Sunday 15 May 2011

Strewth, Bruce!

For the uninitiated, planking involves the subject lying face down on, across, over or inside an object – the stranger the better – and then taking a photograph of the stunt to upload onto Facebook.
*shrug* It’s probably not the strangest thing to happen on Facebook, to be fair…
The Planking Australia page on Facebook has more than 10,000 supporters and includes hundreds of photographs of plankters lying on statues, fire hydrants and even at Petra in Jordan.
However, is caught the attention of the Australian police force when a 20-year-old man from Queensland was caught planking on a police car in the city of Gladstone.
Officer failed to see the funny side, and charged the man with being found on police establishment without lawful excuse.
OK, yes, they have a point, with regards to idiots endangering themselves and others by doing this in dangerous places, but good grief, was a stiff talking-to not an option?

But this takes your breath away:
They have also threatened to upgrade the charge to the more serious Unauthorised High Risk Activity.
Ooo-er!

13 comments:

Captain Haddock said...

Sounds like a great idea to me ..

Could we not persuade the denizens of both Houses of Parliament to "perform" on the rails at Clapham Junction, for our delectation ??

Shinar's Basket Case said...

Where the fuck is Azerbaijan, since when is it in Europe and is that how you spell it? THESE are the burning questions of the day.

Lord T said...

It's nice to now that it isn't just UK plod that are a bit over zealous.

microdave said...

@ SBC - "Airmiles" Andy has interests there - the President's daughter for a start. And just look at her mother!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1191313/Azerbaijan-Andy--Prince-takes-60k-private-jet-oil-rich-friends-hardline-ex-Soviet-state.html

Off key said...

Re SBC's burning question: Of course Azerbaijan isn't in Europe. Nor is Israel or, for that matter, Turkey... but the bounds of the Great EUmpire must be set wider still.

For the sozialists of Europa love that: Azer-whatsit's win pleases them, for in the new world order all shall have prizes. Each country shall have at least one win to their name in the glorious Eurovision Snog Contest!

WV= sists = family-related medical condition

Angry Exile said...

I get the police car - hard to see how you can get on it without causing some amount of damage. And I get the balcony because if the silly bastard had landed on someone it could have been two dead and no way to charge the one who caused it. But otherwise it does seem like the cops are being killjoys because they can.

Richard said...

"They have also threatened to upgrade the charge to the more serious Unauthorised High Risk Activity."

That is a chilling phrase worthy of Orwell - or perhaps Huxley. Do we really have a world where you have to get permission before doing something that the PTB consider high-risk? And who defines high-risk? And who authorises it? Today, lying on a police car. Tomorrow, bungee-jumping? Mountaineering? White-water canoeing? All with an unacceptable level of risk and MUST BE STOPPED. BY ORDER.

For our own good, of course.

Captain Haddock said...

"All with an unacceptable level of risk and MUST BE STOPPED. BY ORDER" ...

Surely then, this must apply to vainglorious politicians, who recklessly & selfishly send other people's children to fight unecessary & probably illegal wars ? ..

Anonymous said...

Maybe it is better for the police to be 'difficult' now rather than wait for a pile of corpses and injured to occur.
The real question is why are so many people sheep.

JuliaM said...

"It's nice to now that it isn't just UK plod that are a bit over zealous."

I think every country has its share of people like this. Maybe rather more so in the First World.

"That is a chilling phrase worthy of Orwell - or perhaps Huxley."

It' a most bizarre name for any potential charge, isn't it?

"Maybe it is better for the police to be 'difficult' now rather than wait for a pile of corpses and injured to occur. "

As AE points out, he's hardly likely to come to grief on a police car, is he? At least, one that doesn't have a policeman behind the wheel...

James Higham said...

Ah, I thought about running this one. There is a self-actualizing tendency to these stunts, thank goodness and the overpopulation problem is infinitesimally reduced by it.

Mjolinir said...

Perhaps the Police in Australia feel that "laying face down in public" is - in itself - a high risk activity?

[One does hear rumours about certain forms of 'social interaction' in some areas . . . ]

Angry Exile said...

Amusingly the Queensland police are now being blamed for turning planking from a fad into a craze by issuing a warning about it three days before that guy fell off his balcony. Not sure I'd go so far as to say it's their fault but if you don't want more people to do something that hardly anyone's even heard of it doesn't make a lot of sense to tell the whole bloody world about it just so you can say, "Right, now you know all about what it is, so don'y do it." Facepalm should probably be adopted as the official salute of the QLD police.