"Boy Racers" & "Cruisers"

What are boy racers and cruisers? Are they people who drive Vauxhall Corsa's which have had strange looking bumpers put on and an exhaust/induction kit to make the car sound like it has a more "beasty" engine? Are they people who do donuts around car parks and race around the streets? Do they do wheelspins and see who can get their car fastest across Sainsbury's Car Park?

People have different opinions of what they are, and what they do.

Recently I went to KFC to have my refs, went into the carpark and myself and my collegue were going to swap seats so I got out the car and started to munch on my popcorn chicken (yum!)

Anyway, I saw this nice Renault Clio in the car park with lad and his mate sat in it. It was a black one and had blacked out windows and was lowered slightly, and in all honestly it looked really nice!

I walked up to the guy and spoke to him just said "hi how you doing" the usual pleasant talk. He thought I had come across to give his car the once over to check everythin and was going to give him a HORT1 or something! He was pleasantly shocked when I said that I liked his car. Anyway, we got talking on this very subject and I asked him about his car. He said he just wanted a car that looked "different" and personalised, and that he would never dream of doing anything stupid in it that may cause it to be ruined as he had spent so much time and money on it. Fair enough I thought, what a good lad to have an attitude like that!

I would class this person as a "cruiser" I think as he is someone who genuinly takes good care of his car and does it nicely. He likes to meet up with other like minded people in a car park and they just talk about cars, and then go home not doing any stupid things.

The other catagory I believe (dont quote me on this "street slang" I may be wrong!) is the "boy racer". These people seem to do all sorts to their car, often sticking huge bumpers on and making the car just look very untasteful and just plain silly! They tend to be in car parks and do wheelspins and drive in such a way which will earn themselves a nice S59 warning/seizure. They dont take care of their cars either with some having dodgy tyres.

Its just a shame that the second group of people ruin the reputation of the first group of people, and it does seem as though it seems to be that "Male + done up car = Trouble" which is not true!

I have been to numerous car meets and have some good friends at these events and there is nothing they hate more than to be stereotyped - and quite rightly so! Its not on for them to be treated as criminals when the only thing they have done is meet up somewhere with likeminded people - since when was this a crime?

So the "moral" of this is that although the person might be driving what most might view as a "chav car" (not my view!) or a "boy racer car", the driver may be a really nice person with a good attitude and respect for the police and others, with a good job, but just has a liking for cars and wouldnt dream of driving like a twat!

Sterotyping - not nice, not fair, and out of order in the above circumstances (as well as many other circs!!)

Feel free to leave comments as always

What Is The Police

"The police are a group of people, often they hang around in large groups and can often be seen sitting around in their cars waiting for the innocent motorist to come past. When they are called they inform us that it is not a police matter, or if we are lucky they will come out if we mention the words "knife" "gun" "sex" or "fight" and may even come with some of their collegues.

When they turn up and realise that none of the mentioned words are infact present, they piss off. They like to abuse and target the innocent motorist. An innocent motorist is a car which is being driven with the driver failing to wear a seat belt, on their mobile phone, driving with fog lights on or committing other moving traffic offences. When the police cause the innocent motorist to stop, they do not politely discuss the issue, but rip into a huge wave of abuse and profanities and are rude to the innocent motorist.

When the innocent motorist has a chance to get a word in edgeways, and ask the question "shouldnt you be out catching real criminals" the officer will reply with a tone of importance about himself "people like you are crminals and thus I will treat you as one matey boy" The police will then give the motorist a fine for whatever they fancy without informing them of the dangers of what they have done. The motorist will then drive off with a feeling of joy as they have come across an officer of the great british police service."

Sincerely, Joe Public

What has happened to the police today. Gone are the days when the ordinary citizen will respect the police, and the polie would be polite and courteous back. The public feel that they are being targetted and that we are failing them on other areas. What is Joe Public more concerned about, someone driving at speed or big groups of kids being intimidating? Someone who is wearing no seat belt or people breaking into houses? Its obvious! By no means am I saying one crime is worse than the other, but the public want something doing about certain issues and that is the fear of youths and being broken into. Surely this is what needs focussing on more, or at least enable the public to see that this is what we are doing, but sadly, its the motoring offences for which we are most likely to come across ordinary citizens and it is here that their view of the police will occur.

This is where a problem starts for there are some officers who are rude but dont realise it and first impressions are very very important. When this member of the public goes off on their way, they will forever have this experience in their mind, and most of the time if the police officer was rude, it will stick in the mind more.

So Joe Public, I apologise for how the police seems to be now days and that we are not all bad!

On another note I soon have an attachment to a proactive squad which targets prolific offenders and those who break into peoples houses and nick cars!
Oh and once again the weather is crap yet it was lovely yesterday! Wish it would make up its mind!

Speed Camera's

Ahh, the lovely thing that is a speed camera! A very very hot topic indeed!

Lets face it, driving standards in England are terrible! You have people who never signal, people who drive very slow, some drive very fast, and some just cant drive to save their life and are a danger to everyone else on the roads!

