Alaskan Rob
New Member
Just to give you an update on the Police response, as their attitude towards cyclists is deeply disturbing...
So after I was pushed off the Police did turn up and take details, and as I went off to hospital they gave me a card. Now the next day I noticed it had an incident number, but not a crime number. Now I was pushed off at 25mph so this is assault / ABH / GBH / Attempted murder - take your pick, and also failing to stop.
Added to the fact I had now discovered via the internet several other very similar and serious incidents in the same area in recent years, I phoned up and asked for the crime number, and passed on the info about the pattern of attacks. I was told it had been classified as an RTA not a crime, despite both me and my friend telling them at the scene that I had been pushed. Over the last 10 days I have called 6 times - as I was told 4 times the officers who attended would call to speak to me and change it to assault, but they never did. Until finally today I got it recognised as a crime.
They reported it as an RTA as it meant no work for them to do, and their personal / constabularies crime clear-up rate would not be adversely affected as they knew it would be difficult to solve.
But the fact that they are deliberately misreporting attacks on cyclists is deeply disturbing as it means these things are not being passed on to the detectives investigating the cases where the outcomes were not so lucky. The cyclist who had his back broken and has been unable to work since. Today I called the detective who was investigating that one and he said after his appeal for witnesses that 'dozens' of cyclists had come forward to say in recent years they had been attacked in exactly the same way in this area, but he said that in nearly all those cases the Police at the time had misreported them as RTAs. This means that the officers investigating the more serious ones never get that info, and evidence is lost.
Now I was never expecting them to 'solve' my case, but I do expect them to honestly report it as a crime, not least in that the info might be useful to other enquiries, as obviously there is something very unpleasant going on in this area.
If within a 5 mile area in the space of 3 years dozens of people were attacked from behind with a hammer I'd imagine the Police would record those as crimes and properly investigate them. If dozens of people at the same train station over a couple of years were pushed on to the tracks I imagine the Police would make an attempt to catch the attacker.
But with cyclists it seems it's perfectly fair game to push them off at high speed at the risk of serious injury or death, it's not even a crime apparently.
So after I was pushed off the Police did turn up and take details, and as I went off to hospital they gave me a card. Now the next day I noticed it had an incident number, but not a crime number. Now I was pushed off at 25mph so this is assault / ABH / GBH / Attempted murder - take your pick, and also failing to stop.
Added to the fact I had now discovered via the internet several other very similar and serious incidents in the same area in recent years, I phoned up and asked for the crime number, and passed on the info about the pattern of attacks. I was told it had been classified as an RTA not a crime, despite both me and my friend telling them at the scene that I had been pushed. Over the last 10 days I have called 6 times - as I was told 4 times the officers who attended would call to speak to me and change it to assault, but they never did. Until finally today I got it recognised as a crime.
They reported it as an RTA as it meant no work for them to do, and their personal / constabularies crime clear-up rate would not be adversely affected as they knew it would be difficult to solve.
But the fact that they are deliberately misreporting attacks on cyclists is deeply disturbing as it means these things are not being passed on to the detectives investigating the cases where the outcomes were not so lucky. The cyclist who had his back broken and has been unable to work since. Today I called the detective who was investigating that one and he said after his appeal for witnesses that 'dozens' of cyclists had come forward to say in recent years they had been attacked in exactly the same way in this area, but he said that in nearly all those cases the Police at the time had misreported them as RTAs. This means that the officers investigating the more serious ones never get that info, and evidence is lost.
Now I was never expecting them to 'solve' my case, but I do expect them to honestly report it as a crime, not least in that the info might be useful to other enquiries, as obviously there is something very unpleasant going on in this area.
If within a 5 mile area in the space of 3 years dozens of people were attacked from behind with a hammer I'd imagine the Police would record those as crimes and properly investigate them. If dozens of people at the same train station over a couple of years were pushed on to the tracks I imagine the Police would make an attempt to catch the attacker.
But with cyclists it seems it's perfectly fair game to push them off at high speed at the risk of serious injury or death, it's not even a crime apparently.
