Master50 said:
No doubt the cyclist deserves a kick in the shins but of the two clowns in this video the cop is most disappointing. The cop is relying on his uniform for authority and does not know the law very well. Too many times in my life I have been confronted with police that use bullying and intimidation to enforce their particular sense of order which. I have more than once been faced with arguing or complying to an illegal order or search.
While I agree the cyclist deserves a ticket and I also agree he is a jerk the cop also needs a kick in the pants. I wish more uf us would push them a little more to follow the law too.
I am sure there were legal ways to force that cyclist to provide ID and to accept the ticket. The fact that the police officer could not call upon his knowledge to affect a legal arrest or compliance is clear illustration of how we trust them to do the correct thing. So as much as I agree the cyclist deserves a ticket I think he should also go free when the police cannot apply the law as it is written. Of course had this happened in the US I think that guns and handcuffs would have come out. British police don't seem to resort to force nearly as quickly as American police do. Of course that is influenced by the media. Bad Boys.
All well written except the last part about the Amereican police.
There are rules that allow the intelligent to also ask questions and not comply with bullying orders . If you watch the video again and then after go to some of the other links on imilar video footage then you will see scenarios. Example
A black man gets stopped for somethng but the officer wants to actually search his car. However , the man declined and wanted to know what he is bein charged with ? the officer couldnt charge him.
Then the man asked if i am not being charged with anything , am i free to go .
The officer had to go back to his car and make up a citation for something totaly different than what he wanted to do to the man, which of course was search his car , but the ticket was for something not working on his car.
Which of course leads us to believe the only reason the officer tried to search his car was because he was a young black man.
You can say no if you know your stuff. Although you must stay calm and polite and not get arrogant , as in the US that can quickly lead to other arrest modes.
I will try to find the link . again.
AS far as the cyclist goes , i believe he wanted to pick child up from school , and i dont think he was trying to do a race start one upsmanship kind of thing, but maybe he rode faster than the cop could follow.
WE all clip in a bit early before a light change so we are straight in line and ready for traffic , we have all done it . The question is was it just that or was he 1/2 way across the intersection. Depending on the severity of the infraction its hard to know without seeing the incident who the bigger jerk was. Maybe the cop had a bigger crap kicking from his CO for not writing enough tickets that day . Who knows how his day started.
Anyhow , i suppose if you were good cop you could have let him off with a warning and not result to grabbing the camera etc. That would of been the best thing for all around.
