Knob end copper

I agree Fig, most coppers in my experience are ok, some are not, and a small number are vindictive bastards. Same/similar in all walks of life.

I just think that when you come across one of the "unreasonable ones", it is unhelpful (to me) to stoop to their level and escalate the situation, especially over something relatively trivial (I am not saying the specific issue of the OP was trivial to him).

I also think that there is a balance between deference and defiance, and I think that the post advocating politely taking the ossifers number and making a complaint gets it right in my view.

 

I'm posting in a thread with someone who calls the police "the Sweeney". Respect (seriously).

 

Can't argue that, if you do get an arsey cop just remember they can make life a lot harder for you than you can for them. Calm resolution is always the best way out of the vast majority of situations as much as humanly possible. Being right, and being in the right are not always the same.

You can always utter "knob" under your breath when safely out of earshot, I'm sure people do about me every day when they put the phone down at work, it comes with the job.

 

Ive had a slap or two from coppers. But to be fair I was asking for em. 18/19 yr old drunken twat kid. The plod aren't as bad as some make out. Our cells are not awash with the dead, neither are our hospitals full of beaten up chavs. Ive spent time with the plod on t'other side of the fence. They put up with some shit that no-one should have to take. Especially from a twat like I was/am (delete where appropriate)

I imagine being lectured to by an insufferable oaf should warrant a slap or two, hence Pete's over dramatics. It must be quiet in the luvvies bar. :tongue:

 

People do get arrested for nothing.
In fact,the OP might have been one of them if the Copper had carried out his threat to arrest him if,to sum up,"he didn't do what he was told,without being given a justifiable reason".
And people do die in custody.In fact,someone has just died in custody in our sleepy backwater.
Not sure whether they are beaten to death,probably more accidental while being restrained,but doesn't alter the fact that someone has died.
As for being fitted up,there have been plenty of documented cases of completely innocent people going to jail.
And yes,being spoken to in an agressive manner is small beer compared to the above,but it shouldn't happen.I always call a copper Sir,or Maam:I expect a respectful tone from them in reply.
"lucky to be alive" MAY be over-egging the pudding a bit,but it was only a few months ago a policeman battered an innocent newspaper seller who was just walking home,and who subsequently died from his injuries.All filmed and shown on TV,and the copper STILL got away with a slap on the wrist...or has everyone forgotten already?
Pete may come across as a bit of a dry old stick,but his comments are perfectly valid.
One other thing:If the Police didn't give the impression that they close ranks whenever they get caught out, (or even remotely criticised),they may well get more support from the public

 

The whole point of the OP's rant was about the copper's attitude straight off the bat; being shouted down to by anyone is a very annoying thing, it demeans you and immediately makes you angry, yet people are still saying 'just put up with it'. Let me ask you this; would you 'just put up with it' if it was a traffic warden talking down to you..?

No, you wouldn't.

 

Totally agree , we all breathe the same air and deserve the same respect from each other. Actually the police are paid from our Taxes and you could say they are employed by us. Fortunately the majority of policeman have a lot more common sense and courtesy than this guy. I have in the past had the blues and twos behind me ,pulled over and just wanted to chat about the bike.

 

I would say Fig, that anyone doing what you say is not acceptable, fact is though, through personalities, perceived 'authority' via job role etc it does happen and my view is that a traffic warden or indeed many other public interactive roles , could give you a lot less potential and maybe avoidable pain than a policeman though. ( probably a statement of the bleedin' obvious !)

It's sometimes about choosing your battles. OP has chosen his, has described his point of view and is happy with his course of action.

Difficult to comment further without the other parties point of view-there are two sides to every conversational argument, when it comes down to it.

 

What battle? The guy wasn't breaking any law, why the hell should he have to put up with bad attitudes just cos the other guy was a cop?

 

Battle is verbal argument /policemans stated attitude.

I am not saying he should put up with it, I noted though, that he took his action and is happy with it, from his point of view.

I was merely making the point that potentially, sometimes, the outcome may not be worth the 'battle'.

 

I get what you're saying, but imagine if everyone took your viewpoint, we'd end up getting spoken to like that all the time if attitudes weren't kept in check.

 

You meet some real cretins in the Army, I'm of the thinking that anyone above the rank of Sergeant (bar a select few) have only got to that rank because they have managed to not quit yet. As a private soldier you are often spoken to like a piece of shit regardless of your actual value as an employee, which is one of the many reasons why I decided to leave, but eventually you learn to decipher the meaning and ignore the use of language. The guy is an idiot, he does't have very good people skills and all he wants you to do is move your car along. Easy enough.

I don't have an opinion on whether you should or should not be allowed to park there, but I am commenting on the ability of some people to manage and successfully apply the authority they have been given.

I used to get very angry that I had done things that 98% of the regular armed forces could never dream of doing, in some very interesting jobs, yet I was still spoken to like a fresh-from-depot sprog. It also doesn't help that I look about 15 years old, despite being nearer to 30 than 20. At the end of the day, I was still as capable of being a valuable person after he spoke to me that way as I was before, and as soon as the transaction was completed and the c**t had no reason to talk to me any more I could get on with being more awesome than him all day long.

The army taught me a lot about how to interact with many different kinds of people: a few types of good people and a huge variety of w*****rs.

 

I was speaking to a Sergeant yesterday about this sort of thing. He explained,
"An officer will come over to me and say 'Get this done straight away'. I reply that there is a process to follow and I have to follow it. The officer will say, 'To hell with that, get it done'. I then tell the twat, 'Sir, you are confusing rank with authority. You don't have the authority to order me to do what you're ordering me to do." Almost verbatim, I've cut out the unessential profanity though.

If I was a twat officer, I would hate to have to deal with that Sergeant. That said, I have met many perfectly nice and reasonable officers, so I make no generalisations here.

 

The problem with Officers and NCOs is that an officer immediately out-ranks all soldiers, so he has all the power but no clue. A decent sergeant has served maybe 12 years already, is almost guaranteed to have been to Afghanistan at least twice, if not three times, as a LCpl, a Cpl and then a Sgt. He knows the job he has to do inside out as he has been doing it in every position (giggedy) for 12 years.

The troop commander has been to Uni, been to Sandhurst and now is in charge of all the men beneath him yet has no clue. He was a 2nd Lt for 1 year, a Lt for 2 years, then a Captain for a long time. It's (mostly) these new tropes that cause all the problems. The senior officers (mostly) just let the SSgts sort it out!

That is what Colour/Staff Sergeants are for. They really run the show, filter the idiotic requests from troopy and dish out punishment to the lads without the Company/Squadron finding out!

Unlucky, troopy! Now fetch me a brew!

 

He was taking pictures of an elderly woman pedestrian that had just been killed. You love to present things without context.

I'm not agreeing with the coppers behaviour but in the interest of giving your anger some credibility at least present some kind of background.

I'm sure many people on here, if they found you taking photos of a fatal collision between a car and an old lady they'd be pretty pissed off with you too.

 

Are you really expecting us to believe you are totally unaware of the many, many cases of innocent people being imprisoned, people dying in police custody, and people being arrested without good cause? What do you want, a list of names and dates? Oh, I get it, you are kidding!

 

It all comes of having Jocks on the Gloucestershire police force...