I am going to give a balanced view of speed cameras firstly!

"I got caught speeding"
Oops! There would have been many signs saying that there are speed camera's, and they are all bright yellow/green
Speed limits are law, they are to be obeyed and are there for a reason!
If you didnt see the signs, the bright yellowness of the thing, nor didnt know what speed you were doing, what hope is there if a child were to run across the road? Think about that!

"They are just a revenue generator!"
So its 0300 and you are driving down an empty dual carriageway, its a 50mph limit zone, you are driving at 60 or 70. Is this going to cause an accident? Is this dangerous? I dont think so! During the day when its busy or wet ofcourse its a totally different matter!

However, we are still back to the whole "its the law" thing here and if you dont speed you wont get caught! This also links back to if you cant see them, then tuff! All very confusing isnt it!

"Does speeding along kill though?"
It is a factor isnt it, but what about drink drivers? dangerous drivers? unlicenced drivers? cars in dangerous condition? need I go on? Did I miss the government sticking cameras up everywhere that can catch these types of drivers or is it the fact that only police officers can catch these?

Speed camera's where there have been loads of accidents caused by speeding motorists - yeah go for it!
Speed camera's down a nice long straight stretch of road which has had no accidents - no.

There should be more invested in forces roads policing units and road crimes units as it is these that can make a huge difference when sorting out issues of road safety. A Speed Camera will flash you, you might not even notice so you dont know you have done wrong, where as getting pulled over and getting told why you have been stopped, you will learn a hell of a lot more from that experience whether or not you are given a ticket. More often than not, a telling off and lecture works wonders where as a ticket can make the driver feel resentful. Does a speed camera tell the difference between different weather conditions, times of day, etc etc? No!

I would also like to add by the way that I have a clean license and dont speed ever . . . ok thats a lie! I do have a clean license though and hope to keep it that way, but the way camera's are popping up everywhere it will become ridiculous and I no doubt will end up with some for being very very dangerous driving at 33 in a 30! Damn - lets hope the drunk drivers are going to get caught as frequently as minor speeders!
Anyway, a balanced view here so what do you all think then? Answers on a postcard :)

The Youth Of Today!

Now days, say the word hoodie and automatically you get images of obnoxious little shits who hang around the streets urinating up peoples fences/cars drinking white lightning throwing rubbish into residents gardens shouting and swearing, and generally being little shits!

This breed of human tend to have the following features:

• A Cap
• Tracksuit bottoms, often seen withthree stripes down the side
• Trainers which often have a distinctive "tick" on them, and these individuals often talk about how "Phil J is spor'ing his new nik-iees for shaw"
• A thick jumer with a hood which is usually placed over their cap
• Have a limited vocabulary which mainly features profanities between words
• Tend to walk like they have shit in their pants
• Usually hang around in large groups outside the local Tesco Express

Now that we have established the breed of individual we are talking about, apply it to your local area! They are everywhere! The problem we have is that we get loads of calls from people expecting us to turn up and shoot them all (or similar!)

There are several types of calls

1. Youths are congregating not drinking just quietly talking as its 19:00 and not late
2. Youths are walking home after being at a local event
3. Youths are drinking and being abusive
4. About 50 youths are fighting and have weapons

People are under the impression that every youth is up to no good (number 1 & 2 of the above) but still call us, again and again the same night! We go to them at normal speed (this type of job is NOT a grade one! Yet we are expected by the residents to be there as soon as they call!)

Number 4 of the above is what happens when we dont attend as quick as the residents like, so they exagerate and make us risk our lives attending the job (if we are blue lighting it somewhere believe it or not we might crash! The blue lights are NOT, I repeat, NOT a shield of invincibility!) we get there to discover that the youths actualy fit into category 1 & 2.

Category 3 however, is what we get most of. We get there and they are all drinking being abusive and a pain in the arse!

When I (and many of you) were kids, yes we did some naughty things but did we get scared when the police came? Hell yes! We were even more scared if they took us home and would never ever play up with the police!

Today however, they shout abuse, throw stuff at us, even attack us! What has happened? Is it Tony Blairs tough on crime stance gone wrong? Parents not caring? Political Correctness gone mad? (answers on a postcard, or well a comment!)

I arrested a 15 year old drug dealer a while back and the abuse he gave was just awfull! And to be dealing drugs at that age? What has happened??

Whatever it is, it needs addressing! I bet that if we didnt have all this juvinile nuisance, there would be plenty of officers to go after "proper criminals" (apparently road traffic offenders are not criminals . . . ?)

As always, comments are welcome (and encouraged!)

New Additions

Just a quick post!

I have added a new blog, http://comms-operator.blogspot.com its a new one but should become very interesting!

If you want to recommend a blog, please leave a comment or email me!

Tragedy

Today one of our collegues from another force was murdered by some gutless scumbag, similar to lots of other scum bags which now inhabit our country under our great "Criminal Rights Act"

The full story can be seen on the BBC News Website and also read my fellow blogger's post Special Constables Blog

It is sad and my condolances for her family.

