Police in London attack critical mass

[John Hearns]

On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 01:49:30 -0700, findaddress wrote:

> In case anyone is in any doubt as to where, politically, the sympathies of
> the police lay, perhaps they should take time out to ponder the 'zero
> tolerance' campaigns against cyclists conducted by the City police and so
> on, whilst often showing studied disinterest when drivers break the law or
> injuer and even kill cyclists.

Please do two things:

a) actually go on a Critical Mass

b) speak to one of the good-natured and helpful bicycle mounted police
who accompany the ride every month

 

[[email protected]]

Hi John,

I am not saying that there aren't some decent coppers out there (even
if many seem of the same authoritarian mindset as Sniper 8052 above).
The biggest failings occur at higher levels. I do realise that most
police officers even when they behave badly can truthfully claim that
'we were only following orders' . I am not sure that this is a complete
excuse though for some of police actions, and especially failures to
act, which I have seen in my time.

I have taken part in CM events, not in London though. Believe me, if I
hadn't left the UK because I was sick of living in an increasingly
right-wing, authoritarian and car-centric country I would be there on
the next London CM.

 

[sothach]

> I do realise that most police officers even when they behave badly can truthfully claim
> that 'we were only following orders'
sounds familiar...

> I have taken part in CM events, not in London though. Believe me, if I
> hadn't left the UK because I was sick of living in an increasingly
> right-wing, authoritarian and car-centric country I would be there on
> the next London CM.

Did you find somewhere on this planet to which the above doesn't apply?
Any room left?
- rory

 

[Lin]

[email protected] wrote:

<<snip, snip, snippetty-snip>>

> I have taken part in CM events, not in London though. Believe me, if I
> hadn't left the UK because I was sick of living in an increasingly
> right-wing, authoritarian and car-centric country I would be there on
> the next London CM.

Do please tell us where you've escaped to!

Lin

 

[elyob]

"MartinM" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Tony Raven wrote:
>> David Hansen wrote:
>> > On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:24:40 +0100 someone who may be Tony Raven
>> > <[email protected]> wrote this:-
>> >
>> >> David Hansen wrote:
>> >>> I am surprised not to have noticed anything here on the police
>> >>> attack on Critical Mass outlined in various places,
>> >> You didn't notice http://snipurl.com/i7uz then.
>> >
>> > A thread entitled "first Critical Mass" was of no interest to me.
>> >
>>
>> Well perhaps its no surprise you have not noticed anything here on a
>> Critical Mass if threads with Critical Mass in the subject line are of
>> no interest to you.
>
> perhaps it should have said "last Critical Mass"
>

Or perhaps "This is a thread about Critical Mass and the police letter".

 

[scotty72]

For some reason the coppers decided not to show for the past CM ride in Sydney. It was strangely quiet. Kept expecting to round a corner and BANG!

Not so

Scotty

 

[John Hearns]

On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 02:26:23 -0700, findaddress wrote:

> Hi John,
>
> I am not saying that there aren't some decent coppers out there (even if
> many seem of the same authoritarian mindset as Sniper 8052 above). The
> biggest failings occur at higher levels.

For some reason at the last CM I got the impression that there were people
at higher levels watching.

There was an incident where someone was pulled off onto the pavement by
two non-cycle police in caps, and my impression was they were trying to
move him away from the road. As I say, my impression only.

 

[MartinM]

elyob wrote:
> "MartinM" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> >
> > Tony Raven wrote:
> >> David Hansen wrote:
> >> > On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:24:40 +0100 someone who may be Tony Raven
> >> > <[email protected]> wrote this:-
> >> >
> >> >> David Hansen wrote:
> >> >>> I am surprised not to have noticed anything here on the police
> >> >>> attack on Critical Mass outlined in various places,
> >> >> You didn't notice http://snipurl.com/i7uz then.
> >> >
> >> > A thread entitled "first Critical Mass" was of no interest to me.
> >> >
> >>
> >> Well perhaps its no surprise you have not noticed anything here on a
> >> Critical Mass if threads with Critical Mass in the subject line are of
> >> no interest to you.
> >
> > perhaps it should have said "last Critical Mass"
> >
>
> Or perhaps "This is a thread about Critical Mass and the police letter".

well actually it started as my experience of having ridden it for the
first time; I had not seen the letter at the time I started the thread.

 

[Tony Raven]

elyob wrote:
> "MartinM" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> Tony Raven wrote:
>>> David Hansen wrote:
>>>> On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:24:40 +0100 someone who may be Tony Raven
>>>> <[email protected]> wrote this:-
>>>>
>>>>> David Hansen wrote:
>>>>>> I am surprised not to have noticed anything here on the police
>>>>>> attack on Critical Mass outlined in various places,
>>>>> You didn't notice http://snipurl.com/i7uz then.
>>>> A thread entitled "first Critical Mass" was of no interest to me.
>>>>
>>> Well perhaps its no surprise you have not noticed anything here on a
>>> Critical Mass if threads with Critical Mass in the subject line are of
>>> no interest to you.
>> perhaps it should have said "last Critical Mass"
>>
>
> Or perhaps "This is a thread about Critical Mass and the police letter".
>
>

Or "David Hansen, yes you, our precognition software says this will be
of interest to you" ;-)

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

 

[Tony Raven]

John Hearns wrote:
>
> For some reason at the last CM I got the impression that there were people
> at higher levels watching.
>

You mean on the rooftops? With sniper rifles? Perhaps they thought a
critical mass demonstration was going to be the detonation of a nuclear
weapon ;-)

