22BUK

From The Sun today:

A MOTORIST was hit with an £80 fine — for giving a speed camera the finger.
Simon Thompson, 41, made the middle finger curse when he spotted the mobile camera as he drove home from work WITHIN the speed limit.

He was stunned half an hour later when the two cops who had been operating the device knocked on his door — and handed him a fixed penalty notice for making offensive gestures under the Public Order Act.

Last night furious clerk Simon accused police in Colchester, Essex, of a vendetta against motorists.

He said his case was absurdly trivial compared to an attack at the town’s St Benedict’s college a few days earlier.

The school’s headmaster slammed cops for failing to react quickly enough when a staff member was battered by hoodie thugs who gatecrashed an exam.

Simon, who was travelling at less than 30mph on a single carriageway, said: “I accept what I did was foolish and it wasn’t my finest hour. But this shows the police have got their priorities completely wrong.

“I wasn’t giving the officers the finger, I was aiming my anger at the camera. I’ve got as much contempt for speed cameras as everyone else. I’m a careful driver. My licence has been clean for ten years.”

HowiesPreza

Like he says "not his finest hr" but Hoody Bell! the cops can be gits SOMETIMES (not trying to get anyones back up).

Surely the fact that it seems like pure time wasting just to wind someone up - who wasn't even speeding (so why did it take pic???).

Didn't Ronaldo give the finger to the benfica fans the other week? Surely he should have had an £40 for everyone that saw it working on the that policy.

Karl 227

Show a policeman the middle finger whilst driving over here and you'll get a € 2000 fine, points on your licence and a possible prison sentence

HowiesPreza

Over here? the next street along? Down South? North Pole? more info please bud.

Granted if you did it to a copper in person you'd expect a telling off - at push a fine but not if it's just at a camera on a white van or am I looking at this wrong?

dpb

..(.Muppet alert) Mybe the SS recognised you Karl......

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

It'd be pointless fining the thugs I guess, as they'd only use the DSS money, which we're subsidising!

I dont like the speed camera approach at all; I think it's misguided and politically motivated. BUT by his own admission, this wasn't the best way to protest!

I don't think one should use one wrong to justify or denegrate another, particularly when that wrong pertains to showing direspect for the law - which is almost at epidemic proportions these days, especially with the young. In giving the camera the finger, he most likely came across as the kind of yob he clearly holds in contempt. Would we be angry if that copper then gave a real yob a ticket for the same reasons; we'd say he was showing contempt for the law, being a cheeky little f***er and deserved it. That policeman merely saw someone giving him the finger, he did not have details of their life history. If you conduct yourself like an undesirable, then it will affect the inferences that people draw about you, rightly or wrongly.

The point he's making is valid; we're a soft target, the protest should just have been a bit more sophisticated!

Ns04

Leslie

Under normal circumstances I have always felt that police deserve respect from the public as long as they are doing their duty in a reasonable and polite manner. The trouble these days is that the police seem to have to spend so long in their offices now thinking up the right things to say on their paperwork for the Government so that they can continue to achieve their targets, that they no longer have time to spend in the view of the public.

The only time you see them is when they flash past in a panda or if the Government holds some kind of official meeting when the roads are lined with them several men deep!

If you call for them to attend a disturbance they usually can't get there until everything has stopped and the crims have left. Or even a couple of days later sometimes!

It is time they were seen regularly on foot by the public just keeping an eye on things and taking action when necessary. Also the PC rubbish should be binned completely. We might get back to the situation when people used to be glad to see a copper around and they were held in esteem for the dangerous job that they do.

Les

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I've said it before, I'll say it again: the time is coming when motorists in the UK are going to have to go for organised civil disobedience, and remove their number plates. We are just sitting ducks

Alcazar

Spoon

He deserved it.

It's about as tough and pointless as spitting on cars parked in a cycle lane.

Karl 227

Sorry, Germany.

GrahamG

Good lad. police are ****s when its comes to things like that. didn't do any ****ing harm what so ever. I'm sure they can be doing better things with there time.

HowiesPreza

PMSL

Abdabz

Difference being that resolving his karma was faulted by the fact he was breaking the law under a public order offence, whereas my resolved karma is simply a careless by-product of not being a fat lazy couch spud

Like with any law, if you break it and get caught you should be prosecuted... I am glad he got fined, and pity him running to the media blubbering about it... The big tart. The fact a recent teacher beating in his area hadnt been dealt with so zealously makes the police look poor in the eyes of Joe Public so not a good PR stunt for the police...

ps, great to see my spitting action gaining SN immoratility My mentor Mr Carolgees will be proud of me

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

He was the teacher that was beaten up!!

Ns04

Abdabz

Had a bad time of it of late then hasn't he

Probably gave the pupil the bird when he was driving to school... He'll learn one day

I remember when my dad leathered someone for sticking two fingers up at him in a driving incident a couple of years ago... That fella would have probably preferred the £80 fine

Spoon

You actually mean your dad leathered the guy down after you spat on him don't you?

Chris5-0

The camera was mobile which meant their was a cop stood behind. Which meant the guy gave the finger to the cop, which is a bit rude don't you think, or should i expect to be cursed at, given the finger, spat at, swore at etc because of my job?

I'd have given him the ticket no problem whatsoever, i never let that kind of thing go, just another errosion of common decencies i feel!!!

mart360

Would he have flipped you the bird if you had been standing there watching traffic, or sitting in your van?? more than likely not,

next time you have a service provided (tv repair, car fixed etc) and the charge seems to be excesive or unjust, just remember they've actually provided you with a service, and you now cannot complain or get disgruntled, as it would be eroding common decencies.

prhaps if you actually did some policing re interaction with the public as opposed to remote money collecting you might find peoples perceptions to be different.

