Good Cop

[DITTRICH]

That I would love to have seen. It really doesn't mean that though otherwise portzy wouldn't have met that police lady and would have been home that bit sooner.

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=24970&highlight=amber+faster

Your wish is granted...

 

[PXW]

If they have a particular instance as an example then sure, air it, but to have posters who have said they have no direct experience of this issue, then regularly (I mean again and again and again) spouting off about how bad things are, it gets rather tiresome.

Perhaps you haven't been around long enough to know how good this forum used to be before all the pollution.

Judging by the fact that three posters have come into this thread saying how they are tired of hearing this rubbish, then maybe I'm not alone in my opinion. Even the o-p has reposted saying he felt the experience was a good one, not a negative one, but Lo, the doom mongers have still seen a negative side to the thread.
Have I actually given my opinion regarding the original topic.? Just checked back. Nope..!

You have however given your opinion about subsequent posters. Did I say you had opined on the OP - nope!

I've only been here for a year. How long do I need to be here before my experience of the boards counts? As a matter of mathematics I will always have been here less time than you. So what?

You expressed an opinion though - that various posts, which happen to be anti-police - are 'polluting negative tripe'. You seem therefore to have very strong opinions about those with whom you disagree, to the extent of promoting publicly the view that such posts are undesirable. I disagree. Much of what is said on these boards is opinion - including your opinion about polluting negative tripe. If you want to change the boards to be purely fact-based with no comment/opinion allowed, then in the words of the dragons, I'm out, because you describe a reactionary dictatorship environment where the only option is agreement. You don't know - because you can't - whether some of the posters who so offend you have in fact got real hard life experience on which to base their comment. But even if they haven't, this is an internet forum, for goodness sake - poeple can express opinion...can't they....like you did? Or is that privilege only for those who have been around long enough to know what it was like in the good old days?

 

[Dieselman]

Or is that privilege only for those who have been around long enough to know what it was like in the good old days?

Again, Nope.
You can experience it HERE.
A situation was presented and discussed without the need to go 'Police bashing'. It was a typical example and seemed to work alright.

Now review the following which is a post from this thread.

Is it intelligent to spend police resources (and therefore TaxPayers' money) watching whether drivers are going through traffic lights 0.0000001 milliseconds after it turns red when there are huge increases in knife crime, gun crime, burgulary, muggings, car thefts, anti-social behaviour and assaults.

The police enjoy picking on motorists because they are the least likely to fight back and therefore an easy target; health and safety rules prevent the police from taking on criminals that might be dangerous

Anyway, this could become political so I'll say no more.

Can you please tell me of what value this post was and what information it conveyed, as I must have missed it.
I wasn't alone though, others queried it before me.

Just to recap on what this thread was about, the o-p had possibly committed a moving traffic offence, been stopped and a cautionary word had been had by what was by all accounts a rather nice Policewoman.
The o-p was happy to have not been persued for the offence and understood the reason for the stop.
Was he treated unfairly, no. So why the Police bashing..??

 

[Mark300SL]

With so many anti police threads on here it was refreshing to see a positive post for once - which rapidly deteriorated - TBH I think far too many posts on here are becoming too political

All the mods on here like to maintain a certain level of freedom of speech, and especially after recent events where supposed "overmoderation" was considered a crime against the general populous.

Maybe its now time for a mod clampdown as our self policing membership seems unable to moderate itself all of a sudden.

 

[oldcro]

So the motorist is being picked on is he? Well there is a simple answer which will put a stop to it for good.

Motorists, stop killing over 3000 people and seriously injuring hundreds of thousands every year. See, simple but maybe wishfull thinking.

 

[Beetnik]

Just as when people post a good experience with the police on a thread outlining a bad experience I think you have to expect that the reverse will also be true.

Police are human and subject to all the foibles and frailties that brings. They're a bit more controversial than other professions because they have a certain power over us and we therefore have less power to get a satisfactory outcome when things don't go so well.

I've posted my own positive experience with them on another thread but it's not always been sweetness and light although the positives have generally outweighed the negatives. I do wonder though whether that has anything to do with being a white, middle class, middle aged male.

Interestingly when I ask my son what his view of the police is it's entirely negative. In his younger days he had a Saxo, probably the only one in the North of England with £25k spent on it (more fool him but he was young and it kept him out of mischief). He could hardly get down the street without being stopped. We used to joke that he should ask to join the tea fund at the local station he got so many producers (but never a point on his licence or a prosecution). Imagine the frustration at, for instance, being stopped for doing 38 mph in a 40 zone - "suspicious" according to the officer who detained him for 10 minutes and gave him the obligatory producer. Poetic justice that time though as said officer was at a party thrown by son's girlfriends parents a few days later and he was boasting about his exploits in general and my son's in particular, when prompted, and was summarily ejected from said social gathering!

 

[recycled]

Either way, it's narrow minded and boring, and due to being opinion as opposed to fact is a never ending argument.

Mine is purely by first hand expereince. no fables or second hand experience here.
Some good some bad. Just like any other proffession

 

[recycled]

So the motorist is being picked on is he? Well there is a simple answer which will put a stop to it for good.

Motorists, stop killing over 3000 people and seriously injuring hundreds of thousands every year. See, simple but maybe wishfull thinking.

Still not as much as C-Diff or MRSA. How about clamping down on that?
And collecting money off the killers is not going to reduce the deaths anytime soon. Maybe losing the fines and more bans will help.

 

[PXW]

Again, Nope.
You can experience it HERE.
A situation was presented and discussed without the need to go 'Police bashing'. It was a typical example and seemed to work alright.

Now review the following which is a post from this thread.



