Thursday 20 February 2020

Speed Kills!

...unless it's us police, then it's perfectly fine, citizen!
A police driving instructor clocked speeds of 101mph in a 30mph area, a court heard.
PC Paul Brown, 48, of Norwich, denied 16 driving offences while in an unmarked police BMW X5.
But wait, really, I mean, how can they possibly catch criminals if they can't keep up with them? After all ...

Oh. Hang on.
The court heard PC Brown had asked to borrow the car from Norfolk Police's driving school in Wymondham to attend a meeting at City College Norwich on 30 April 2019.
I've been to some criminal meetings in mt time, but none that justified those speeds...
Footage showed him overtaking traffic at high speed on Newmarket Road, going through red lights and reaching 122mph on the A11.
At least this one had his lights on. That's something, I suppose.
He was cleared of the charges after telling the court he was carrying out continuous professional development (CPD) - a mandatory requirement.
Well, well, well...
PC Brown argued he was lawfully exempt from traffic laws as he was carrying out his CPD and the court heard he was "shocked" to have faced charges.
It was heard there was no national or local policy as to how CPD should be carried out.
Really? I though policy was paramount in the public sector?
Norfolk Police Federation welcomed his acquittal. Chairman Andy Symonds said: "He was perfectly entitled in law to use his exemptions because he was using CPD.
"There needs to be some clear expectations and guidance given to officers because there's a risk another officer could find themselves prosecuted.
"Luckily and rightly the right result was received."
Was it?

H/T: Peter Wells via email

26 comments:

MTG 1 said...

Yet another conspicuous disregard for Law with breathtaking displays of ignorance and arrogance. Any rational non-plod can have nothing but the utmost contempt for this reckless, highly dangerous abuse with a subsequent and catastrophic, Justice failure. A decision which may be the precursor to say, armed members of the filth unloading their automatics into a randomly selected victim, citing the new defence of 'CPD training'.

It is entirely down to intelligence. Imbeciles are running a police union, morons are sitting on the Bench and idiots are given high powered cars. So what could possibly go right?

Anonymous said...

Inveniretur in loco iustitia.

Anonymous said...

I live in a residential area which has not seen any police presence for years. It's a 30 mph area but people regularly drive at 50 or 60 mph. God help the elderly or those with children etc. What's sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander it seems in UK today.

Ted Treen said...

Melvin's usual juvenile anti-plod diatribe does, for once, have a degree of validity. To declare CPD training after being identified doing something illegal and stupid suggests that plod believe they are above the law, and the rest of us must just suck it up:- and they wonder why public confidence, trust and respect have diminished almost to vanishing point.

Scrobs. said...

I help out in a team of Speedwatch Volunteers, where we collate info on speeding traffic with the help of a screen, and a yellow jacket.

We have no legal standing, just try to 'educate', because morons who do 60mph in a 30mpoh are just that - thick and stupid.

We are, however, meant to log any 'plod' - or ambulances, exceeding the limits, as even if they are, or are not on the 'blues and twos', they have to have a genuine reason for driving dangerously.

This case above is just not acceptable, and thank you for posting it!

Stonyground said...

Having been stung for going very briefly and very slightly over a 30 limit on an empty and straight road, you could say that I'm pretty unimpressed.

MTG said...

'Juvenile, anti-plod diatribe'? It is your persistent toadyism that best illustrates puerility.

"Please Miss, it was Melvin who made me do it" squeaked teddy boy.

Anonymous said...

Stonyground, you are not alone. They particularly like to do it within 50 yards of a speed limit change sign.

Sobers said...

" To declare CPD training after being identified doing something illegal and stupid shows that plod know they are above the law, and the rest of us must just suck it up"

Fixed it for you :)

Ted Treen said...

Melvin, I truly believe your meds review is very overdue.

Anonymous said...

Even I think this man was lucky to get away with this.
Jaded

Sobers said...

"Even I think this man was lucky to get away with this."

He wasn't lucky, his mates helped him evade justice. Which would be bad enough, if his mates weren't the very people who are supposed to be upholding the law. It just shows the police always look after their own. They are no better than the mafia to be honest. Worse in fact, because the mafia don't have any pretence of being honest and law abiding. The police pretend they are upright and subject to the law like everyone else, while acting like gangsters.

If you are policeman/woman, you are tainted by this sort of stuff. If you remain in a corrupt organisation, you are part of the corruption.

Anonymous said...

