2008-07-24 - Rider Down, Essex Road

What a nightmare, I hope you get well soon Mary.

That sucks - I'm with mikec on the chances getting any justice on this I'm afraid.

In the meantime I hope mary heals quickly.

heal fast Mary. Hope you're not too shaken up.

suggest join the LCC now. Their legal team will deal with everything, provided you can gather enough evidence, including witness statements.

best wishes mary hope you get beter soon and back on the bike.

Get well soon Mary, hope it's not too serious.
Deffo try get a copy of the incident, or they will just say it was an unavoidable incident!

Get well soon, Mary!

Wish Mary a speedy recovery from me. Hope it works out well in the end.

thats, fucked, i'll bring some get well food, and cake by your house tonight. hope mary is ok

Essex Road is a nightmare, really freaks me out. The amount of shocking driving and cycling, redlight jumping and ped craziness down there is unbelievable.... some young pramface sees fit to push her kid out right in front of me. I express my concern at her course of action she tells me in no uncertain terms what I can do...nice.

Hah, exactly the same thing happened to me in that area too. I avoid essex road as a rule. I generally take the cycle route from the end of roseberry av to kingsland road.

Damn!

Get well soon, hope x-rays pass through her and see no broken bits on the way through.

The police will close ranks and fuck all will happen. Guaranteed

+1

I will put money on this. I am sure there is much at fault they will find with her/her bike, as the other party is an off duty policeman. Did she have a rear brake ? If not that is enough of an excuse for them to wriggle out of this one.

Don't think for a moment that they will enthusiastically pursue the full prosecution of a fellow policeman (and certainly not against a cyclist), don't put 'lost CCTV footage' passed them.

With regard to CCTV footage I'd be highly surprised if it's wheeled out for anything less than a shooting, or similar, to be perfectly honest.

The police will close ranks and fuck all will happen. Guaranteed

Not true, they are just as answerable to wrong-doing as the public, actually even more so due to their duty of care to the public on or off duty.

:D

With regard to CCTV footage I'd be highly surprised if it's wheeled out for anything less than a shooting, or similar, to be perfectly honest.

You can put in a FOI request (and pay a nominal fee) - but I have to agree, I doubt they will feel the need to get the CCTV footage in these circumstances.

You can put in a FOI request (and pay a nominal fee) - but I have to agree, I doubt they will feel the need to get the CCTV footage in these circumstances.

Hot chicks in skimpy tops and short skirts is another matter altogether though. I wonder if there's a market in soft CCTV porn?

Hot chicks in skimpy tops and short skirts is another matter altogether though. I wonder if there's a market in soft CCTV porn?

You can only put in a FOI request if you or your property are in that footage, it is effectively a request for data/records held on file pertaining to you.

So medical records, footage of policemen running you down, footage of your car being stolen, criminal records, council tax records, footage of yourself shopping in Topshop™ would even qualify . . . so for your seedy CCTV porn plan to work you would have to follow hot chicks in skimpy tops and short skirts around all day - but we have specific laws to cover that kind of thing.

:p

You can put in a FOI request (and pay a nominal fee) - but I have to agree, I doubt they will feel the need to get the CCTV footage in these circumstances.

DPA (not FOI due to public interest issues) create a transaction between the member of the public and the local authority (or private business) that is independant of the police. By law, this cannot be refused, regardless of the severity of crime involved. However, the local authority may elect to inform the police of a request relating to an ongoing investigation. This is where the law balances well in Mary's favour.

Lost CCTV isn't something that the police could get to easily, even if they were so inclined.

Amazed at the pessimism here. Just because the police are "an authority" doesn't make them some all powerful entity who indulge in endless black bag operations to protect their own. They have a large insurance policy for a reason.

Bad luck Mary, get well soon.

Damn!

Get well soon, hope x-rays pass through her and see no broken bits on the way through.

+1

I will put money on this. I am sure there is much at fault they will find with her/her bike, as the other party is an off duty policeman. Did she have a rear brake ? If not that is enough of an excuse for them to wriggle out of this one.

Don't think for a moment that they will enthusiastically pursue the full prosecution of a fellow policeman (and certainly not against a cyclist), don't put 'lost CCTV footage' passed them.

It's not up to the police though, it's up to the CPS to decide whether or not to prosecute. I know that this will be based on what the police show them as 'evidence' but surely if evidence collected by the individual is more conclusive then they will base their decision on that and not the tainted police 'evidence'.

I do agree with your feelings about the police and their usefulness / closing ranks behaviour, just to be clear.

Hope Mary gets better soon and that the careless driver gets some kind of punishment worthy of their stupidity.

Amazed at the pessimism here. Just because the police are "an authority" doesn't make them some all powerful entity who indulge in endless black bag operations to protect their own. They have a large insurance policy for a reason.

Pessimism based on experience.

optimism likewise

^so we can conclude that it's a mixed bag although there may be a black bag involved, I went out with one of those once but that sounds a bit racists, even though she was, hope that clears things up.

:)

It's not up to the police though, it's up to the CPS to decide whether or not to prosecute.

Let's not make it a single off duty policeman in his car, let's really put him in the picture, let's have him on duty, let's stick a massive team around him, tracking his every move, his every communication, every bit of CCTV footage of his actions logged. And let's not just knock poor old Mary off her bike but let's have the victim actually killed and let's make that killing premeditated and not accidental, and now let's not mess around with a few chance witnesses who might have been glancing in the right direction at the time of the killing, let's have numerous witnesses at close quarters watching this killing unfold, let's say a whole tube carriage and let's see the whole thing play out in the glare of the media spotlight where the police would struggle to 'lose' evidence and hide behind red tape - guaranteed a prosecution now ?

Any update?

@ Tynan: I had a feeling that was coming :-)

@ Tynan: I had a feeling that was coming :-)

It's the new debate 'Hitler'

;P

The point remains, as much as people can quote the technically correct view that everything is fair and even when dealing with the police, when it comes down to it, the police will close ranks and are unlikely to show zeal when pursuing one of their own.