Safe Speed Forums

Much as I despise you for what you represent IG (past experience has alreadsy programmed me to a certain degree), I back that bit of advice 100% all the way.

To everybody here....

Just let the "Looney Tune" get on with it, and pray they are in front of you when the inevitable happens.

_________________
What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

Hi Gixxer, this post suggests you despise the police. Is that really the case?

There may be a few idiot police out there but I think on the whole they do a very good job, especially traffic cops. I personally would love to see more highly trained cops like these on our roads. The majority of traffic cops I have encountered have been thourghly decent and individuals who are concerned with making our roads safer, not enforcing as many "technical" violations as humanly possible, instead they tend to use discretion and focus their skills on bad driver/ dangerous individuals rather than people slightly exceeding a recently council imposed 30mph speed limit on an ex-nsl road.

Gixxer - am always saddened when I read that people despise the Force I represent.

To some extent we are ambassadors for this profession. I'm never really "off duty".

On holiday - for example - and I've just returned from a short break - but you know how it is.. you chat in the bar to other holiday makers and they always ask the invevitable question.. about work.

I usually reply that I am on holiday and want to forget about it for a few days...

You see the minute I mention what I do for a living.. regardless ... you see a sort of - well - I can only describe it as a "distancing"

Shame really - cos I am just like anyone else - a human being and I just happen to want to help my fellows by protecting them from the really bad lot out there - and I do not do the "holier than thou" - nor in a long career history have I ever charged anyone with an offence without good reason to do so.

I would probably prosecute you if you drove a car or rode a bike whilst wearing flip flops I make no distinction on this - you would not be in control.


I have nailed tailgaters in the past and OTT speeders. OTT speed and tailgating alike - both absolutely unaccpeptable and neither COAST/OAP nor safety led.

We try to offer a little more discretion regarding blips - and most of us see our job as helping rather than being heavy handed on punishment.

I will never deny that there are some who slip through the net or even get carried away by the uniform and the powers we hold once qualified. T

I know - Gixxer .

. you will say I am defending my profession and colleagues - but I am bieng absolutely honest. I do not deny there are some who give us a bad reputation - but 95% of officers are dedicated, decent and certainly not power crazed.



Basically - we have to earn respect if we are to command it.

If we nit pick - are seen to be too pee cee - then we will lose out on the goodwill which we rely on to help us SOLVE crimes and we will also lose this respect - and once we lose this - we end up with anarchy and social problems which can then only be controlled by a more totalitarian regime - and I really fear and am seriously afraid that we are already showing these signs of a disintegrating society - and the signs are there in a comment such as "despising what represent" .


Most of us are aware and try very hard and committedly to retain respect and continue to protect and serve by trying to get serious threats dealt with properly in the courts - and I do fear our paperworkls on trial and not the criminal on some occasions.

We have one serious hotspot in our patch - where the middle aged born again bikers - who do not realise that their hot wheels are a lot more powerful than in their youth. Their second youth usually ends in some grief and I would hope to get a safety message across on this ...that anyone seeking to ride either motorbike, ride bike of drive car after a gap should take some refresher course, really understand the power in the machine they buy and be aware of traffic changes.

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

and did you sort the plate out?

@ T2006,
I'm afraid that is pretty much the way I think these days.

I don't think ACAB immediately before I have even spoken to them, but I do have a serious mistrust of the old bill in general (and nobody would blame me after what I have personally witnessed in the last year or so).



@IG
I know what you are saying, but I have witnessed old bill not only lying through their teeth in order to f*ck somebody over, but even when they are caught "bang to rights" by their own CCTV giving false statements and lying on oath in court, they are still in the job afterwards regardless of how far any prospective complaint goes

Don't get me wrong, I have met a small handful of old bill that I regard as sensible and decent, but they are very few & far between unfortunately.
The last decent copper I encountered was in 1993, and his reason for pulling me over was that "he was 10 yards behind me in his Range Rover and he still couldn't make out my number plate" due to the angle it was positioned at.

My immediate response was to point out that he was more of a danger following me at such a close distance at 30mph, than what I was riding around with a number plate that was alledgedly unreadable.
This crack was met with good humour, and then we got down to business....

Sure as hell I knew I was taking the piss with a number plate that measured 4" wide by 2" high and was at an 80 degree angle, but after he looked over the bike and realised that the basic safety was good (eg, brand new tyres, brand new brake pads, etc), his words to me were....

"I know it's tough for you guys (I was despatching at the time) and I can see you are spending proper money on your bike, but you are seriously taking the piss with that number plate, and if I see you again then you are nicked"

With that, I was on my way without any problems at all.

Sure as shit, 3 days later the officer in question pulls up behind me (on a bike this time) when I am at a cashpoint in Berkeley Square, and when I have finished my transaction he calls me over....the conversation went like this...



BiB: You don't recognise me, do you?

Me: No mate, should I?

Bib: I stopped you 3 days ago in Grosvenor Square and told you to sort that number plate out

Me: Oh shit, it's you

BiB: Yes it's me...why haven't you sorted it yet?

Me: It's pay day today mate, I'm gonna do it over the weekend

Bib: Make sure you do, because I seriously mean it when I say you will be reported for an illegal number plate if I see you again



With that, he rode off and left me to it.

Now that to me is a copper who has his priorites in life right, not these mouthy f*ckers you get today who think they are something special and then wonder why they end up getting assaulted by the public.

I'm not about to cast aspersions on you personally IG as I have never met you on either a personal or professional level (at least not that I am aware of), but you have more than your fair share of colleagues who are not doing you any favours at all, and your superiors really need to do something about that instead of just blatantly sweeping it under the carpet (that is assuming they want to earn back the respect of the public as a whole).


PS
I'm not a "born again" biker, I have been doing it day in & day out since the age of 9, and I am fully aware of my capabilities & limitations (where riding is concerned anyway)

_________________
What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

@ mpaton2004,

Dunno what happened there, you must have caught me halfway through the spelling corrections

In answer to your question, yes I did sort the plate out as advised (the advise was to move it to the right hand side of the bike at axle level as "the chopper boys do")

_________________
What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?