If your going to nick someone for speeding, it would be common decency to actually tell them at the time as opposed to the current system which treats people as cannon fodder.

Mart

SimonGawthorpe

Graham,

Where did you get your warped view of the world from? Do you have any idea what the Police have to do on a daily basis? Are you aware of the hoops they have to jump through to keep the government happy?

Obviously not.

That guy stuck a finger up at a Police officer. How can the Police be taken seriously if they allow people to get away with that? If you were walking down the street and saw a bloke go up to a copper and stick a finger in his face or spit at him, what would you expect to happen? If they do nothing and ignore it then they become targets for more abuse, including violence. If we get to that point then how can that Police officer protect you, you're family or your property if you call on them?

If I am out on patrol (I have nothing to do with speed enforcement) and somebody swears at me or gives me the bird then they had better get running, cause I wont rest till I get hold of them. And when I do get hold of them, I will have to give them an £80 ticket because thats what my bosses tell me I have to do. I dont neccesarily agree with tickets but I would sooner give one out than let some ***** erode a bit more of the small amount of decency we have left in this country.

Simon

scoobynutta555

I'd expect all that and WORSE if I was sitting behind a mobile revenue earner. Police wonder why they have no respect these days, FFS

mart360

Its a pity that the same approach is not applied to the rest of the job!

when people are witness's or give evidence or have property that could be returned, prhaps a bit of going the extra mile would pay dividends, rather than the "we're too busy, or here's you crime number approach"

Mart

SimonGawthorpe

I can only speak for my self, but I do everything at work to the best of my ability. Although it is hard when all you hear all day is how crap we are and how we never help anybody. What no-one seems to realise is that we only do what we are told to do by the government etc. You would be hard pushed to find a cop who enjoys the paperwork and beaurocracy and Human Rights stuff. We all wish they would just let us go out and catch the bad guys but its not up to us.

Si

SCOsazOBY

i did exactly the same thing to a speed camera the other night and also to the BB style surveilance street cameras

_RIP_

Was it not the case that this guy had both hands off the wheel when he flipped the bird and that's why he was done, or am I thinking of another case.

OllyK

I think it boils down to that really.

New To Scoob

Eh some slightly different instances there I think and I also see you have such great priorites in your line of work

Tell you what mate try and do another public servants job for a couple of shifts, one where you get paid a lot less, have to do more training and take that type of abuse everyday from scum, to top it all off the protection these people receive is cr@p and they don't have the luxury of dishing out a £80 fine.

Want to know who I'm talking about............



Medical Staff, nurses/nursing auxillaries etc, they get that type of abuse every day......... wake up and realise your in a pampered position compared to some OK.

John.

Chris5-0

Pampered position??

You talking about being a cop?

Get over yourself. We do the job cus we want to and are given power to do it. That means we don't have to take crap from disgruntled idiots who think we're there to be on the receiving end of fingers and the like. As for doctors and nurses etc, they have one hell of a hard time and any problems they get they report to us and believe me the p**cks giving them crap are dealt with 'robustly'. Unfortunately we can't be there all the time but we try for those boys and girls. And a new cop takes home on average £880 a month, still think we get a lot?

As for other replies to this it just makes me laugh, you all want us to be hard on criminals and the like but oo no, can't touch motorists, they don't deserve it at all. Tell that to the pedestrians jumping out of the way of the boy racer in his XR3 who decided he didn't want to stop for me in city centre Manchester! 80mph down deansgate because he had no tax! Brilliant.

I'm sorry you like to speed and we keep catching you, i'm sorry you don't like speed camera's or mobile detectors but what can i do? I'll tell you what i can do, every day i go in, pick up my equipment and go out on the streets to try to make a bit of a difference and with the responses i get from most of the public i keep going back and doing it again!

HowiesPreza

Comparing a tw@ in an xr3 putting peoples lives at risk and a guy giving the middle finger to a camera is a bit off the pace mate.

I respect the police in most cases - if i was caught speeding i would say fair cop, but how many times have you been told to f**k off by a druggy you were arresting? Give them all fines did you? A bit of a tactful knock on the door saying "look mate don't flip the bird at camera's it's not good" would have been more appropriate.

Things like this don't help the stereotypical view of things like "cops are time wasters", "their month figures must be down" etc.

I don't want to offend but this is what it seems like to Joe Public.

Howie

SimonGawthorpe

I happen to have 4 nurses in my immediate family and I know what they go through, they get crap just the same as we do and admittedly all they can do about it is report it to the Police. And we DO deal with it.

Youre telling me to try doing their job, but surely I can say why dont you come and do my job for a week? With an attitude like you've got, you wouldn't last the first morning!!

At the end of the day its no cool to like the Police, so hardly anybody does.

I get paid to do a job and I do it. My wages arent brilliant and I work overtime to supplement them.

As for persecuting motorists, we all know the speed limits and we know how hot the government are on catching speeders. Yet people are upset when they get caught. If there were no cameras in your areas and a speeder killed a pedestrian you would all be crying out for cameras!
If I get caught speeding I would swallow my pride and take the ticket, not moan about it all night on a BBS. And if I was stupid enough to flick the bird at a police officer then I would deserve to be £80 worse off!!

Simon

SimonGawthorpe

Howie,

I see you're point and how the public perceive us. Im sorry to say that going and telling the guy off is not going to stop him doing it again, a lighter wallet will!!

Simon