THE UTTER FAILURE OF THE POLICE

[klavdy]

THE UTTER FAILURE OF THE POLICE

How do feel when you suddenly, apropos of nothing, see a cop car in your mirrors? Do you immediately breathe a sigh of relief that your safety is assured? Are you comforted in the knowledge that the police are protecting you from evil-doers and that their presence behind you is a reassuring example of their abiding love for the citizens they are sworn to serve and protect? Or do you start hyperventilating and wondering what idiotic nuance of the Motor Traffic Act you might have inadvertently failed to observe in the last five kays as you strove not to be crushed under the wheels of some iPhone-wielding retard in a car?
“Yes,” bleat the omniscient motorcycle-owning cardigans who pollute our roads with their refusal to take responsibility for their riding. “If you have done nothing wrong, then you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

If only that were true. But it’s not.
Motorcycle riders must ride faster than the flow of traffic in order to survive. That is a simple fact. If you are riding with the flow of traffic you will come to grief. It’s a no-brainer.
But since these beige-hued mugwumps aren’t actually riders, I do not expect them to understand this. Owning a motorcycle does not make you a rider any more than owning a gun makes you a criminal.

For the most part, when a rider sees a cop car in his mirrors, he understands that in all likelihood he will be pulled up for a licence check, a not-so-random breath test and a healthy dose of rudeness, disdain and contempt by the armed Mensa-aspirant in a uniform. And that is the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is that the rider will be subjected to an entire barrage of fascist crap about his (subjectively) excessive speed, followed by some half-informed bullshit about his tail-tidy/cylindrical rego holder/aftermarket pipe, while car after car motors past with virtually every driver fixated by his on-board GPS or texting on his phone.
This is wrong on so many levels.

But why do we instantly feel like we’ve done something wrong (even if we haven’t) whenever a police vehicle looms in our mirrors?
It’s because that is how the police want you to feel. And their entire demeanour and attitude is geared to perpetuating the feeling that you’re certainly guilty of something – even if you’re not.

If you need a better example of how the police have failed in their duty to the citizenry, then you also need professional counselling. The question that goes begging in our supposedly free western democracy is why do the police feel the need to cultivate such a sentiment among us? Do they imagine this is a positive thing? Are they deluded enough to believe that such fear breeds respect? Do they think that their endless howls for “More power!” to combat crime and the miniscule road toll are actually supported by the very citizens they harass and intimidate?

I think they do, and that is what scares the shit out of me.
But let us look objectively at this organisation of armed law enforcers and see if they are actually worthy of serving us as their mandate directs.
In recent times the police have piled failure upon failure and sold it to us, via their media unit, as a lack of “power”.
Sydney’s western suburbs are a free-fire zone each day, with drive-by after drive-by. The cops, unable to persuade anyone into speaking to them about anything (no doubt because the public loves, respects and trusts them so much), have now handed this problem to the NSW Crime Commission, an organisation not encumbered by the pesky legal constraints placed on the cops when it comes to making you talk. The police would like nothing more than to have the same frightfully coercive powers, but thus far the government has denied them these powers – and for this small mercy I am grateful.

But every day and in every way, the police shriek at the government to grant them more powers to coerce and intimidate the very people they are meant to ward from harm. They seek to ride roughshod over a person’s right to silence. They seek to dictate how society should behave, rather than just dealing with how it actually does behave – as if we were stupid naughty children in dire need of their armed quasi-parental governance.

Their dealings with motorcyclists by the side of the road are nothing but exercises in debasement and intimidation that do nothing but promote contempt for them. A polite Highway Patrol officer is by far the exception, rather than the rule – and I simply cannot understand why they think that is a positive thing.
In simple terms, so that even the glass-tasters can grasp it, it’s like this: The police are not (yet) empowered to re-engineer our society in a way that pleases them. They are there to police the society they are given. Play the bloody hand you’re dealt, gentlemen, not the hand you wish you had.
Or go and get another job.


The above was penned by Mr Boris Mihailovic and first appeared in Australian Motorcycle News, March 2012.
It is specific to Sydney, Australia but applies to many other parts of the world.
Boris kindly gave his permission to reproduce it here.

[bdhszy1]

Well said. The only driver/rider that doesn't feel anything when they see a police car behind them is an off duty cop.

[BBB]

Looks like Boris has a degree in talking bollocks

[st2sam]

WHOA - I'm sure glad it's not that bad (yet) in the good old US of A.......

I always start hyperventilating when I see a cop in my mirrors, because I never ride with the flow of traffic.    

[slvrsprint]

"But why do we instantly feel like we’ve done something wrong (even if we haven’t) whenever a police vehicle looms in our mirrors?"

It sounds to me like you don't ride without doing something wrong - speeding, modified exhaust, other altered equipment.

My motorcycle is legal in NYS.  I have never been stopped without being observed breaking the law - exceeding the posted speed limit by more than a little.  More times than not, I am let off after a discussion about my violation.  

I don't see the utter failure your subject title indicates.

[spd2918]

Looks like Mr. Fancypants got a ticket.  

