eh???

 

I like, is this YOUR BIKE SIR...........well you wouldnt be catching me if it wernt!
where are you comming from.............whats it got to do with you?
can you tell me the registration of your bike ......... I could but im pretty sure you can read

This may be where im going wrong but i just cant help myself, and you know Brashys right we do base our oppinion on our personal experiances but i find it very funny how there are so many low oppinions, obviously the five o need better people skills training.

I do know a good copper though who i have a lot of respect for His names Ste hesketh if theres any coppers on the forum who know him, the police should get this guy to do there people skills training for them because he has a lot of respect when hew speaks to you.

 

Squidgy black ha ha ha ha was it a five pound deal? boy squidgy black takes me back some.......and to be fare wtf would you walk through pocket nook

 

I have been stopped before for accelerating aggresivly on my bandit. copper said the speed i left the lights could have caused an accident if someone was gonna try an cross the road ahead or if a car was pulling out from a junction and didnt expect me to accelerate that quick.

fair point IMO. he didnt book me, had a look round the bike, passed me my stop form an let me go.

 

section 59 for having an attitude? I doubt it. If I was given a section 59 for answering back I would take a dump on the patrol car bonet and made sure I got put in the cells for something worth it

 

no the section 59 would be for the excessive revving of the engine in a built up area. the reason he could have been given one is cos his attitude could have pissed the copper off enough to radio back and ask for advice on an offence. of which a section 59 would have been issued against robs bike.

you telling me in your job you have never done somethin to p*ss off a twatty customer. Its human nature.