Quote from Racer Y :

LOL Wow here when a cop is in the paper for messing up, it's for tasering a suspect to death

You have to bear in mind, in the UK the average police officer doesn't carry a gun, be it taser or otherwise.

Quote from wheel4hummer :

How come no-one posts when a cop shoots someone? Surely that is a worse offence then speeding....

See above point. It will very rarely happen here.

You have to remember that law enforcement is very different in the UK.

Quote from SamH :

You're missing the point.. he didn't just do it, he got away with it. That's the bit that's annoying the Brits. We all do it, but the cop gets away with it. Foul ball.

Sam's hit the nail on the head.

To give you an idea, since those outside of the UK aren't "getting it"; if a normal citizen had done it, they would've been fined, given penalty points, strung up and tarred in the gallows as Eric Arthur Blair rolls over in his grave, whilst the rest of the populous sit back as the government condemns that man to live forever in the panopticon that Britain is becoming (getting a driving licenses elsewhere in the world can be somewhat interesting, if you have convictions and lets be honest, living without driving in todays world is somewhat... tricky?).

Yes there are far worse places to live, but consider Britain's history. Further examine our country's hypocrisy in the past and you might understand why a certain subset, which branches out further than the uneducated Daily Mail reading masses, are somewhat pissed off and would like it all to end.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Funny how CCTV just stops working sometimes when it's convenient.

Sing it again Brother.

As cynical as I maybe, I can only see them using it as an excuse to put more surveillance in.

I do it for you Kev, only in a few less words.

1984

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Er... What about that Brazilian bloke who was apparently shot nine times in the head by an SO19 copper because he looked a bit foreign and he got on a train. The cop that killed him got off because the chief commissioner of the met got away with spiriting away all the evidence before the IPCC investigation started. Funny how CCTV just stops working sometimes when it's convenient.

And how stupid is it to run through a subway station around the time of investigation of bomb detonations, wearing a thick coat (in the middle of summer)?

And besides, that's the only occurrance I can think of off the top of my head, anyway. It's far more frequent across the pond.

I'm not saying I justify what that officer did, not at all - but the occurance of such cases in the UK is extremely rare due to the fact that (as Karl said) most UK officers don't carry guns. Thank goodness our "biggest issue" is a bloke speeding.

[offtopic]that bun is actually very tasty. [/offtopic]

Quote from thisnameistaken :

whatever the cop shouted at him in a muffled voice through his gas mask.

And our source for this is whom? The man who got shot? Of course, none of the parties involved in that incident would be unbiased - and don't tell me there was CCTV operating with a clear audio pickup. Regardless, this isn't the issue.

Quote :

Not rare enough.

I'm not disputing that, I was simply saying to Racer Y that our speeding "issues" with the police force make the news because they are by-and-large the biggest issues of police misconduct in the UK.

Regardless, I doubt very much the officers involved in the raid on the house that night were aware the intelligence wasn't as good as it might have been. I know that if I were an armed officer and I was told I'd be going into a house where there could potentially be violent and dangerous people, I'd damn well expect people to do as I told them, and I'd be pretty nervy if they didn't pay much heed to the man with the gun. That's not misconduct, that's a mistake. I'm talking purely about misconduct.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

biometric ID cards and how we're all going to be paying £300+ for the privilege of being easier to manipulate.

Bastard Biometric Passports. Lets not forget those. I'm actually seriously pissed off I managed to miss the deadline for renewing my passport and not getting a biometric one.

TBH when I do end up renewing my passport, and most likely getting a biometric one, I'm seriously considering zapping the damn thing with enough current to (hopefully) blow the capacitor in the rfid tag. The question is, would it invalid the passport (I've not looked into it). Considering the things that get through customs, I'd doubt it atm.

On the general privacy note I've been looking for a quote, and found it (From: http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page9566.asp):

Quote from Tony Blair :

The whole point about the reason why I think it is important we go for identity cards and an identity database today is that identity fraud and abuse is a major, major problem. Now the civil liberties aspect of it, look it is a view, I don't personally think it matters very much.

If you succeed with zapping your passport, do let me know how you manage it, when I renew my passport in a handful of years time, I want mine to just be a bit of paper, too.

