Strika wrote:
I am still of the belief that the tactics currently employed by the police in terms of the motorcycle blitzes in the Yarra Ranges is out and out harrassment and is also discriminatory. I am also of the belief, that I as a citizen, should have the right to go about my business without being pulled over 5 times or more in one ride. That is what really gets on my goat. The guy who used to sit at the top of the Reefton was a M/C officer from Moorabin. He was a cracking bloke. He really was a nice fella. I should know, I got pulled over by him over 20 times. There were some rides where I would be pulled over no less than 5 or 6 times on a ride for a "Random" check.
So two things. 1. The guy sitting at the top of the Reefton, eventually got me fired up enough to tell him to leave me alone or I would file a complaint to the ombudsman. He KNEW who I was, he KNEW my bike, he KNEW my rego and licence numbers almost off by heart and had them recorded in his note book more times than I have had hot dinners. So the last time he pulled me up, I politely asked him not to pull me over again as I would file a complaint. He claimed he was doing his duty. I replied with "You know who I am, you know my licence and bike are clean, you have my details listed and can check them in 3 minutes and come after me if I have committed and offence in the last week since I saw you last. So fuck off and leave me to enjoy my ride." He actually agreed. As I said, he's a good guy. (Small londe headed fella if you run into him, treat him with respect as he does to us.)
2. A deliberate targeting of a minority group is in my mind discriminatory. You can talk about riders being over represented in the road toll, but is that due to them being bad riders for the most part? Or is from being taken out by cagers or poorly maintained or signed roads. Either way, in my mind it is complete and utter discrimination. How can a law enforcement officer have the right to pull me over for NO reason????? What right do they have to do that?? I don't believe our constitution was written in the spirit in which it is metered out by law enforcement in Australia.
I have a good mate who is a senior. I have known him since 1995 when I would him a new ZX6R and we have remained friends ever since. Even he agrees with me. He hates how it has become now.
Dutchy, as I said in an earlier post, your best off staying stumm. You can't win mate, no matter how much of a good old fashioned common sense officer you may be, a portion of your organisation has unfortunately tarred you with there brush and you know why as you have probably had to deal with one at some point from either side of the fence
Don;t get defensive in here though mate, it will only end with people slinging shit. I reckon yr better off keeping it to yourself and not allowing bias to influence people's replies to you.
Good post.
The old chestnut about being overrepresented in the road toll pisses me off big time, the reason motorcyclists are "overrepresented" is simple physics, a motorcycle is physically unstable, without intervention it will crash all by itself, the engine doesn't even have to be running. Try it sometime, hold it, put the stand up and let go, it will crash, all by itself, multi tracked vehicles do not do this.
Hit a patch of diesel on a bend in your car, you might get a bit of a slide, same thing on a bike, same speed will usually result in a crash, and the list goes on, so due to the laws of physics, we are likely to have more accidents. Moreover, once we have the accident the biggest difference, and the biggest reason for the "over representation" is the fact that we have no steel cage to protect us, no air bags, no crumple zones. Our bodies act as the crumple zone. There is no escaping this fact, if you have an accident on a motorcycle you are far more likely to be injured.
No amount of targeting by police or lawmakers will mitigate this, the only thing that will is to change the laws of physics, and that will not happen. Motorcylists will always be overrepresented, and there is nothing that can be done about that.
