Help needed - bike impounded by police

If I wrote this into a sit-com. It would seem far-fetched...

You just can't make this shit up...

Truth stranger than fiction...

you missed out "it's political correctness gone mad"

it all makes sense to me, they are sticking to the letter of the law. without it our entire society would plunge into anarchy and chaos.. and ultimately the death of society

Thanks for swinging by for that little piece of forum gold Greasy old boy.

you missed out "it's political correctness gone mad"

Also, greasy forgot to add^

Someone needs to talk about broken Britain, preferably in capitals.

Think of the kittens/children/puppies.

Glad it was sorted.

I was thinking of writing to the Daily Mail about it...

No, but my dad was. As proof he stole the stars from the sky and put them in my eyes!

Or yes I'm at brick lane most mornings early, you want anything in particular? Got a nice BMX to you £50.

Sell me a nicked bike and I'll be sorted for years. Teach me to nick and I'll be sorted for life

Everyone has their, "Oh, so the police isn't worth going to" moment.

Just a shame they have so many.

Speak to the *cycle task force*. As they have an interest in cycling/bikes they will be more willing to help.

if anyone can help, it'll be them.

Currently the community support officers are WAITING outside the bike shop I've started working at, because there are roadworks closing the street so they know they can get cyclists going to and from our store for cycling on the pavement.

It makes me want to punch them. Do police really wonder why they get so much aggro from the public? Stop picking on the little guy. :|

I really hate people who cycle on the pavement at speed, but wheeling your bike 6ft to the road whilst straddling it isn't something I'd wait outside a bikeshop to fine people for.

Have you gone out and asked them who told them to do it or did they just decide to? Maybe they get commission/smartie points for all the fines they dish out (they used to have targets for arrest rates that made police "arrest-happy" with very poor conviction rates).

Have they booked anyone from the shop? If you go out and chat to them, maybe they're waiting to catch people hooning up the narrow pavement. I fucking hate that. Almost as much as I hate RLJers who cut through crowds of peds at speed.

It's hard to explain, but where our store is located means that the only people using that pavement are coming in or out of the bike shop. It isn't at all busy. I could understand, even applaud this, if it was in a place likely to cause trouble. I can't stand it when people are cycling on a pavement when people are about, I usually try to talk to them about it, citing kids and old people as potential victims for their actions.

But this is just instantly handing out fines, as soon as they leave the shop they get slapped with a slip of paper and my boss feels helpless, he's tried talking to them, They're "having a crackdown in the area". Which I guess means waiting outside of our shop rather than at the busy junctions where RLJers frequently do cause accidents.

Because if they did that they might actually be helpful, and we can't have that!

The ones who hand out the fines instantly are usually the part-time / bob-a-job cops. The real ones arent bothered with this petty shit.

But nobody coming out of the shop has actually got fined, surely? I mean, who mounts up on the pavement in full view of police officers?

I think someone posted the guidelines for pavement fines.

If no one is being endangered and no risks are being taken a fine should not be given.

This is from memory so could be utter bullshit

As a general rule, it's considered that if the offence isn't in contravention of the spirit of the law (protection of public and property) then there's better prevention in talking to the "offender" and stopping a continuation of offence rather than dumping fines on people. Receiving a fine is more likely to see repetition of offence through rebellion, whereas engagement is designed to elicit compliance through consent and shared opinion.

In other words, if a copper doesn't give you a fine they're just trying to fuck with your head. The correct response is to beat them around the head with a D-Lock and run away.

I think someone posted the guidelines for pavement fines.
If no one is being endangered and no risks are being taken a fine should not be given.
This is from memory so could be utter bullshit
IIRC, there was a statement to this effect when the legislation was initially passed, which has been much quoted on here. Unfortunately, this requires the application of common sense, which PCSOs (who were mostly traffic wardens until The War On Abstract Nouns kicked off, lest we forget) are famously free of.

Burn the station down, claim your bike back on their insurance, thata teach em

get their details, badge numbers etc.

ask them why they are doing this - write down their answers and make sure they know you are writing them down

get onto your local councillor - they generally hate anything which could negatively effect trade (or have to be seen to) and maybe the local paper too

Currently the community support officers are WAITING outside the bike shop I've started working at, because there are roadworks closing the street so they know they can get cyclists going to and from our store for cycling on the pavement.

It makes me want to punch them. Do police really wonder why they get so much aggro from the public? Stop picking on the little guy. :|

I really hate people who cycle on the pavement at speed, but wheeling your bike 6ft to the road whilst straddling it isn't something I'd wait outside a bikeshop to fine people for.

Citygent, how about putting a big poster in your shop window along the lines of "Cyclists beware. Dickless jobsworth cunts at work!"

I once got stopped by a pair for cycling on the pavement as I was going the wrong way up a one way street. Shoulda just used the road as they cannot fine you for that. The look on PCSO no.1's face as PCSO no.2 said "Don't worry, we're not going to fine you" was priceless. I think I confused them when I said "Don't blame me, It's not my fault Westminster council put their road in the wrong way round!"

It's political correctness gone mad

I blame the big society

I blame the big broken society

fixed. I mean broken.

Citygent, how about putting a big poster in your shop window along the lines of "Cyclists beware. Dickless jobsworth cunts at work!"

If you put up a warning, even a polite one, you could get done for "wilfully obstructing a constable in the execution of his duty". It's happened to people warning of speed traps

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1463472/Motorist-is-banned-over-speed-trap-alert.html

This makes me so mad. What can we do?