club.liberty.asn.au

Travelling at the speed limit of 90km/h on a bend on the Kings Highway (near Batemans Bay NSW), I come across this unsafe police RBT unit.
He is standing on a dangerous bend. Do you watch the road or watch him?
Let me know when you notice his hand signs, and what you think of his attitude? I'd say his brain weighs about 5 tons.

https://vimeo.com/89145594
The road, from Batemans Bay to Canberra, is a great piece of road for a drive on a Sunday morning at 8am, otherwise.

Sorry that link did not work. Try http://vimeo.com/89145594

Doesn't really give policing a good name, does it.

I don't have a problem with cops doing their job, but speeding is not a crime, so they should not be putting themselves at physical risk just to enforce an arbitrary number on a sign.

I also believe you stopped with plenty of time and were not placing that officer at any risk. He put up a lot of unnecessary attitude and they always spin off the same "I want to go back home to my family too" rant which I swear is a line they are taught to say (because remember all cops record what they say now so they can try and make out that you don't care about them in reply).

If he was genuinely concerned about his safety, he wouldn't be a police officer where by its very nature, your life is at risk whether you are on the front line or doing highway patrol. Sadly he seems to be another person who joined the police force to legally stand over and lecture people because it makes him feel like a big man. And the police force wonders why people seem to have such a lack of respect for them.

Anyway, the whole event is very similar to one I had a while back: Cop pulling over speeders, putting his life at unnecessary risk by standing in the middle of the road and giving lip afterwards.

HyRax wrote:I don't have a problem with cops doing their job, but speeding is not a crime, so they should not be putting themselves at physical risk just to enforce an arbitrary number on a sign.

I also believe you stopped with plenty of time and were not placing that officer at any risk. He put up a lot of unnecessary attitude and they always spin off the same "I want to go back home to my family too" rant which I swear is a line they are taught to say (because remember all cops record what they say now so they can try and make out that you don't care about them in reply).

If he was genuinely concerned about his safety, he wouldn't be a police officer where by its very nature, your life is at risk whether you are on the front line or doing highway patrol. Sadly he seems to be another person who joined the police force to legally stand over and lecture people because it makes him feel like a big man. And the police force wonders why people seem to have such a lack of respect for them.

Anyway, the whole event is very similar to one I had a while back: Cop pulling over speeders, putting his life at unnecessary risk by standing in the middle of the road and giving lip afterwards.

Sorry Jeff, but sadly this is not one of your better post. Speeding is a crime.

Here is the definition:

an action or an instance of negligence that is deemed injurious to the public welfare or morals or to the interests of the state and that is legally prohibited.

taken from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/crime

And your suggestion that only people who aren't genuinely concerned for their safety should be police officers is ridiculous.

Clearly you've had a bad experience and thought you'd make a heap of generalisations.

With regards to the OP and the dialogue I reckon you've done the right thing by being polite. A lot of what is said and done is based on both individuals perspective. I see no problem with either side.

In regards to original post, I think I would have found it confusing as to where to pull in, as there is only one officer for that RBT. Normally there is at least two, the first of whom is standing at the START of the entry where to pull in. He seemed to be standing at the end, and of course where ever he points his hands would suggest to pull in where he is standing.

Wouldn't one of those flashing red batons that they use at night be a good idea?! In a 90km/h zone anything like that to assist the driver to decipher directions is a good thing.

His attitude stunk though.. No wonder the public don't respect the majority of the force.

Policeman obviously got out of the wrong side of the bed, but you handled it well. You've no idea what has happened to him to make him so upset, he could just be an asshole, or could have just been told his mother has died, either way, good job on keeping your composure

You handled that like a school girl He was 100% in the wrong you should have shown him you recording and pulled him up on his stupidly but I don't think you have the balls to do that.
Instead of winging on a forum why didn't you send the vid link to local hwy command ?? Yes he is a cop so what ?? its not Russia don't let a badge frighten you

bass_straitener wrote:Sorry Jeff, but sadly this is not one of your better post. Speeding is a crime.

Speeding is not a crime or every ticket would also be accompanied by a criminal record, which it isn't. It's a traffic matter, not a criminal matter.

The only thing that is a crime would be your actions (speeding or otherwise) behind the wheel causing injury to someone else, or being used to aid in a criminal act, such as escape from a bank robbery.

bass_straitener wrote:And your suggestion that only people who aren't genuinely concerned for their safety should be police officers is ridiculous.

