Police accuse cyclist of public order offence because he swore at an unmarked police car parked in a bus line - his swearing could have upset his children and it could have led to him being stabbed

[cakeorwine]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11474195/Moment-cyclist-swears-unmarked-police-car-officer-accuses-public-order-offence.html

This is interesting

Cyclist with children on the back had to swerve to get out of the way of a vehicle parked in a bus lane

He swore at the occupants.

Turns out to be an unmarked police vehicle.

Advised not to swear in public with his children as it could cause them upset. So that's a public order offence.

And also it's dangerous to swear at people in Wandsworth because he could get stabbed.

So I admit that I have sworn at vehicles on the road who don't seem to understand the Highway code. With DS present.

And it probably is dangerous to swear at people because you don't know how they would react.

I am sure a teenager has heard much worse.

I have respect for police who do their job. I don't have respect for police who overstep their mark and take advantage of their uniform. It's useful to know the actual law and not the police interpretation of it.

I am glad that police have to wear body cams now. And that people can record interactions with police on their phones

I can't imagine what conversations took place before they realised they were being recorded. And probably what still happen now.

I am glad that police have to wear body cams now. And that people can record interactions with police on their phones

meh. They often mysteriously aren't available. Which is why helmet cams or recording them is a good idea.
Unfortunately.

As said the Met have now said that the officers were wrong and misquoted the law. That's as well as extensive victim blaming. It should be a misconduct charge against them. We shouldn't have police pretending that what they are saying is the law. We should be able to trust our police, but time and time again we are being shown that we can't. There's been more sackings across Merseyside against males officers who've used their position for 'sexual purposes'. Posters are completely missing the point, the Police misused the law and their powers to scare a member of the public. What if they had sexual intent behind their behaviour, or murderous? Both of them agree with what they did, do they also ignore the behaviour of colleagues? Because among them will be sex offenders.

I wonder what the other officer thought - and what conversation took place in the car when they got back?

Did he agree or disagree? If he disagreed, would he have said anything to the guy who spoke or would he have raised it with his superiors?

I'm not a big fan of swearing from any road user but when your life is in danger, it can make one feel a bit scared and angry, drivers, however, mainly seem to swear through impatience snd anger, not fear

If I'd parked terribly then I'd just put my hands up and look a bit sheepish, like most people. After all I'm parked in a reserved lane and someone's just had to manoeuvre round me. It's not the end of the world, certainly not worth getting on your hind legs about

And he was disproportionate because he escalated a situation and gave the advice not to potentially aggravating unknown elements by erm, potentially aggravating an unknown element? It's not good policing.

It's also aggressive because he pursued a lie, he was flexing his authority, albeit in a very minor way, but the imbalance of power between the two make it an aggressive act. What if the cyclist was also someone who had to be right and wouldn't back down, where does it go from there? He is abusing his power. If he does it over such minor shit imagine what he's like in a bad situation.

What would you do differently in this situation if you were the officer?

I wouldn't have done anything as there was nothing in this situation that required a police response. I might have rolled my eyes and perhaps made a comment to my colleague. I would then have got on with my job.

What makes you say the officer wanted to make life difficult for someone?

Because he is in a position of power and he has misused that power to assert dominance in response to a personal slight. There is no basis for him to (mis)use public power to do so. There was no public reason to use his blue lights or to pull the cyclist over. There would never have been any reason to make misleading statements about the law. As the Met have said, the officer was clearly wrong here. It's a fairly minor mis-use of power but there should never be a culture of using power for your own ends or making misleading claims about the law to intimidate people. That culture is toxic and dangerous.

Regardless of what the police did, the cyclist unnecessarily aggravated the situation. It's not like the police car cut in front and slammed on the brakes, the cyclist had more than enough time to blend into the traffic.

I think, ever since I was able to swear, I've always known it's not a good idea to swear at a police officer. It tends to rile them.

Gotta luv the male ego.
Cyclist shouldn't have been going so fast, especially given his precious cargo. However, watching the video, he had to swerve into a busy road in shitty road conditions, and his reaction was not an uncommon stress response. You can hear him apologise straight away.
Are cyclists allowed to use bus lanes? If not I would have thought that would have been reason enough for the police to 'slap a wrist'.
Ticking an adult off for using foul language is just risible, and makes further mockery of the police. Police forces in the UK really need to get their bloody shit together. I feel sorry for the decent offices getting brought down by their egotistical, racist, homophobic, misogynistic colleagues.

Yes cyclists are allowed to use bus lanes. They can use any part of the road or cycle lanes