The Hon. Judith Collins and her trusty coppers wonder why they have so little respect

[baptist]

//Ah yes, you see this is where it all goes wrong. No disrespect to you, many people now think the same but its wrong. In a decent society "respect" is given to every person you meet or come across until such time as they lose your respect. It is a fundamental right - and frankly, I try to apply it here on this forum. //

I do not see it as a fundamental right, at least not until contact has been made, if the cop had said something polite before enquiring that is all to the good, I call that doing his job and full respect to him. People who are instantly rude do not have my respect and if they want it then they will need to earn it. I fully understand why cops can get snarky (I was a Prison Officer in the UK for 9 years before moving), people can be hard work. However professionalism counts for much, joe public can be having a bad day as well remember and then a confrontation may occur. To earn respect is not hard in my book, a smile, a nod, a polite word that is all it takes. Some Police maybe need to think a little before opening their mouth, I think the saying is "engage your brain before engaging your mouth", bit like I am learning with clutches and gears!!!!!

[BoristheBiter]

First I don't pay the bouncers and I know where the bad ones work so I avoid those bars, but more importantly bouncers aren't complaining that they don't get the respect they want. If the police want to be respected then maybe they need to look at the behaviour of all their staff.

Aggressive and confrontational behaviour is pointless and unnesccesary - a few months ago I was pulled up for travelling far too fast. The cop got out of his car, introduced himself, shook my hand and advised me how fast he had got me for. Even though I had broken the law (by quite a margin) he was courteous and pleasant - I bloody near thanked him for the ticket. The last thing he said was "The road through the hunderlees is good and the traffic is light, take it easy but enjoy the ride". He was a professional.


BTW I am actually quite glad i got that ticket - it slowed me down, something that needed to happen.

Actually most of the cops i know really don't give a shit if they are liked or not and some say its better if not as it is easyer to hand out tickets. but then most of them are GD or GD stuck on stu.

There are good and bad in every job some people care about it some don't, some make a moutain out of a mole hill, some think rules don't apply and some live by them.

I do agree that aggressive and confrontational behaviour is pointless and unnesccesary in any work force.

I'll leave it at that.

[Mudfart]

you can also get done for "unnecessesary and/or sudden acceleration" under the boy racer laws. in ozzie they got the "hoon legislation".

[skidz07]

wot the f#*K give me the fine any day wuld`nt help those pricks
thats bloody bullshit PRICKS!!!!!

[scumdog]

wot the f#*K give me the fine any day wuld`nt help those pricks
thats bloody bullshit PRICKS!!!!!

Wow, so eloquent....

[Spazman727]

Well the Gubbmint legislated against "standing around" - $500 fine for not assisting an officer when requested....unless you're female.

Personally I would prefer that the Police had (and deserved) respect so that Joe Public would want to try and help them out.

Yeah, you don't know if they're trying to take a guy down for something really illegal or for just annoying them. In the latter case id rather put the boot in on the side of the so called criminal than do nothing to help the cops.

[Kwaka14]

Sorry for the off topic reply

Well not sure about france as they are not normal people anyway... but speed limits "very slow by our standard" are hard to believe as we have lots of 80k zones everywhere so slower is not possible..
Of course i know that "speed nazis" are probably in every country just saying cops and punishments are bit more relaxed where i am right now....not sure if its police apathy or laziness over here.
(last week i was driven to/from Prague and spend most of the time at 180-220km/h in CLS350 and no cops bothered us at all...if we did same thing in auckland i would be probably talking to my lawyer thru hole in plexi glass right now...)