If one is genuinely concerned about their safety, they won't put themselves at unnecessary risk of injury including taking up job roles that put them in such a position. Being a police officer on the front line is one of the best ways to incur an injury, just as being a high-rise construction worker or a deep sea diver carries inherently higher risk of personal injury than an office desk job does. Ergo, a Police officer stating that you (the citizen) is putting his life at risk is ridiculous, especially when in this case the driver clearly moved over when indicated and was not travelling at an excessive rate of knots when in proximity of the officer in question.

A uniform and a fluro vest does not protect you from injury. If you are standing in the middle of the road waving a sign or a stick and an inattentive driver hits you and kills you, then while the driver is clearly at fault in any case, the death (or serious injury) would not have occurred if the officer didn't just blindly stand in the middle of the road where a normal person wouldn't.

bass_straitener wrote:Clearly you've had a bad experience and thought you'd make a heap of generalisations.

I've had both good and bad experiences equally. There are some officers on the force who are genuinely helpful, courteous and just downright fabulous leaving you with renewed faith in the system, but sadly some are not and it's generally those ones who single-handedly make everyone look bad as there seem to be more of them than the good ones. The key issue here is that they legally have the state-issued authority to make life extremely difficult for you if they so choose, and since the legal system is rapidly moving towards a "guilty until proven innocent" philosophy, unless you have the appropriate evidence to prove the officer made an error in judgement, you don't have much of a leg to stand on.

As I said, I do not have a problem with police in general or officers doing their job. I have a problem with those who abuse their position of authority with unwarranted attitude, but that equally applies to other non-Police roles too, such as a bossy manager in a typical workplace.

Very well sad Jeff!^

I think you handled it very well. It would be very easy to fire up when he was being so obnoxious, if he wanted to go home safe he would have made his actions clearer. The idiot needs to look for a new job with his attitude, one where he can't go on a power trip.

HyRax wrote:

WOW.. That is Indonesian/Bali style¡

HyRax wrote:

What a knuckle dragger...

Cut him some slack, working a sunny weekend, on the side of highway you would be full of attitude too.

Beside the point he shouldn’t be working alone on a RBT and his location in reference to car and cones wasn’t right, he should be standing by the car waving you into the lane marked by the cones ….. I guess another bad example of a mouth breather our tax dollars keep alive, this muppets don’t do justice for the real officers that actually do their jobs correctly and without attitude.

I find it best to say nothing at all when you come across of these “special ones” I recently got pulled over for using rear fog lights during heavy down pour on the M2 at about 5am a few weeks back. Coped an ear full the minute I pulled over as the officer quoted he couldn’t see my brake lights, after I pointed out the my third brake light is 2 foot long and ran along the top of the rear windscreen , he went ape shit and asked for my driver’s licence.
So I took my time getting my wallet from the centre consoled meanwhile Captain planet was getting soaked. He claimed he should be issuing an infringement and told me how lucky I was I wasn’t getting one…… I still said nothing…… waited for him to return to the car, waited a little longer and then finally took off when I noticed his car roll forward……… mean while my fog lights remained on as now traffic was building up and I had to re-join the traffic travelling at 100km/h…. he continued to following me (fog lights still on) for a few more k’s, whilst I cautiously used the brake pedal a number of times in order to maintain safety gap from the imagery car in front.

Thanks for your support. I didn't take him seriously until he started getting pissed off with my response. Thereafter I apologised profusely until he let me go on my merry way. Your video is good too , and much better quality than mine.

HyRax wrote:I don't have a problem with cops doing their job, but speeding is not a crime, so they should not be putting themselves at physical risk just to enforce an arbitrary number on a sign.

I also believe you stopped with plenty of time and were not placing that officer at any risk. He put up a lot of unnecessary attitude and they always spin off the same "I want to go back home to my family too" rant which I swear is a line they are taught to say (because remember all cops record what they say now so they can try and make out that you don't care about them in reply).

If he was genuinely concerned about his safety, he wouldn't be a police officer where by its very nature, your life is at risk whether you are on the front line or doing highway patrol. Sadly he seems to be another person who joined the police force to legally stand over and lecture people because it makes him feel like a big man. And the police force wonders why people seem to have such a lack of respect for them.

Anyway, the whole event is very similar to one I had a while back: Cop pulling over speeders, putting his life at unnecessary risk by standing in the middle of the road and giving lip afterwards.