Aussie police are bastards too, in fact they're worse.*RANT*

[D O G]

*Warning anti police sentiment*

Reet. You think that UK cops are bastards? Well it is not just a problem exclusive to the UK, and from my own personal experience, the road police over here are much more over zealous than their UK counterparts. Not only do they hide their unmarked mobile scmera units all over the place, in particularly twattish places (like behind trees on a steep downhill gradient, or behind some bushes 50 yards before a speed limit increase from 60kph to 90), but tonight they have fucked me off beyond belief.

Picture the scene (you don't have to try too hard, as there is an obligatory BCF paint diagram attached), on my route to/from work there is a level crossing, controlled by booms and lights. It is a busy line, and I have to stop at it at least four times a week on average. Given that I always ride a bike (pedal or motor) to work, I am at the head of the queue 90% of those times.

This means I have observed its sequence a lot. I know that there is around a minute's wait with the boom down before the train comes past, and only around 5 seconds after it's gone before the boom starts to rise. If it is more than that, there is a train coming in the other direction very shortly.

I have also caught the train a few times, and know that the trains run at 10 minute intervals at that time of day, in both directions.

Apologies for the information overload, however I am trying to demonstrate the level of accumulated knowledge I have of this particular crossing!!

Tonight I was coming home as per usual, and filtered through the traffic to the head of the queue as I would normally do. The lanes aren't very wide, so I pull proud of the cars (effectively over the stop line, but several feet from the boom), so they can see me.

I wait for the train to come past. It comes past, and then another one from the other direction goes past immediately, so I click it into first and wait for the boom to start to rise, knowing that it will do for the reasons I have outlined above.

So the boom starts to rise, and I want to get away from the cars, so I want to get away fairly quickly. I do not wait for the boom to rise fully, I start toi move when it is at about 3/4 of the way up. By the time I pass 'under' it it would have been practically vertical. Note also that I check the tracks both ways before I venture across them - I don't want to get squished!

I leave sharply, but not crazy fast, since there is a red light coming up ahead anyway.

It is at this point that a copper (and his mate) runs out from behind the busstop, which was obscured from my sight by bushes/trains going past and waves me to stop, so I did.

I wish I fucking hadn't.

He asks me whe I have been stopped, I said that I didn't know. He then asks me what a red light means. Clearly I said that it meant stop.

I was off the bike and helmetless at this point, and I assure you was being very polite, not wanting to fuck them off. He asked for my licence, I gave it to him.

So one of them talked about me being on a UK licence, yadda yadda, how that meant I was technically unlicenced 'but we won't worry about that' (it doesn't mean that, I have checked with Queensland Transport), whilst his mate took my details down.

Now at this point I was still hoping that they were just going to let me off with a warning, since I had had not endangered anyone by leaving about half a second before I should have.

But no, there you go mate, a $300 fine and three demerit points (you get 12 here as with the UK).

What the actual fuck? 'It's the same as going through any red light.', says mr twattyarseholepopo

Is it fuck the same. IS. IT. FUCK. It fucking is most definitely not the fucking same you total prick.

It is about the same as selling drugs to kiddies outside a school as selling drugs to businessmen in their private members club.

I ask you this, which one of the above crimes would attract the harsher sentence I wonder? But yet they are still the same offence. How come these fucking pricks/the legislation can attribute a severity scale to one offence, but not another. Fuck me I was livid.

Arseholes. I tried to point this out to the dipshits but clearly they were having none of it. When I congratulated them on their stirling public service they did not like it one little bit. Touched a nerve there boys? Cocksuckers.

Still, I can elect to take it to court, which will take 6 months, and chances are I won't be here then...

In a fucking word, scvm.

[Knacker]

I love the pig face
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Current: Gsxr 600 Srad - GS125 - DT125
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[s44678]

Where I am it's grey, drizzling and generally expensive plus the country is pretty much going down the pan. Where you are in it's warm, sunny, petrol is cheap and your economy is generally stable. Plus I've seen how nice your roads are in a post you made about a ride out somewhere (it has the same name as somewhere round here, Shaftesbury I think it was).

Forgive me if I don't shed a tear for your plight.

[SpicyBlimp]

Loving the pig

in all seriousness though that does seem harsh

[.Chris.]

Hard luck. If you're going to be leaving the country anyway then I'd elect to take it to court then dissapear shortly before the court date.