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

 

[Tony Raven]

scotty72 wrote:
> For some reason the coppers decided not to show for the past CM ride in
> Sydney. It was strangely quiet. Kept expecting to round a corner and
> BANG!
>

I didn't know they did CM in Crewe ;-)

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

 

[MartinM]

Tony Raven wrote:
> elyob wrote:
> > "MartinM" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> >> Tony Raven wrote:
> >>> David Hansen wrote:
> >>>> On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:24:40 +0100 someone who may be Tony Raven
> >>>> <[email protected]> wrote this:-
> >>>>
> >>>>> David Hansen wrote:
> >>>>>> I am surprised not to have noticed anything here on the police
> >>>>>> attack on Critical Mass outlined in various places,
> >>>>> You didn't notice http://snipurl.com/i7uz then.
> >>>> A thread entitled "first Critical Mass" was of no interest to me.
> >>>>
> >>> Well perhaps its no surprise you have not noticed anything here on a
> >>> Critical Mass if threads with Critical Mass in the subject line are of
> >>> no interest to you.
> >> perhaps it should have said "last Critical Mass"
> >>
> >
> > Or perhaps "This is a thread about Critical Mass and the police letter".
> >
> >
>
> Or "David Hansen, yes you, our precognition software says this will be
> of interest to you" ;-)

I beleive such functionality is only currently available on threads
about h&&&&ts and speed cameras, and only on certain newsgroups ;-)

 

[Tony Raven]

MartinM wrote:
> Tony Raven wrote:
>>
>>>
>> Or "David Hansen, yes you, our precognition software says this will be
>> of interest to you" ;-)
>
> I beleive such functionality is only currently available on threads
> about h&&&&ts and speed cameras, and only on certain newsgroups ;-)
>

You need the Sirius Cybernetics precognition extension for Mozilla
Thunderbird. You will note that some people here are already using it.
For example recently some people thought that Mr Senior has set his
computer clock incorrectly when in fact the precognition software was
posting a day early the message Jon was going to write and send the
following day ;-)

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

 

[David Hansen]

On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 10:04:47 +0100 someone who may be John Hearns
<[email protected]> wrote this:-

>b) speak to one of the good-natured and helpful bicycle mounted police
> who accompany the ride every month

You mean line the bicycle mounted police who were handing out the
offending threatening words, whether good-naturedly or not I have no
idea?

Will they follow up their threatening words with threatening
behaviour at the end of the month?


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.

 

[Mark McNeill]

Response to Tony Raven:
> You need the Sirius Cybernetics precognition extension for Mozilla
> Thunderbird. You will note that some people here are already using it.
> For example recently some people thought that Mr Senior has set his
> computer clock incorrectly when in fact the precognition software was
> posting a day early the message Jon was going to write and send the
> following day ;-)

*Some* of us here have been using that extension since 2071.

[And a bug-ridden beta version since 11 B.C.!]

--
Mark, UK

"'Michael Gilhaney,' said the Sergeant, 'is an example of a man that is
nearly banjaxed from the principle of the Atomic Theory. Would it
astonish you to hear that he is nearly half a bicycle?'"

 

[scotty72]

scotty72 wrote:
> For some reason the coppers decided not to show for the past CM ride in
> Sydney. It was strangely quiet. Kept expecting to round a corner and
> BANG!
>

I didn't know they did CM in Crewe ;-)

Ok, maybe I left my brain in park, but ???????

 

[Jon is Away!]

> "'Michael Gilhaney,' said the Sergeant, 'is an example of a man that is
> nearly banjaxed from the principle of the Atomic Theory. Would it
> astonish you to hear that he is nearly half a bicycle?'"

Actually perhaps not so off-topic given the current discussion. I had
been going to post at some point having just read the Third Policeman
recently. A very strange book, but very definately cycling oriented!
;-)

A mind-bending pancake of a problem and no mistake.

Jon

 

[Tony Raven]

Mark McNeill wrote:
> Response to Tony Raven:
>> You need the Sirius Cybernetics precognition extension for Mozilla
>> Thunderbird. You will note that some people here are already using it.
>> For example recently some people thought that Mr Senior has set his
>> computer clock incorrectly when in fact the precognition software was
>> posting a day early the message Jon was going to write and send the
>> following day ;-)
>
> *Some* of us here have been using that extension since 2071.

A good year that!

>
> [And a bug-ridden beta version since 11 B.C.!]
>

Those pre-DEET days were a bit itchy ;-)



--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

 

[sothach]

Everything by Miles na gCopaleen is brilliant: it's worth learning
Irish just to read An Beal Bocht alone...
I haven't read the Third Policeman for years, but wasn't that where he
was gradulaly exchanging atoms with his bike? Mad stuff, and all the
action takes place in a fraction of a second during an explosion.

 

[Tony Raven]

scotty72 wrote:
> Tony Raven Wrote:
>> scotty72 wrote:
>>> For some reason the coppers decided not to show for the past CM ride
>> in
>>> Sydney. It was strangely quiet. Kept expecting to round a corner and
>>> BANG!
>>>
>> I didn't know they did CM in Crewe ;-)
>>
>>
> Ok, maybe I left my brain in park, but ???????
>
>

Sydney is a suburb of Crewe, Cheshire, UK. What other Sydney could you
be referring to in UK.rec.cycling?

Or perhaps you didn't know that cyclingforums pretends uk.rec.cycling
discussion is its own to hide its lack of content

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon