Were the Downing Street police men being unreasonable?

[Accy cyclist]

Except his job requires him to go in and out of Downing Streets to Government departments and to the Houses of Parliament and the police there are employed inter alia to open and shut the gate for those people. And clearly his colleagues had had no problem with opening and closing it for him several times before that day so why couldn't he. What you are saying is the police officer was either too lazy or considered himself too important to be doing the job he was there to do. A bit like the bellboy at a hotel telling you to carry your own bags.


We all know there are good and bad police officers around but suddenly because two were tragically killed there seems to be an assumption that they have suddenly all become unimpeachable angels. And we all know that is not true. We have all come across jobs-worth officers who just want to demonstrate their power or throw their weight around and they are still the same jerks this week as they were two weeks ago.

I know there are good and bad cops, but Mitchell and his kind think they're a cut above the rest so that's how they view us...as "plebs"! However,the police federation bloke calling for him to be arrested if he does it again is a bit over the top. Name calling is just that and not a serious crime surely?

 

[Accy cyclist]

Maybe that basket http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...owning-Street-by-calling-them-fing-plebs.html on the front of his bike doesn't do him any favours?

 

[Peteaud]

Maybe that basket http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...owning-Street-by-calling-them-fing-plebs.html on the front of his bike doesn't do him any favours?

But as a tax payer, you paid for some of that.

 

[Accy cyclist]

But as a tax payer, you paid for some of that.

Buying a basket is nothing compared to part funding this ones cushy lifestyle!

"The 68-year-old, nicknamed Two Jags, has been an MP since 1970 and has served as a Cabinet minister since 1997. According to his friends, he intends to carry on as an MP until the next general election.
Mr Prescott will resign with a goldplated £23,000-a-year Cabinet pension and is in line for a "golden goodbye" of £33,500 to help him adjust to ordinary life. He will be entitled to a further £37,000-a-year pension when he quits as an MP.
He is said to be considering a number of options after leaving the Cabinet, but is reluctant to lose the trappings of office - such as firstclass travel and five-star hotels.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-454053/John-Two-Jags-Prescott-drives-sunset.html#ixzz27IRSbR1F
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[Red Light]

But as a tax payer, you paid for some of that.

Do you think he got it on a Cabinet Cyclescheme then?

 

[Red Light]

I know there are good and bad cops, but Mitchell and his kind think they're a cut above the rest so that's how they view us...as "plebs"! However,the police federation bloke calling for him to be arrested if he does it again is a bit over the top. Name calling is just that and not a serious crime surely?

Have you actually looked into his history and what he has done before lumping him into the hated "not one of us" camp?

 

[Peteaud]

Do you think he got it on a Cabinet Cyclescheme then?

No

But he probably has a 2nd home that needed a solid gold cycle store with marble interior and 3 servants to keep it clean, 2 for security and at least 1 other for basket management.

So all in probably about £250K

 

[Phill057]

What ever you may think of him. He was on a bike. He stood up for the right of the bike to travel through a cars only gate. And it would have not have breached too much security letting him cycle out. What ever about the politics of the man. It is nice to see them on bikes and not ministerial motor cars. So give him a break . And this an Paddy talking.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Have you actually looked into his history and what he has done before lumping him into the hated "not one of us" camp?

I try to avoid politics and party politics on non political forums such as this. That's why i evened it up by quoting about John Prescott. I presume that your "what he has done" bit is in regard to him sanctioning billions of pounds in foreign aid(overseas development). To some that makes him a nice person. To others that makes him very much disliked, especially in these so called austerity times when we're told that there's no money in the pot for us, but not for others.
Regardless of which political party they represent people tend to see MP's, especially Cabinet Ministers as above them and on the take as my quote seems to prove.

 

[knotbury]

Yes there is but it is quite clear that Mitchell is a person who is entitled to come and go into Downing Street as part of his job. So why were the police preventing him from doing that? And why on this particular occasion was he being made to get off and push when three times earlier that day and on many previous occasions they had opened the gate for him to cycle through. The more I read about this the more is sounds like both sides were being a bit of an arse although having encountered such jobs-worth officials making it up as they go (and just encountered one on the train where I had to make him read the NRCOC and then admit he had just told me a load of made up bulls***) I can quite sympathise with him losing his temper when faced with an obstructive jobs-worth stopping him doing something he had done all the time before.

I can understand him being upset. I Can imagine that the police may have had reasons. I can accept that his expletive ridden superior tone may be revealing but is not a resignation matter. What I cannot stomach is his denial. And for that he should go. I am tired of those who know better failing to take responsibility and hiding behind lies. And by the way - his behaviour has let down cyclists by confirming the view of many that we are boorish, rude and lacking in respect.Check the CCTV if he said what was reported he should be sacked for cowardice.

 

[Red Light]

No

But he probably has a 2nd home that needed a solid gold cycle store with marble interior and 3 servants to keep it clean, 2 for security and at least 1 other for basket management.

So all in probably about £250K

Ah, the triumph of prejudice over facts. He was not one of the ones who got caught up in the expenses scandal so nice try but no bicycle basket.

 

[Red Light]

I can understand him being upset. I Can imagine that the police may have had reasons. I can accept that his expletive ridden superior tone may be revealing but is not a resignation matter. What I cannot stomach is his denial. And for that he should go. I am tired of those who know better failing to take responsibility and hiding behind lies. And by the way - his behaviour has let down cyclists by confirming the view of many that we are boorish, rude and lacking in respect.Check the CCTV if he said what was reported he should be sacked for cowardice.

How do you know his denial is false? The only witnesses to it it seems are police officers who immediately wrote it down as a complaint and sent it off to The Sun. I am quite prepared to consider that the police officers were lying is an equally likely explanation - after all she had just got into a confrontation because unlike all her colleagues that day and previously she alone had decided that a bicycle was not entitled to go through the gate (or she was too lazy to open it) and made him get off and walk. A confrontation that looked like it might come back to hit her if she wasn't careful. One of the two is not telling the truth and unless someone can get some lip-readers to study the CCTV footage we will never know which one. So we have to give both of them the benefit of the doubt - something you it seems are not prepared to do.

 

[Sara_H]

So, is the reason for the police womans refusal to open the gate on record? It does seem she was being a jobs worth, and that it was not unreasonable for him to expect to be allowed through as usual.

Not that it excuses his tirade, but I can see why he may have lost his temper.

 

[LarryDuff]

I would say there's fault on both sides. He probably should have been let through the gate, he certainly would have if he had been in a car. He then should not have lost the rag and abused the copper.
And what's with the cop then contacting the Sun straight away - is this what 21st century policing is about?

 

[Red Light]

He then should not have lost the rag and abused the copper.

Oh, I don't know. Some people deserve having a lost rag thrown at them, especially when they are being obtuse and obstructive with something you have done day in day out before without any problems until they came along.

I did it yesterday on the train with a Revenue Protection Officer. Made him read bits of the NRCOC* and a couple of other documents from my iPad and then made him admit that he'd made everything he had said to me up and it was complete baloney.

* I'm not an anorak but I've had so many RPOs who don't know their mainline from their siding that I find it easier to carry them around electronically to deflate their pompous bubbles when they start making up their own rules.