I have heard stuff about the Australian police taking the piss when it comes to traffic enforcement. Remember reading somewhere that on certain bank holidays fines and points are doubled - quite how speeding on a bank holiday is twice as dangerous than speeding on any other day (if we're going with the whole punishment should fit the 'crime').
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Chris
1985 Kawasaki Z550F

[Tonka]

No surprise to me - when I was out there I absolutely hated Australia and in particular Australian men, so add being a copper to the mix and my hate-ometer would have peaked!

NB. As a general rule, individuals excepted!
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'The core of a man's spirit comes from new experiences'
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[Itchy]

Lois Pryce summed it up in her first book

"all cops everywhere are arseholes".
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[Knacker]

Current: 2008 Suzuki GSX650F 'Halfabusa'


LOLZ
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Current: Gsxr 600 Srad - GS125 - DT125
Previous: K1 GSXR 1000

[stinkwheel]

The main question here is did you, or did you not go through a red light?

If you did, you should expect to be fined when caught. End of.

I also know the sequence of the traffic lights at the end of my girlfriends road. This does not mean I go on red when I know it's my turn to go, I wait for the green. If I did go on red and was seen, I would expect a fine.

Red means stop.
https://images.theage.com.au/ftage/ffximage/2008/08/28/lge_Hellboy_080828121304829_wideweb__300x300.jpg
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[stargirl]

Yeah, the cops are good at hiding. And they have their favourite spots.

But generally- you wait until the boom gates are all the way up, and the lights have stopped flashing. There have been so many accidents on our level crossings.

Does karma apply to cops?

[Itchy]

Hold on are we hearing the first grass isn't actually greener than you thought , thoughts ?.

In that I'm noticing a bit of a trend in that mates who migrated away lots and lots of them for the past 3 years are actually starting to come back.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[D O G]

[Kris]

Completely sympathise matey.

You went as the boom rose which is a technicality and deserved nothing more than a ticking off at worst.

Same as riding off from a crossing with the amber flashing and a pedestrian about to finish crossing. Technically illegal but seriously, only the lamest, sex-starved gimp of a copper would do you for it.

Who I guess you ended up meeting. Doh.
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www.prisonplanet.com

[stinkwheel]

I suspect you'll find that running a red light is an absolute offence, same as it is over here. They won't have an option of giving you a lesser fine, it'll either be a fixed penalty or nothing.

You obviously got them on a bad day BUT you've admitted yourself, you did it and presumably knew it was illegal so I find it hard to justify the amount of vitriol you have expressed.

Given your description of the circumstances, you've probably been seen and reported for jumping the red light on previous occasions. At a guess, the coppers were waiting for you personally.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[D O G]

[Dealan]

I passed this on to my wife, who IS aussie, and has lived in both QLD and VIC. Her instant reply was "aussie police ARE bastards, especially in Queensland". She'll no doubt stick her contribution in here too.

BTW my cousin's a policeman in West Australia, but he rides a horse, to patrol about 3000 square miles of outback, so the only reason he's likely to pull a biker over is coz he's lonely!

[Skudd]

How much is $300 Aussie in real money? £10 ?
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Petty Anarchists look at "1984".............. The Visionary looks at "Animal Farm".

[.Chris.]

About £135, according to xe.com
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Chris
1985 Kawasaki Z550F

[Skudd]

[ThoughtContro...]

[Faraz]

[flat spot]

I was walking through Melbourne about 12 at night and came to a pelicon crossing. It was a 2 lane one way street. There wasn't a car in sight although there were 2 coppers standing on the other side of the road.

It was a red man but as the road was deserted I started to walk across when one of them started shouting "Get Back, Get Back!!"
I was halfway across and had to turn around and walk back to my side.
We then stood there waiting for a couple of minutes looking at each other while no cars even came into sight.
It turned to the green man and we then walked past each other with one of them saying "not in front of a copper".

Jesus you smegs the road was deserted.

I can't be arsed typing about the other run-in when I was threated with doing 4hrs. He kept repeating this until I asked what the hell does doing 4hrs mean? (apparantly they can lock you up for 4 hrs with no real justification?)

[Andy C]

That sucks, seems a but harsh for what really doesnt matter IMO.

I just dont understand why Police go out of their way ie hiding in buses etc to give out fines. I means its not like they get it in their paycheck and im sure a lot of them speed when off duty.

And there was me thinking all Aussies were nice
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[G]

[MarkJ]

Agreed, it just sounds like they're trying to meet some targets, when you didn't do anything to deserve 3 points and $300 fine.

I've always thought if I were to emigrate it'd be to Oz, but the one thing that's always put me off is the police for the reasons Damofo stated.