Quote from the_angry_angel :

On the general privacy note I've been looking for a quote, and found it (From: http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page9566.asp):

Quote from tony blair :

The whole point about the reason why I think it is important we go for identity cards and an identity database today is that identity fraud and abuse is a major, major problem. Now the civil liberties aspect of it, look it is a view, I don't personally think it matters very much.

That about sums this all up. 1984 and a government who doesnt care about civil liberties

Quote :

our speeding "issues" with the police force make the news because they are by-and-large the biggest issues of police misconduct in the UK.

I would say Police icompetence, care in the community, a totally innefectual tagging system and impotent legal justice system are bigger issues. Less paperwork, more use of the truncheon (thinly disguised non-chucks) I say.

Once again, if people will kindly read what I wrote, not what would make a good sentence to reply to, then maybe your comment would actually make sense. I said "the biggest issues of police misconduct," not incompetance.

If an officer getting away with 48mph in a 40mph zone is the worst case of policemen acting against the law and getting away with it, you should be happy to have the best police system in the whole world.
Maybe it is, I guess I know too little about your country..
Here in Germany the army is not allowed to do anything inside the country (excluding disasters like floods). Thus there are many special police units, some of them heavily armed, which I include when I say "police". That's maybe different in GB?
Including those I'd be happy if speeding was the only thing they get away with..

Let me clarify once more. All I'm saying is, that we should be glad that in the UK that we make such a fuss over what many people in other countries are perceiving as "only speeding." This shows that, by-and-large (as I said above), we don't have as many "other" "big" problems as other Western nations do with their police forces (such as frequent reports of abuse by US police forces, etc.).

That's the only point I've been trying to make - we (in the UK) should be glad that we are so against a policeman speeding unnecessarily... our police force are, seemingly, largely in order (in the department of misconduct).

I give up now, I've explained the same thing too many times over

I didn't respond to your previous post, and I wasn't contradicting you anyway

Quote from JamesF1 :

Let me clarify once more. All I'm saying is, that we should be glad that in the UK that we make such a fuss over what many people in other countries are perceiving as "only speeding." This shows that, by-and-large (as I said above), we don't have as many "other" "big" problems as other Western nations do with their police forces (such as frequent reports of abuse by US police forces, etc.).

That's the only point I've been trying to make - we (in the UK) should be glad that we are so against a policeman speeding unnecessarily... our police force are, seemingly, largely in order (in the department of misconduct).

I give up now, I've explained the same thing too many times over

I get what you are saying and it does seem that our police force is amazing compared to others but still speeding is speeding. I dont agree with all the speed camera in "black spots" but if he got caught speeding when he shouldnt of been he should of admitted it - and to me it seems he found an excuse to why he was speeding when there wasnt a valid reason.

Quote from Gentlefoot :

Wrong! Yes there is 10% for speedo error but not another 10% leeway. Forces allow either 1 or 2 mph on top of the 10%

I have been done for 36mph in a 30mph limit by a camera. If I had been doing 35mph the camera wouldn't have triggered. i.e. 30 + 10% + 2mph = 35mph

It should be pointed out that any leeway is entirely optional, cameras can (and sometimes are set to) legally get you at any speed above the speed limit. IMO we need sensible speed limits, unmarked cameras and no penalty points for speeding offences (within reason).

I wouldn't say that thi was shocking or whatever and doesn't exactly bother me, even though my dad and brother have been done quite alot of times for speeding.

The reason is the officer a while ago in his new Police 3.2 Vectra, who got away with driving it at 140mph (or was it 150? Can't remember the exact amount, to much anyway0 He got away with it by saying he was testing the new vehicles capabilties on a dark night on the motorway. The judge even complimented him on his driving skills by calling himt he crem de la creme or something and let him off, I thought he was on trial? illepall

Some nice points in here tho, only a few posts worth reading though (Who else can post like Kev or TAA?) Ones I didn't read were such of the guy who got shot for running through the train startion, wow he was really doing something wrong.

Anyway, glad i've had an interesting read on here for once, most threads are full of WTF LMFAO WTFZ0RZ THTS SW33t D00D!

Can't understand why people whine about being done for speeding. It's not like we don't know the rules. Take the risk or keep to the limit, your choice but don't moan about getting caught. THe point of the thread is the injustice of the policeman being able to get away with it.

Quote from al heeley :

Can't understand why people whine about being done for speeding. It's not like we don't know the rules. Take the risk or keep to the limit, your choice but don't moan about getting caught. THe point of the thread is the injustice of the policeman being able to get away with it.

