A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Ticketing and stop and searching of London Critical Mass.

Masser | 30.08.2008 09:48 | Repression | London

Reports are coming in of police ticketing and searching riders during last night's ride and this seems to indicate a stepping up of police harassment, maybe in advance of the House of Lords appeal hearing in October, or in imitation of heavy-handed New York and Minneapolis police perhaps?

What is strange is that a few riders are ticketed for going through red lights while the majority are ordered to do so and break the law by the police. What sort of double-standard policing is this? There is also criticism of riders by riders for not stopping in support of those who are being harassed by the police.

"The police is clearly trying to monopolize the event, and they want the people to think we are abusing everyone else rights." claims one rider.

http://criticalmasslondon.org.uk

Masser

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

red lights and the law

30.08.2008 12:28

Whatever other considerations may apply it's not usually an offence to go through a red light when directed to do so by a police officer, but it as an offence to ignore the officer's directions, assuming they are reasonable.

cf. Road Traffic Act 1988 s35, s36, s37
Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002 r33, r36

streetlawyer

Basis for searches

30.08.2008 12:46

What pretext did the cops use for searching cyclists? - PACE 1? - Terrorism Act? - if you were searched and still have the search form and or other evidence of what was said by whom before and during searches put it up here and maybe take legal advice

DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT!

Searcher

The law?

30.08.2008 14:10

"red lights and the law

Whatever other considerations may apply it's not usually an offence to go through a red light when directed to do so by a police officer, but it as an offence to ignore the officer's directions, assuming they are reasonable."

There seem to be a lot of ifs and buts here. What if the police don't actually tell you to go through a red light but everyone else is and the police don't stop you but then they pull you up past the lights? Seems like a no win situation for the cyclist. Also, I assume that not everything a PC might direct you to do is actually legal.

The double standard here is that the police want to compress the Mass into as small a space as possible with no stragglers or splintering, which means everyone going through red lights, with pedestrians waiting to cross on the green are denied their rights, but at the same time police are prepared to treat cycling through red lights as a traffic offence.

Masser

re: tne law

30.08.2008 18:00

> There seem to be a lot of ifs and buts here

That's the way the law works. It would be incorrect to say that it's always an offence to pass a red light, just as it would be incorrect to say that it's always an offence to ignore the directions of the police.

> What if the police don't actually tell you to go through a red light but everyone else
> is and the police don't stop you but then they pull you up past the lights?

The cycle police claim that as long as you are behind their front riders and in front of the trailing van you are "in a cordon, being directed, so are safe to go through red lights and won't be ticketed". I wouldn't want to try arguing that line in front of a judge, but that's the cops problem...

> pedestrians waiting to cross on the green are denied their rights

Which "rights" are those? Does a car have a right to run down a pedestrian when the light is green in their favour?

The police have a power to tell pedestrians not to cross too.

> What pretext did the cops use for searching cyclists?

Section 23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.