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#41
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Police in London attack critical mass
scotty72 wrote:
Tony Raven Wrote: scotty72 wrote: For some reason the coppers decided not to show for the past CM ride in Sydney. It was strangely quiet. Kept expecting to round a corner and BANG! I didn't know they did CM in Crewe ;-) Ok, maybe I left my brain in park, but ??????? Sydney is a suburb of Crewe, Cheshire, UK. What other Sydney could you be referring to in UK.rec.cycling? Or perhaps you didn't know that cyclingforums pretends uk.rec.cycling discussion is its own to hide its lack of content -- Tony "I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't" Anon |
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#42
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Police in London attack critical mass
On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 12:40:43 +0100, David Hansen wrote:
b) speak to one of the good-natured and helpful bicycle mounted police who accompany the ride every month You mean line the bicycle mounted police who were handing out the offending threatening words, whether good-naturedly or not I have no idea? David, stop being so belligerent please. You weren't there, I was. The bicycle police who handed out the leaflets were very good-natured, and I for one got the impression they had been ordered to hand these leaflets out. |
#43
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OT: The Third Policeman ( Police in London attack critical mass)
Response to sothach:
Everything by Miles na gCopaleen is brilliant: it's worth learning Irish just to read An Beal Bocht alone... Some of the newspaper columns in the various compilations were in Irish, and it does make me wish I had the language. (Others were in Irish translated word-for-word into English, to very odd effect!) I haven't read the Third Policeman for years, but wasn't that where he was gradulaly exchanging atoms with his bike? Mad stuff, and all the action takes place in a fraction of a second during an explosion. That's the one: also including the increasingly long and crazed footnotes on De Selby's life and career, and much else. It's a good while since I read it, though. Too long since I read any of his books, in fact. -- Mark, UK "You've no idea what a poor opinion I have of myself, and how little I deserve it." |
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Police in London attack critical mass
NJF wrote:
Blair appeared on television to say that using a Taser was an ³unnecessary risk² and against police guidelines. Five days before, his men had shot dead an innocent man on a Tube train: While I find what happened on the Tube very disturbing and I await the investigation report, you do not use a Taser on a suspected suicide bomber unless you want to risk detonating their explosives. -- Tony "I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't" Anon |
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Police in London attack critical mass
' David, stop being so belligerent please. You weren't there, I was.
The bicycle police who handed out the leaflets were very good-natured, and I for one got the impression they had been ordered to hand these leaflets out.' Yes, but no matter how good natured or sympathetic they might be they will also do exactly what they are told should Superintendent Gomm or someone higher up decide to arrest anyone taking part in a CM ride. I doubt their good natures will count for much should anyone decide to resist arrest either... Ultimately, the personalities or attitudes of individual officers does not determine how the police as a force reacts to CM, or even treats the victims of bad drivers. When people join the police they know they will be expected to do whatever their senior officers (and ultimately politicians like Blair and Thatcher) want them to do. I have on several occasions seriously considered joining the police but didn't because of the simple fact that personal conscience has little place in policing. If you are ordered to arrest striking miners or make life hell for 'New-age travellers' (remember all that?), or arrest people taking part in a CM ride, then you will do it. If you are the sort of person who is not prepared to act in such manner, then you don't join the police in the first place. Yes this does help to create a situation where police officers tend to be more 'role and rule' orientated, authoritarian and more right wing than might otherwise be the case, but this seems unavoidable. For one thing the police often do a difficult job and officers need to feel that they can 'trust' fellow officers in difficult situations, even to the extent of 'closing ranks' to protect fellow officers who have done wrong. People in the force who are thought to be likely to 'act on conscience' can have a hard time because of this. I can't remember who it was but several years ago one very senior officer said that 'left wing politics are abhorrent to all right thinking police officers'. Whilst there will be exceptions I have little doubt that many officers, perhaps especially those in senior positions, see CM as being a hotbed of dangerously subversive lefties with direct links to other 'enemies of the state' ranging from Reclaim the Streets to the Anti-war movement to Class war. Just look how the all-out war on CM in New York was triggered by CM there being associated with the anti-Republican movement there. I have little doubt that the bike mounted cops you see at CM are decent blokes. However, you would expect biking police to be most sympathetic and from the police I know such officers are often seen as 'outsiders' even by people in their own force. |
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Police in London attack critical mass
Can we take it you'd have the same view as regards the same
and worse behaviour of thousands of motorists doing same on a daily basis? Can I murder my next door neighbour and then claim in my defence that the government sends troops to occupy foreign countries and kills thousands of innocent people as a result? Yes, some car drivers behave badly and motor vehicles congestion is a problem. How does that make it right for a bunch of cyclists to cause additional inconvenience to people? I am sick of hearing how this is "revenge" on car drivers; why not go up on motorway bridges and lob bricks at cars if that is your attitude? My personal opinion is that CM achieves nothing constructive; it definitely increases hostility towards cyclists. If CM's purpose is to change the status quo, why should it not be treated like any other political demonstration? I hate CM for the same rason I hate cyclists who jump red lights, ride on pavements, etc. - it makes people hostile to cyclists in general and hence puts my life in danger. -- Peter Headland |
#48
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Police in London attack critical mass
'Yes, some car drivers behave badly and motor vehicles congestion is a
problem. How does that make it right for a bunch of cyclists to cause additional inconvenience to people? I am sick of hearing how this is "revenge" on car drivers blah blah blah' By the same reasoning do you hate organised running events such as The London marathon, or carnivals such as Notting Hill because these also **** motorists off who think they have a god-given right to drive where-ever they please at all times? I would see CM as being not such much as being a 'revenge' on car drivers but a celebration of cycling, just as the London marathon is a celebration of personal achievement and The Notting Hill carnival a celebration of the ethnic diversity of the UK. What we need to be doing is laying bare the prejudice and hate against cyclists which means that CM is can even be considered to be counter-productive. What you seem to be saying is that cyclists should act like negros in the American South and take care not to upset any of the dominant social group or to appear to be 'uppity'. "Now you cyclists all be good little nigg**ers there and wear your polystyrene hats and yellow jackets, take care to keep out of the fuc*ing way, and if drivers cut you up, just shut up, or we will make things real bad for you, do you hear me boy?" |
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Police in London attack critical mass
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Police in London attack critical mass
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