I agree, I can't understand the moaning. And the concept of a leeway is flawed anyway. If, for example, people know it's a 50 zone but you can get away with 55, they'll do 55. Then the day they do 56, they'll demand leeway and moan about the ticket the just got.

But as you say, the problem is the double-standards being exhibited. It's just not on.

Quote from al heeley :

Can't understand why people whine about being done for speeding. It's not like we don't know the rules. Take the risk or keep to the limit, your choice but don't moan about getting caught. THe point of the thread is the injustice of the policeman being able to get away with it.

TBH it should sorta be some sort of perk. I ean the guy has to go and break up disturbances between drunks, fighting spouses, He gets to tell parents that their kid won't be coming back from the school dance. He might have to drive around with the smell of vomit & urine in his car from time to time.
And I'll never understand you people's gun laws, but the guy deals with all kinds of low-lifes unarmed.

After weighing that all in, I just don't see why this is an issue period.
except for like in extremely high pedestrian traffic areas or around schools I really don't see why 8 mph over is anything at all - for either cops or civilians
I also don't understand the concept of "speed cameras" About twenty years ago
they (Galveston County Sherriffs) put up speeder cameras. LOL the cameras kept getting photos of baseball bats going about 90mph straight at them before they disintigrated. They finally quit that nonsense when they realized the revenue generated from speeders was less than paying for replacing the cameras. If y'alls government was faced with that same sort of dilema, you wouldn't have any problems with cameras anymore

Quote :

I'll never understand you people's gun laws

If you look at the number of people killed or injured by small fire arms in the US each year and compare it with Europe, then it's us that don't understand your gun laws. There's something like a tenfold increase in gun-related crime per head of population in the US compared to Europe. Who's gun law works best?
Sped cameras in the UK generate significant revenue, though not many of them are loaded with film at any one time, we have about 3500 of them around, and they mostly stay intact.

I would act all surprised, but im not.

The amount of angry Englishmen in this thread is amazing.
Guess it's time for you to leave the island and find yourself a nice, cosy and guaranteed cheaper place to live "down" here.

Just consider the positive aspects:
+ no tinfoil hat inducing government
+ cheaper
+ extraordinarily better food
+ no language problems either, as almost anybody will understand you anyway
+ nicer weather
+ we even have tea down here
+ less threat of 'terrorism'

The only thing you could probably miss are some of the racetracks, but we have LFS for that anyway. Oh and when you're all packed any ready, don't forget to bring the devs, too!

Quote from AndroidXP :

+ extraordinarily better food

When an Ostrogoth can say that about your country's food then it is indeed time to pack up. Or even better, just pull the stopper and let it sink.

Quote from Racer Y :

TBH it should sorta be some sort of perk. I ean the guy has to go and break up disturbances between drunks, fighting spouses, He gets to tell parents that their kid won't be coming back from the school dance. He might have to drive around with the smell of vomit & urine in his car from time to time.

It's not like someone forced him to become a cop.
And I sincerely hope he didn't become a cop so he can get chinese food faster than everyone else. :P

I think we're all missing the point entirely here. Yes, the guy was speeding, yes he got let off, blah blah blah...

The main point is he was going for cantonese? Now really, what the hell kinda food is that? Sweet and Sour Pork Balls are where its at, with some prawn toast, egg fried rice and chips.

He shouldn't have been speeding, no, but he should also be severeley reprimanded for crap taste in takeaways.

Quote from Thorvertonian :

That's not too bad a speeding incident anyway, you could get off that yourself, not just a policeman. National average is a 10% leeway (so 40mph zone can't be prosecuted below 44mph) and each region has individual leeway ontop(Some region upto 10% again) so 48mph in a 40mph zone is acceptable in some regionsin the UK...

A workmate was recently fined for doing 83 mph on a 70mph dual carriagway. Apparently the conditions were sunny, excellent visibility, very light traffic, dry roads and no turnings/junctions in sight.

The policeman travelled at 120% of the speed limit, my mate did 117% in arguably safer conditions (although we don't know the circumstances, 40mph suggests proximity to a built up area to me). I find it disgusting that the copper gets off scott free while a member of the public gets the points and fine for a similar offence.

Finally, the rule to work to (if you want to push things) is 10% + 2, so that would be 46mph in a 40. I wouldn't like to try it though.