@ WC Jaded

"Even I think"

Anonymous said...

The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.

Anonymous said...

Melvin has a new playmate.
Jaded

Sobers said...

"Melvin has a new playmate."

You really need to listen to be honest, because its becoming increasingly apparent that the police are no longer just despised by the criminal classes (as they always have been for obvious reasons) they are now increasingly despised by the law abiding middle classes (which category I would put myself in). And the proportion of the public that support the police is getting very thin.

But of course you can console yourself that such attitudes are just random nutters on the internet, and not representative of the public at large. Thats would be a grave error IMO. There is a pattern emerging in society at the moment, of those in charge either being completely unaware of, or choosing to ignore, the real views of many of those they are in charge of, which are often of a very negative nature. And being very shocked when those views finally are made known, often in very unexpected and chaos inducing ways. Don't fall into the trap of believing the 'statistics' and what everyone around you and in the political bubble says. The reality is very different.

Anonymous said...

Sobers. I'll take fair criticism as we aren't perfect. But massive generalisation is wrong. Your opinion is your own and like Melvin,you don't speak for the whole population.
Jaded

Anonymous said...

The reality is...the corruption of Justice and law enforcement; this post being one of many current examples.

The reality is...a new path leading to absolute power through ruthless repression and police enforcement.

The reality is...constant propaganda, state attempts to control media and the economy; regulation and restriction of speech, mass surveillance and covert use of terror.

The reality is...increased efforts to monitor and regulate every aspect of citizens’ lives and their thoughts.

Sobers said...

"I'll take fair criticism as we aren't perfect. But massive generalisation is wrong. Your opinion is your own and like Melvin,you don't speak for the whole population."

No I don't. But I'm a straw in the wind that you should take a lot of notice of. If a middle class, public school educated, law abiding (not so much a speeding ticket) person like myself has come to despise the police and regard them as both a sort of Thought Gestapo, and utterly corrupt to boot, then you have a problem.

Sobers said...

"But massive generalisation is wrong. "

Incidentally, in this case, if the police aren't institutionally corrupt, why did senior management let this defence stand unopposed? Why did they not make it clear to the court that CPD is not to be practised in this manner and they did not consider what he did CPD? They could have nailed him to the wall in front of the court if they chose to, but they didn't. What does that tell you about said management? It should tell you that they wanted a man who drove at 100mph in a built up area for no good reason to escape punishment, because he was 'one of them'. If thats not institutional corruption, what is?

MTG 1 said...

By self admission, 'Jaded' is a constable employed by a Southern police authority, working sedentary day shifts as a media operative. The job entails scouring target tabloids, police blogs (now largely disbanded) and those blogs known to publish accounts of out-of-control police.

'Jaded' would typically post as many as 40 crude and foul-mouthed insults in daily efforts to assail and traduce, police critics. Her early posts featured repeated boasts of being scholarly, highly intelligent and bourgeoisie. These indicators confirmed her low self-esteem and a ready predisposition to falsehood. Diction, dogma, syntax and grammar continue to be the 'tells' of a rough, working-class background rounded off with an incomplete, Secondary Modern curriculum.

Those of us who are minded to speak out against police corruption, must be resilient to libelous counter attacks from police bullies. The latter will often suggest that the author is senile or writing as a sectioned inmate, confined to a psychiatric hospital. I shouldn't laugh at plods' antics but I often do.

Il saluto a Sobers.

Anonymous said...

Wow Melvin you've jumped the shark there old chap.
Tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.
This is what happens when anyone agrees with him, it just encourages him to write utter nonsense.
Jaded

MTG 1 said...

I know a constable who lies so much that she can never believe herself.

JuliaM said...

"What's sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander it seems in UK today."

Sadly, yes...

"Even I think this man was lucky to get away with this."

And now there's precedent, even more will. This is not right. Or just.

JuliaM said...

"This case above is just not acceptable..."

It isn't, it it? And yet, now we'll undoubtedly see more of it.

"You really need to listen to be honest, because its becoming increasingly apparent that the police are no longer just despised by the criminal classes (as they always have been for obvious reasons) they are now increasingly despised by the law abiding middle classes (which category I would put myself in). "

Spot on! And it's getting worse each month, as more is revealed about just how unfit for purpose they really are.

You say he doesn't speak for the whole population. And you may be right. But he speaks for enough that you really should worry.

Anonymous said...

WC Jaded - employed by the State of Denial.