Mark and I went to the police station last night to lodge a complaint
against the road rage we received yesterday. I found it very unusual
that police use first names... I spoke to Michelle (I think). I
explained what happened and she agreed it was inappropriate behaviour
and wrote down all the details.
She made some comment about the threat of violence being difficult to
charge for if there was no clear intent, i.e. if they were not actually
wielding a weapon, "For example, if he said he was going to kill you and
was holding a knife at the time." I said, "But he was wielding a weapon.
He was threatening to run me over with his vehicle, and he was driving
the vehicle at the time. He intended to use his vehicle as a weapon.
Surely the law would see it that way?" She agreed with this.
I made it very clear that I am not easily intimidated and that I
experience minor road rage on a daily basis; the fact that I found this
event scary was a pretty good sign that a less confident/experience
rider would have ended up in a bad way. I also explained that, had I
not managed to clip in quickly or had I been in a bad gear for take-off,
he would've hit me.
She asked what I wanted done - did I want them to look at it as a
traffic offence, eventually end up in court... or did I want them to
call him? I didn't think any good would've come out of taking it
further... I just wanted him to know he wasn't anonymous and he wasn't
getting off clean.
By the time Mark dropped me off at home, Mum was already answering the
phone call from Michelle. She had phoned the offender and told him his
actions were inappropriate, that it was perfectly legal for us to ride
two abreast, and that what he had done was a chargeable offence.
Of course, he claimed that we had ridden around him to take the front of
the lights and block him in. Now, even if we had done that, his actions
would've been inappropriate and illegal. However we didn't do that - we
rolled up to the lights as they turned red, and there were no other cars
there at the time. And the next two cars that came along chose to use
the other lane (which in hindsight is a real shame, as they seemed quite
sensible and would've been nice to have as a barrier between us and the
******).
He's now recorded as having a complaint made against him, and he's had a
nice phone call at night telling him off. I'd call it a minor success. I
never wanted it to go further - if I had, I would've gotten witness
details at the time of the incident.
Tam *power to the people, not the machines*
