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From a park bench in Beaulieu and a natter between old friends, I bring you a tale of wonder and woe. And this I know Big Spanish Marty will love.

A friend of mine was doing his usual couriering job (fifteenth year), and on this particular day he was sandwiched line astern between one biker up front and a police rider (note rider not biker) behind. Now the bike up ahead had just ‘contravened a mandatory direction sign’ (i.e. by going around a bollard the wrong way) and my friend quite rightly assumed that when his mirrors were flashing with blues that this was for the biker up ahead. Wrong. “Pull over there will you?”

Doing so promptly and giving the copper sufficient space to park and dismounting with due diligence and respect, he was told, “Your brake light is defective”. He replies, “Oh, thanks. I’ll get that sorted right now. They’re always popping; I do these at least 2-3 times a year”, (this I can personally attest to) and proceeds to get on the blower to the bike shop just 10 minutes away and asks them to prep a replacement for him as he’s en route. The officer however is not impressed and says, “Er, before you get on the phone to your mates and leave me stood here like an idiot, I’ll tell you how this is going to be”.

He proceeds to put said bike on a prohibition order for a faulty brake system. For a switch, a FAULTY BRAKE SYSTEM! He was not permitted to ride it an inch further, rather he had to have the bike towed to the garage and re MOTd. But since he’d not get a tow and make the station all before 17:30, he’d have to wait until the morning for this. So he also had to hire a bike that afternoon to get home to Watford and the thing was a little ropey. So ropey in fact that the following morning as he returned the bike and collect his bike with a nice fresh MOT, the thing coughed and stalled for the umpteenth time and in the ensuing battle against gravity, he managed to scratch the tank a tad, which cost him £150 to have re-sprayed.

So in all, the whole episode cost our courier a total of two half days of work and £250 of his hard-earned cash – all for a £5 brake light switch that would have been fixed in 10 minutes.

Discretion, as with common sense it seems, is something this particular ‘copper’ chose to ignore.

Thats because the police are Cnuts!

Sadly, only people that like to control others but lack the natural authority and ability to do so seek to hide behind badges.

pinkyfloyd wrote:Thats because the police are Cnuts!

Please don't tar them all with the same brush. They are not all bad. Especially the one who gave me the choice of a £60 fine and 3 points or just a £30 fine (for something naughty I did. ) I chose the latter of course. My mate is a traffic cop and she really cool. She hates those that don't use their discretion when they are able to.

This is exactly why I hate the police....

There's definitely good and bad, the bad being the w*nker that gave me a ticket on the bike for doing 70 on an empty road in wales and the good that gave me a ticket to fix my tail light even though he had me on film doing 95 in the car on the M6

Miztaziggy wrote:This is exactly why I hate the police....

dont say that on nwb lol, there are 3 that i know of on there and one police riding instructor.... might not go down too well lol

Same experience with me, good and bad out there, been given the benefit of the doubt on most occasions but been a couple that pissed me off.

I have been off to France a couple of times with the westmidalnds motorcycle escort team ( off duty ) and they like their bikes and they like to enjoy themselves....where the conditions are appropriate. Most are old school and even they despair at the new generation of of career cops.

do you know what twinpotter, when you tell that story you would think most people would be amazed by it, but the sad truth is we aren't amazed, it happens to often.
i see terrible driving everyday in london. cars,buses,bikes,push bikes and even taxis. and nothing seems to happen to them, yet you get the odd jumped up prick of a copper and they tarnish all the other coppers with there jobs worth mentality and dam right pig headedness.
as i said before they have a tough job to do, but most of my experiences have been negative.....
i'm sad to say that if i'm at the front of traffic sitting at a red light and a police car comes up behind me with his/hers blue lights flashing and there woo woo's going, i will not go through a red light for them, how sad is that.
the reason being a mate of mine did it and they done him with points and a fine, because there was no photographic evidance to back his claim up, it's a shambles.....