The following was sent to me as a Comment on an earlier Article but I think it deserves special attention:
Hi Guys,
I thought you would be interested to know that I had a rude awakening on Thursday morning. Police banging on my doors and windows, when I opened the door I was arrested and taken to Longsight Police station where I spent hours locked up in a cell and then charged with impersonating a Police Officer.
It was an awful experiance and it may still lose me my bike, all this because I led the Toy run on my well known ex-police bike.
That’s it, I have had enough of charity work, that Toy Run has cost me over £500 in various forms….
I am convinced the police have a different agenda and I just cannot afford the luxury of helping others as leader for all these charity runs, the police have no continuity they want me to help when it suites them and arrest me when it doesn’t, I will miss all the runs but i feel bullied and victimised but thank you all for your support.
Peter
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:47 am
It is in my opinion (due to other events since) that GMP are plain anti-biker and need putting in their place.
They are servants of the community and not its boss.
Legal civil disruption may be the way forward as the cost of such to the police would be to much for them to bear.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:23 pm
this is a copy of the letter I sent to the Chief Constable of Manchester police:-
Dear Sir,
As you may or may not have known last Saturday was the Salvation Army toy run, this is an annual event raising money for children at Christmas, this is all for charity, and everybody gives their time for free.
On Saturday morning I arrived with several other marshals, we’ve been helping out with this event for several years, it is just one of several on the calendar all raising money for charities, this particular event is probably one of the biggest, bikes come from all over the north-west to show their support, they bring presents and also money.
The marshals are drawn from various places, the Blue Knights, and race circuits, all giving their time to help the police, normally we would have two police outriders and possibly one car, this helps keep the group together, and causes less problems for other road users, the event has been growing larger over the last couple of years, it normally ends up at the Trafford Centre, where they park all of motorcycles at the front, I believe last year they raised over £5,000 for the Salvation Army, I have no figures for this year, that gives you a rough idea of how important these events are, all the marshals gladly give up their time and expense for these events.
So you can imagine my surprise when I was told by one of the organisers, that there was going to be no police help, the reason given, lack of resources, which is somewhat surprising when you see picture one, which clearly shows three police cars and two police motorcycles, which I was informed had been there for around two hours, it was also clear from picture two the reason why they were there, to take full advantage of the Salvation Army’s charity, in providing free bacon sandwiches and tea, I found this to be a very callous act, first of all to refuse to help, and then second take advantage of the Salvation Army’s charity, there were several community offices they’re all so, I think they were somewhat surprised by the police attitude, they wanted to help but unfortunately because of the route we were taking it was out of their area, but at least they help to get the group out onto the main road, and for that I can only thank them.
After talking to the marshals and the organisers, clearly we had a problem, because without the police close in the roads the group could not stay together.
We have several bikes equipped with emergency lighting these are used for recovery, training, an emergency response, one of these machines is quite often put at the front by the police, and is used as a rolling Road block, it was decided to do the same thing, to try and keep the group together as much as possible, because we had smaller CC motorcycles with the group, it was important that the leader knew where to direct them so they wouldn’t go on the Mancunian Way, all this time the two motorcycle police officers were standing listening, at the time I didn’t think much about this, approximately 10 minutes before we were due to set off the two police motorcyclists and one car tourer across the car park and disappeared out of one of the entrances, we were told they had received an emergency call, we would soon find out what the emergency call was, after the group set off from the cinema, I was in contact with the leader by radio, his signal went dead, as he got to the roundabout by the Apollo Cinema, where the two police motorcyclists were lying in wait, they pulled him over, which caused absolute chaos, nobody knew what was going on, the group fragmented, part of the group went up onto the Mancunian way, if this was the police’s way of trying to destroy this event, may I congratulate you, your police offices did a wonderful job, when I arrived at the Trafford Centre, to say the air was blue was an understatement, people were furious, what should have been a wonderful day, was totally destroyed by the attitude of your police motorcyclists, after talking to the organisers and marshals at the Trafford Centre it was clear that the leader had been singled out, no other bikes were pulled over, it was also clear that this was a cynical attempt to destroy this great event, by pulling the leader over, nobody knew what was going on.
Personally, I think if I’m asked to marshal any more events, I will have to think seriously about it, I always thought the police were there to help, but after Saturday I’m not so sure.
As for this question of lack of resources, I find that a bit of a joke, no I’ll rephrase that, I find that a poor excuse, surely if a police officer is being paid for an eight-hour day, then whether he is harassing other road users or escorting something worthwhile makes no difference in how much he’s paid, and I’m afraid the whatever excuse doesn’t wash, I can understand the problem if it’s a large event like say United football, but in this case, come on, it would probably have taken an hour or possibly two, or perhaps it doesn’t have the prestige of other events.
You’ll have to excuse me venting my feelings, but a lot of time and effort went into this event, people giving up their time and effort free of charge, and for it to be destroyed, just for the sake of it, I find totally disgraceful.
Yours faithfully.
Derek Hayward.
my apologies for not being able to put the pictures on.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Two motorcycle cops singled out one of our marshals at the front when we got to the Ardwick Green roundabout Esso petrol station and booked him on the petrol station forecourt private property for impersonating a police officer.
The officers taking our marshal out at this point had the desired effect on our run as it disorientated the front runners, with hind sight we should have swamped the petrol station with all the bikes in the group causing maximum disruption on the petrol station but as we are law abiding bikers only striving to make a good cause better we decided to carry on regardless.