[Hunter]

"How do feel when you suddenly, apropos of nothing, see a cop car in your mirrors?"

I don't feel anything. I do, however, wonder if he got close enough to get my tag number.

[HipGnosis]

I stopped reading after the third exagerated catch phrase...
I am the master my my domain.

[county]

Fucking cops...

[black hills]

the only time I ever see a cop in my mirrors is with his lights on wanting to talk to me?? it usually goes just fine, I don't see the problem. I break the law, I know it, they know it, yet I usually just get a semi-friendly discussion and I go along my merry little way. What is there to be afraid of

[Frontrunner76]

I stopped reading after the third exaggerated catch phrase...

I stopped after the second. I don't feel anything when police are behind me. If you don't break the law, what's there to feel uncomfortable about?

[GTS_Rider]

... If you don't break the law, what's there to feel uncomfortable about what fun is that?

ftfy

[jay547]

I don't feel anything when police are behind me. If you don't break the law, what's there to feel uncomfortable about?

so you've never been pulled over for some made-up violation or bogus accusation? i have, although none have been while on a motorcycle.

[Rogue]

so you've never been pulled over for some made-up violation or bogus accusation? i have, although none have been while on a motorcycle.

Yup.  I'm with you.  Both times it was California's Finest.  Even when I was doing the speed limit (one mph below) I still got a ticket for 15 over!  

So yeah.  It's hard for me to trust cops nowadays.

[cbsnbiker]

"But why do we instantly feel like we’ve done something wrong (even if we haven’t) whenever a police vehicle looms in our mirrors?"

It sounds to me like you don't ride without doing something wrong - speeding, modified exhaust, other altered equipment.

My motorcycle is legal in NYS.  I have never been stopped without being observed breaking the law - exceeding the posted speed limit by more than a little.  More times than not, I am let off after a discussion about my violation.  

I don't see the utter failure your subject title indicates.

I have been pulled over multiple times when I was not committing any infraction, and have been ticketed on phantom -- or possibly fradulent -- charges.

I've also been pulled over to be messed with.

The first time I ever heard of "DWB" was after a colleague was subject to it.

There is also the issue that traffic codes are structured in such a way as to make it a challenge *not* to commit any infractions.


That said, there is material to disagree with in that article, even beyond its hyperbolic tone. Here's one example:

Motorcycle riders must ride faster than the flow of traffic in order to survive. That is a simple fact. If you are riding with the flow of traffic you will come to grief. It’s a no-brainer.

No, it is an opinion.

If this be a fact, I'd love to see a study that has proved this putative fact. Or I'd like to see some statistics that support this opinion.

Furthermore, the author's implicit admission that he rides that way undermines his point, since he implicitly admits speeding.

[TBone]

the only time I ever see a cop in my mirrors is with his lights on wanting to talk to me?? it usually goes just fine, I don't see the problem. I break the law, I know it, they know it, yet I usually just get a semi-friendly discussion and I go along my merry little way. What is there to be afraid of

I stopped after the second. I don't feel anything when police are behind me. If you don't break the law, what's there to feel uncomfortable about?

The OP is from Australia, things may be different there.

[Rogue]

I've been riding in SoCal all my life.

If you ride with the flow of traffic, you will be surrounded by SUV's, pick ups, minivans, commercial trucks, trucks carrying shit on their beds, distracted Mom's, Old Drivers who can't decide, tailgated, cut off, etc.

Do I really want to be next to all these kinds of people while on a motorcycle?

NOT!  

So no I don't ride with the flow unless I have plenty of room around me and have no vehicles cruising next to me to cut me off.  Yes, I've had that happen.  If I have a three second gap in front of me, as sure as the sun sets in the West, someone will cut in front me and occupy that lane.  But I don't ride at 10 mph over everyone else.  I just position myself to be in front of or well behind of anything else out there.  That's survival 101 in one of the most congested urban areas in the country.

[Royal Tiger]

Are there awards given around here for the most over blown, the sky is falling, bullshit thread titles?  And in all caps too.  

[boogeyman]

I stopped after the second. I don't feel anything when police are behind me. If you don't break the law, what's there to feel uncomfortable about?

The tickets I've receved from the police have been deserved.  I didn't like them, but whose fault was it?  Some were technically crap, but they were all that they could get me on.    I've gotten out of my fair share of tickets as well by just being honest.  Personally I feel more uncomfortable when they are in front of me.  They tend to make quick u-turns with little announcement, cause others to drive like knuckleheads, generally muck up traffic.

[Biking Sailor]

"Motorcycle riders must ride faster than the flow of traffic in order to survive. That is a simple fact. If you are riding with the flow of traffic you will come to grief. It’s a no-brainer."

While this being a "fact" could be argued, I do feel much safer when I am riding slightly faster than traffic, so I am not being tailgated, I am not getting caught in traffic bunches where my escape routes are being cut off,  I don't have to worry so much about stuff falling out of trucks in front of me,  I get to pick the time and space I ride in instead of the guy overtaking me, and at speed wind buffeting is less in clear air so control is increased.