I currently live in Prague, and would agree that you could do pretty well whatever speed you like on the motorways (to be honest on back roads as well), however off the motorways the roads are pretty crap and there's a proliferation of small towns and poor conditions which makes riding not all that great (frost heave wreaks havoc on the roads). The limit off the motorway is oficially 90km/h, and in towns 50 - so legally not too great for a fun ride. Motorways the limit is oficially 130km/h - almost noone does this, but have seen a few pulled over recently regardless. Riding here is not great from the perspective that the driving is very agressive towards motorcyclists (not so bad you'd stop riding). Other parts of Europe are similar.Croatia is beautiful, but most of the coastal road will see you riding between 80 and 60km/h, Italy has so many little townships with 50km limits it's a pain, but fantastic none the less. Mountain passes are amazing everywhere in the Alps - Plod only highly visible in France really (a little in Austria and Italy). Motorways are good - speed and surface, but off them where mostly the riding is to be had, generally it's not a fast thing (legally). Montenegro is beautiful, but the roads are crap there, I imagine speedings not an issue as riding up a hill in Kotor we ended up riding in the middle of a rally - cars screaming round corners complete with Marshalls etc - apparently theres no reason to close the roads (wtf). Never had a ticket here in the CR, been stopped and fined twice in Austria (pretty gnarly speed traps) and not too much bother anywhere else. It's not legal, but speeding (within reason) seems to be ok.

[Patrick]

Constable: "Did you just come from that gas station?" - he asked, politely and with a smile...
Shrub: "Yep." Smugly and with a snarl...
Constable: "You were travelling at a hell of a speed' (maybe sounded like it, but hey, concerned for your safety here, dunno why he is so instantly "snappy"...)
Shrub: "Really? How fast was I going?" with a sneer.....
Constable: "You were doing between 60 and 65 kmh" (while thinking what an arrogant prick....)
Shrub: "No I wasn't - I didn't get out of first gear for gods sake, I doubt I got over 50". (While looking down his nose at him...)
Constable: "What do you do for a living?" (Standard fare here....)
Shrub (wondering why this officer was even speaking to him, despising the conversation as much as a dog turd on his shoes...) if the next question would be "what star sign are you? followed by "I'm a Gemini, would you like to meet for a do-nut?": "I'm a marketing consultant" (said in an "I am better than you" attitude...)
Constable: "Then you have no experience in estimating speed - I do, and it's my opinion that you were doing between 60 and 65 kmh" (that'll wipe the smirk off his face...)
Shrub: "I have ridden that bike for nearly 3 years and over 20,000 kms, so I have a lot of experience at what it feels like at various speeds, and it's my opinion I was doing around 50"
Constable: "well it's my opinion you were doing between 60 and 65, and it's my opinion that counts" (being an expert in speed and all, being a daily duty for how many years... and ONLY three years and 20,000ks? Must be a butterfly rider....)

At this stage our noble enforcer of Her Majesty's laws and protector of widows and orphans was realising he was winding up the poor motorbike rider so he made the decision to stop before he exploded and had to arrest him for stealing oxygen or something.

Shrub: "OK, well that's fine then. Will that be all?"

My new-found friend realised that the message was finally sinking in.... there is no teaching some, so proceeded to check all the old mundane regular stuff such as licenses, rego, gaydar status etc, then radioed base to check that Shrub and his Thunderbird Sport weren't desperate fugitives from the law and the missing masterminds of 9/11 (in other words, normal duty type of stuff). It seemed that my myriad sins had escaped the notice of our constabulary and he ended his radio call.

Shrub: "All good then?"
Constable: (Excitedly, because he had had enough of the belligerance....) "Yes".
Shrub: "Excellent. Have a nice day".

Just another take. Not saying this is what happened at all... of course..... just artistic license.

Enjoy.

[Berries]

Interesting take from the other side.

[Still not sure about estimating speed by ear though, it is hard enough by eye]

[red mermaid]

Oh, do you really think there was another side to the story, Patrick?

When will someone please invent a sarcasm font!

[Berries]

Yeah, I needed that for my post above as well.

[Pixie]

Just another take. Not saying this is what happened at all... of course..... just artistic license.

Enjoy.

I wonder if the cop felt like that when I gave him arseholes for stopping me because he made up a new offence to accuse me of: "Passing in the dark"

[MSTRS:Me]

I wonder if the cop felt like that when I gave him arseholes for stopping me because he made up a new offence to accuse me of: "Passing in the dark"

Typical public. Can't keep up with the new rules. Again. It was 'Passing a darkie'...

[shrub]

Just another take. Not saying this is what happened at all... of course..... just artistic license.

maybe it didn't, but I had only drunk coffee and inhaled exhaust fumes so I reckon it did.

[MSTRS:Me]

I see 2 Horowhenua cops are under investigation for lying on the stand, and with-holding evidence, in a traffic case...