Is this what Britain has come to? Murdering police officers? Is this Tony Blairs tough on crime stuff. Perhaps its about time that the government got their fingers out their arse and think "how many more police officers have to be killed before we actually do something about the shit state this country is becoming"

Look how much her collegues care and are also upset about this on Police Specials Forum. It is very sad this event is.

It was only a few months ago that another officer was almost killed on duty but luckily survived, you would think that the courts would start to punish these scum bags and discourage other pondlife from doing the same. I apologise about some of this language but it is just unacceptable!

Deepest condolances to a truley good officer who spent many hours of her life volunteering for the Met doing what she can to help her community.

Is This The Way . . . .

"Is this the way to Amarillo? No, Great Britain!"

A semi-political post/rant today on a very topical thing - the Afghan Hijackers allowed to stay in Britain! Basically ( BBC News Website ) some Afghans (people, not the dogs) hijacked a plain and landed at Stanstead Airport, which is Britains third busiest airport. There were about 160 hostages. That is one hundred and sixty innocent people caught up in the middle of this horific ordeal.

Why did this happen? Well, the hijackers wanted asylum in Britain. So nothing was really heard of this until this week when some out of touch Judge decided to say "yeah stay in Britain until its safe for you to go back to Afghanistan"

I quite like The Suns front cover today which basically says ...

"Come to Britain and get money, a house, benefits, NHS, all you need is a gun and a plane"

Sadly this is true. Our incredibally fluffy country seems to be a great place for people to come and sponge! Now I have no problem if asylum seekers come to Britain, and do the outrageous thing (sarcasm) of applying for asylum like the tens/hundreds/thousands of others do.

Hijacking a plane, holding loads of people hostage for FOUR days is not the way to do it. I think it is absolutely disgusting that such people are allowed to stay in Britain until it is safe for THEM to go home!!! Lets talk about safety shall we then . .
Did these hostages feel safe held on a cramped plane for four days with guns to their head? I doubt it, I certainly wouldnt! Would you?

Ok another view point then, what if myself and my fellow bloggers decided to hijack a plane and land claiming asylum in Afghanistan as it was not safe for us to return to the UK due to it being unsafe as PSD were after us all for "bringing our forces into disrepute" would we be granted asylum? Hell no, we would be coming home in a box!

I do wonder about our country sometimes! its all very politically correct which yeah fair enough it is needed in moderation, but I swear it will be the downfall of our once wonderful country!

Sorry for having a news story/political post but I was not sure what to write about this week! As always please do leave comments about how you feel on this topic!

Specials and Regulars

Often people are under the impression that Specials and Regulars are apart from each other and that they dont get on. These people are usually dinosaurs, or just dont have a clue what we do.

Reading on policespecials.com, it is shocking how badly some forces treat their specials, and how some of the regular officers treat their special collegues too! I wont go into what individuals on ps.com have had experiences with as I dont have their permission to reproduce what they have said here (mainly due to the fact I havnt asked anyone!)

It is shocking though how some are treated. I find myself very very lucky in my force that the only person I have any problems with is one sergeant, and even then its just him being awkward, nothing more!

On the particular sector I work on, they are a very hard working team of regulars. The Specials Sergeant is also very hardworking and only has specials who do the work on his team/sector, and is very good at getting rid of the "deadwood", the regular inspector supports us 110% and does loads to help us, the regular sergeants are fantastic too and we always have a good laugh too!

I was out the other day with one of the regulars who I get on well with when we got into a discussion.

Him: So how did you get interested in the specials then?

Me: I dont know really, just ages ago I was talking to a regular officer who suggested it, so I looked into it and thought, what the hell, I will apply

Him: fantastic! So whats it you do during the day again?

Me: *says what I do*

Him: excellent, not many people who *do what I do* do this, its really good

Was an interesting conversation, and he really appreciates what we do and the effort we all put in. Now, where are all these "specials are useless waste of space" comments which I occasionally hear about? Others in my force tell the same story I do. Is it something to do with the fact that by looking at a special in my force you cant tell that we are specials (as in we dont have any SC & crown or anything) or is it due to respect or what?

For those who have not read Semper Fi's blog, have a read of http://the-semper-fi.blogspot.com/2006/03/they-do-it-for-free_15.html its his view of specials, which is great also.

On a different note, it really bugs me that people seem to view the "Special Constabulary" as a seperate thing to the bog standard police force. I myself cant see it, I dont like to think im part of a "special constabulary" but I am part of "*forcename* constabulary" and do my part to assist my regular collegues whether it be double crewing with one, or taking out a car and doing some jobs for them - intergration I think is the word! I can honestly not believe how backwards some forces are when it comes to using their specials and wonder do they realise how much of a valuable resource specials are!?

To tie things up, I am very happy to work in the force I do and have the opportunity to work with a great bunch of officers from Inspectors down to PC! Well done you all and thanks for your support!