The motorcycle cop I spoke to did say they wanted to help but were instructed not to from higher up, he also refuted my claim that we had motorcycle cops last year saying they weren’t actual police but marshals that looked like police and when I said I had DVD evidence to substantiate my claims he then said they were British transport police, it sounds like this guy doesn’t know a real motorcycle cop from someone who is impersonating one????????????????????????????????
The officer also said that this job required seven other motorcycle cops when in fact it was handled last year with only two and one car along with our marshals and wing riders.
What is really bothering me and others is if the officers had been instructed not to help us in any way whatsoever then why were they there in the 1st place and why were they not somewhere else doing what they were being paid for rather than hanging around at the showcase cinemas doing absolutely nothing for two hours except scoffing down bacon barms and cups of tea on tax payers money and the charity of the salvation army.
It would seem that we all have paid out twice in this instance as we pay towards police indirectly via our council tax.
Its my view that its time to make a stand against the heavy handed tactics of the police, we could do with a similar turnout here in Manchester as was the case in reclaim north Wales on the 13th September, I attended this ride out which was a well behaved protest & I met many similar minded bikers as myself. Enough is enough?????
Come on motorcycle news? Organise a meet in Manchester and see if we can get a result here too as is the case in north Wales.
Come on all you bikers get behind us on this too.
That’s what I like about the biker community & heavy goods drivers,
The camaraderie.
We are always there when it comes to the fuel protests and good causes.
You don’t seem to get that with car drivers????
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Just my thoughts, I did look at an ex police bike myself at one point with them being well looked after and relatively cheap. The law if I remember correctly was that the Battenburg Graphics should be removed, there should be no reflective stickers in the yellow/blue placed on the bike and the lights ie blue beacon and strobes front/rear should be removed. I make no wonder looking at the picture he was fined, and the title wannabe, well lol. It is a shame all said that he has suffered so much trying to raise money for charity. Maybe a different bike and lower profile would help rather than giving up altogether.
November 24th, 2009 at 5:48 am
I doubt very much if the law is a specific as Steve suggests, for example about the blue/yellow reflective material. There are of course restructions on having blue flashing lights, although as I understand it steady blue lights are not illegal.
Since we don’t yet know whether any prosecution is to follow this arrest we should perhaps avoid expressing opinions about this particular case.
If Peter does face prosecution (and the CPS will decide that, not the Police) I would like to think bikers would want to help him defend himself and certainly I would be willing to chip in to cover the cost of a lawyer.
Hopefully the law requires much stronger evidence of impersonation of a police officer than a bike with a similar colour scheme; for example saying you are a policeman or wearing police insignia or lettering in a way which is likely to cause someone to believe you are a policemen..
For example I wear a white helmet and a hi-viz yellow jacket (both of them standard civilian biking gear) and I ride a white bike. I get mistaken for a Police bike quite a lot by other motorists and I quite like that because it enhances my own safety – they have noticed me and they start paying full attention to their driving. But that doesn’t mean I’m impersonating a police officer. I’m certainly not intending to do so and an important element of culpability in the criminal law is mens rea, the intent to commit the offence.
Imagine a scenario in which lots and lots of bikers rode around in procession wearing (obvious, joke-shop) police helmets stuck on top of their crash helmets. Would they all be arrested, locked in cells, formally interviewed and charged? And if prosecuted would Magistrates convict them for impersonation (as opposed to mocking) the police? I very much doubt it.
Now there’s an idea ……………………………..
November 25th, 2009 at 11:17 am
My thoughts are that we are always being encouraged as motorcyclists to ‘be seen, be safe’ As the intention of police livery is to increase their visibility to other road users, surely the best way to increase your visibility is to adopt a similar appearance? As long as the bike or rider isn’t displaying badges/logos/text specifically identifying it as a police vehicle, how can the rider be said to be impersonating an officer?
Wikipedia says:
Police impersonation is an act of falsely portraying onself as a member of the police, for the purpose of deception. In the vast majority of countries the practice is illegal, and carries a custodial sentence.
Impersonating a police officer is sometimes committed in order to assert police-like authority in order to commit a crime. Posing as a police officer enables the offender to legitimise the appearance of an illegal act, such as; breaking and entry, making a traffic stop, or detaining.
Dressing up as a police officer in costume, or pretending to be a police officer for the purpose of play or a harmless prank toward an acquaintance is generally not considered a crime, provided that those involved recognize the imposter is not a real police officer, and the imposter is not trying to deceive those involved into thinking he/she is.
The following impersonations class as the offence:
Verbal indentification: The imposter announces to the unsuspecting victim that they are a police officer.
Fake Warrant card: The imposter, though not in any special clothes, displays a police-like badge to the victim. While a real police officer will be able to differentiate between the real and fake badge, the average individual may not.[original research?]
Fake uniform: The imposter wears a uniform that looks very much like that of a police officer.
Fake vehicle: The imposter places lights, decals, or other equipment on a personal vehicle to disguise it as a police car and enable the offender to make arrests or traffic stops.
As our man was engaged in none of these practices as far as I can see, how can the Police continue to follow this course of action?
Pass me my Mr Plod helmet, Stuart…….when are we off to Manchester?
November 25th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Although I do feel sorry for the guy, looking at the photo I can see why the police got touchy about the bike. That said if the law says the bike should not have the livery and lights on it when sold surely it was down to the seller to ensure it was removed before it left the workshop.
November 26th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
I now have a lot more information about this matter which, subject to taking legal advice, I hope to publish on the Blog shortly.
I therefore suggest that any further Comments await this additional information.