Police muscle in on funeral cortege

[Motu]

I'm very suprised that the Safety Nazi's on this site aren't right behind the Cops on this one,it was also probably a black open face as well,the guy might of been wearing jeans too.Double standards - they are oh so easy to apply....

[SPman]

He road without a helmet as a mark of respect?, How on God's green earth does that show a mark of respect?. It shows a marked decrease in common sense, and points towards a good escuse to go for a ride with no lid. Maybe he should have got whacked out on P, got drunk, and dragged a live dog behind the bike as a mark of respect too. Idiotic.

There are many ways of showing respect. - not wearing a hat is one of them.
Whats with the safety nazi kick again. its not as though he was hairing off through the countryside or riding around town as a normal matter of course - he was in a funeral cortege for gods sake!
Once again its a lack of common sense or discretion on the part of a public official, who lets zealotry for the letter of the law or regulation take precedence over a real life situation where a little common sense would have avoided the whole shemozzle. - and it doesnt just apply just to the police - every public regulatory body has people in them who are guilty of the same lack of judgement.
Another case of zealous attempted application of the letter of the law, not the spirit of the law!

[kro]

Sorry dude, that doesn't answer the question of how respect was paid by wearing no lid. I don't give a shit what the police did, nor am I taking a pro, or con police action stance, I am asking how a lidless rider is showing respect to the the dead, when he is showing no respect for the law while doing it.

I just get sick of whingers who think there are ways and means of flouting the law, and justifying it with their own little brand of home grown politics. What is so hard to understand?, the law says wear a lid, if you don't like it, ride a trike, or get a convertible MX5, dont continue riding a bike, and crying everytime the man doing his job tickets you for it.

The law and the police are two different topics, one is the word of the law, the other is the enforcing body of it. I am talking about the law, the same law that states its not ok for some fuckhead to come along, and wheel your r1 away, and call it his, the same law that says you don't beat your wife, because you think she is a stupid cow, the same that that................. ffs if you don't like the law, stop freaking whinging about it, and lobby the law makers, and get the law changed.
SPMan, this isnt directed at you, I'm not saying you personally are whinging or anything, I'm just extending my point

[Jantar]

Its traditional in european (and american) society that at funerals men remove their hats, while ladies wear them.

[Motu]

Whats with the safety nazi kick again. !

Respect....for the living or the dead,respect their choices in life....

[oldrider]

We saw off our best friend late last year, over 100 bikes I was told, we all wore our lids in the procession and I am sure as hell he didn't get any disrespect from us.
I feel him with me on most of my rides and almost hear him chuckle when I fuck up.
I think the lid thing and respect is just BS. But your choice!
The loss of Freedom to choose is not BS though why do we need a law for that! John.

[Highlander]

Hats off at the grave side and in the chappel and when praying, to me show respect.

As far as on or off in the funeral proession to me is personal choice but be aware that the Law says on. It is a personal safety thing for each to decide to flaunt the law or not in this case. Law enforcement aguments can be made either way but at the end of the day the law clearly says thou shalt wear thy helmet.

To put a slightly different spin on this (having not bothered to read the Herald blurb), what reaction would you expect for ticketing the non wearing of seatbelts for those in cars in the procession?

[Drum]

Theres been several references to a bad judgement call by the Police here, but I would say that the officer who made the original contact made a bad call. Obviously one of the two extra cars that turned up at the funeral contained someone who made a better call, and they left before the end of the funeral and no charges were laid.

This is actually a good example of the Police exercising discretion.

Strange how it still gets reported negatively.

[Squeak the Rat]

To put a slightly different spin on this (having not bothered to read the Herald blurb), what reaction would you expect for ticketing the non wearing of seatbelts for those in cars in the procession?

More explicitly, stopping the funeral procession to issue tickets to the car occupants.

Some laws are there to protect others, eg: no stealing because that directly affects another human being. Others are there to protect us from ourselves, like helmets (or to save ACC money depending what you believe). The dude was riding slow, if the cop really had to book him he should have waited till afterwards, send him a ticket in the mail or something.

But the way I look at it, if I'm grieving and not potentially hurting some one else with my actions then let me do what the hell I want. If you don't agree with the way I'm grieving or showing respect, that's fine. If I've broken some pissant law that won't hurt you or any one else in the process then who cares. A little compassion is ok, honestly.

[Highlander]

Squeak, granted the issue here appears two fold, one is should he have been booked at all. The other is that the Police Officer is reported to have done it in a manner likely not to improve the public perception of Police.

[inlinefour]

Respect....for the living or the dead,respect their choices in life....

Amen to that. Good to hear it ended for the best too

[Sniper]

The guy did wrong, he broke a law becuase he thought it was the right time to do it. The cops did the right thing, and now the guy is bitching cause he got off a ticket and charges? I would still be upset for the actions they took, but he was still not above the law and shouldn't cry about what happened.

[Sniper]

Another point, what happened if the guy came out and spilt his brains on the road. Bet there would be an uproar about him not wearing a helmet and then more funeral processions would be stopped for non helmet wearing twits.

[kro]

Precisely Sniper.

If we are to let people make their own calls on whether they obey the law, then, let them police themselves, and not come crying to the real police if a drunken cager ploughs into the lead bike on a lidless funeral motorcade. If they can write their own law, they can live by it too, you can't have it both ways.

[kro]

and to be honest it was at low speed and there were heaps of other bikes around.

Not singling you out Dyna, just using this statement to further illustrate my point. As is seen on the bike racing, at the start, when a shitload of bikes are clustered togther, this is when you get your big crashes, and its never just one bike, its multiple.
The bike crash that happened just recently in Napier?, when the 4WD hit the lead biker in that group, again, multiple bikers down.
Here in Nelson last year, multiple bikers down on a black ice bridge, one killed, 3 seriously fucked up, others beat up bad.

If you shit-canned helmet laws, the "Biker down" threads in KB, would contribute to 60% of all posts. There are enough of the bloody things already. Dont have a respect for the dead, by creating more of them.