Can you please tell me of what value this post was and what information it conveyed, as I must have missed it.
I wasn't alone though, others queried it before me.

Just to recap on what this thread was about, the o-p had possibly committed a moving traffic offence, been stopped and a cautionary word had been had by what was by all accounts a rather nice Policewoman.
The o-p was happy to have not been persued for the offence and understood the reason for the stop.
Was he treated unfairly, no. So why the Police bashing..??

You miss the point - again. Perhaps deliberately? Let me be very plain. As long as a post is within the decency bounds set by the forum rules I don't think it is 'polluting tripe'. The fact that a post starts a thread with a positive police message is not a bar to people posting negative views of the police -that's why it's called a thread. Likewise you are entitled to defend the police if a thread starts with a negative view. Without doing a search, I seem to recall you have done that on a anumber of occasions. A post doesn't have to come up to your opinions to be valid.

However, to answer your specific question, I did not read the post you quote as saying that police are deliberately waiting for a motorist to breach the rules by .0001sec or whatever, but that the poster considered that general efforts in policing the roads was out of balance with policing other crimes. He may be right, he may be wrong; if he's right, that may be due to the police or it may not be - but the point I make is that I think he is entitled to air his opinion - and your post to which I originally responded made it very clear that you didn't think he was.

However, I think this is now getting quite a long way OT - more than happy to continue the debate, but if you want to perhaps it's better in a new thread somewhere?

 

[Mark300SL]

I think there is a huge difference between "strictly adhering to forum rules" Ie letter of the law, and "maintaining the spirit of the forum"


If folk on here want to keep the low levels of moderation, then maybe they can just avoid certain topics, keep politics out of threads and stick to what we know best - Motoring based subjects and MB cars in particular.


This was once by far the best and friendliest forum on the net and by its very own success has grown rapidly. This in turn brings in more members with varied individual opinions.
I have always held the belief that the membership here is by default more intelligent than a lot of other car based forums. My logic for this is simple, If the cars are considerably more expensive than most then the people buying them are more affluent. That level of personal wealth doesnt come by accident - more a combination of hard graft and intelligence. This however leads to another problem, people who are sucessful generally are used to being the boss and laying down the law - not following it. This can lead to the forum battles we are starting to see here on a regular basis

Some of the Honda forums I frequent are much more childish in their retorts and particularly their insults - but in the main are much better at following forum rules and not bending the rules to the absolute limit.


Can't we just please respect the spirit of the forum ?

 

[ms500]

So the motorist is being picked on is he? Well there is a simple answer which will put a stop to it for good.

Motorists, stop killing over 3000 people and seriously injuring hundreds of thousands every year. See, simple but maybe wishfull thinking.

That comment has no merit whatsoever.

By the same logic, alcohol should be banned completely to stop alcohol fuelled violence.

 

[st4]

That comment has no merit whatsoever.

By the same logic, alcohol should be banned completely to stop alcohol fuelled violence.

It made me chuckle. Motoring deaths are accidental, violent crime is intentional. Lets make the roads safer, lets make better drivers.

 

[Plodd]

It made me chuckle. Motoring deaths are accidental, violent crime is intentional. Lets make the roads safer, lets make better drivers.

And accidents do happen don't they?

Complete rubbish, very few road deaths are accidental. There is almost always bad driving involved and someone at fault.

 

[oldcro]

That comment has no merit whatsoever.

By the same logic, alcohol should be banned completely to stop alcohol fuelled violence.

I did not mention banning anything, which makes your comment about alcohol illogical.

Some will disagree with me but accidents are caused, they don't just happen.

 

[oldcro]

Still not as much as C-Diff or MRSA. How about clamping down on that?
And collecting money off the killers is not going to reduce the deaths anytime soon. Maybe losing the fines and more bans will help.

So motoring kills less than C-Diff or MRSA so we should not try to reduce them?

As for money and killers, I fail to understand what relevance that statement has to do with what I wrote.

 

[franey]

There are sometimes when someone else writes exactly what you think.

My only disagreement is that she probably saw him cut the light by virtue of the fact she was there and not lying in wait for someone to cut it. They have camera's for the amber gamblers ...as she had no evidence of the offence she didn't issue a ticket.

Her evidence would be that she saw it happen, an absolute offence directly witnessed by the officer, not information from a third party.
Indeed, consider the example of using a mobile phone or not wearing a seatbelt, how would an officer prove that you were commiting either?
Most certainly the driver passed the attitude test and clearly listened to the advice, hence that is why there was no ticket.
A very good example of discretion by the Police Officer.

 

[portzy]

Again, and to be fair, I'm 100% certain that had she wanted to or had she been that way out she could have busted me for the red light. I'm convinced that I didnt run the light but it was close as there is a secondary set just past the junction and they went red some nano seconds after my rear end was through so technically I didnt bust it in my eyes at least.

As some has said, a judge etc will side with the word of a police officer against that of a driver seemingly taking liberties or other offender in similar circumstances and thats just life, I've always known that but that wasnt the case here.

I have had very few brushes with the law over 53 years, apart from the odd shoplifting as a kid, twice breathalised negatively after accidents (not my fault) and this and on all the occasions I found those who dealt with me to be both courteous and fair, one even took me to hospital after the ambulance forgot all about me and left me sat at the side of the carriageway nursing a sore neck.

Portzy.

 

[UnMarked]

I like to think most police officers would have dealt with you in this instance in a similar fashion. I do know this and similar examples of officer discretion occur far more than ever comes to light. I also know some cops would have prosecuted you whatever you had said but nonetheless it's very refreshing to see personal examples of pragmatic policing, and officer discretion, being aired on the forum -it's out there!