I think there was nothing done wrong on the part of the policeman, what he said was technically a lie, gosh, I reckon God will really frown upon that one. I kinda think the policeman was looking to protect the victims/families of victims, rather than cover his arse "in case anyone films a mistake". The consequences of denying filming: at worst someone misses out on a bit of YouTube cred, the potential consequences of being filmed: the video of someone's death is on public display.

Maybe so, but I suspect his superiors would have frowned on it more. It wasn't just 'a lie' - apart from the obvious fact that when people in authority lie as part of their job, that's a much worse thing than just any old person lying - it was a threat. You could equally describe the incident as 'a policeman threatened a member of the public with confiscation of their property when he had no grounds to do so'. Doesn't sound quite so easy disregarded when you put it like that does it?

Yes, it was minor thing, and not worth anybody losing their job over or anything. But by definition when we give people, like the police and government, power over us we expect them to behave well and not abuse that power. What the policeman was doing was a minor abuse, but nevertheless an abuse of his powers. That's not something to be simply dismissed any more than it's something to get hysterical over. Just a telling off and reminding the relevant officer where the line actually is maybe, but still.

I agree with you to an extent and, as I said, if it was me or someone I care about lying at the bottom of a cliff in god knows what state, I don't think I would particularly want anyone filming it either. But there are ways to do things and the policeman chose the wrong way. It would have been better if he'd tried exactly that line of reasoning with Linux rather than going for the aggressive line he did. When the public feel the police will react antagonistically to everything, they tend to find them unapproachable and then the system breaks down.

Jon

[quote="jonbwfc"][/quote]
Yes you can calculatedly word things so as to cause the most impact, it's why however, I don't read newspapers. let's put some pro-my opinion spin on things: "policeman in consideration for families of victim shocker, is prepared to look silly in front of his bosses if it means less shame for those involved, no actual harm done to photographer."

Yes the policeman could have been more tactful, but he's used to dealing with crowds of imbeciles, it's something that a teenager would do, filming an accident, so it should be no surprise when you get treated like a child.

Exactamente.

Put yourself in the place of the family for a moment - that's your sister that's being rescued. Attempted suicide, apparently.
If it was me, I'd prefer that the Police that got to you first and asked you to stop filming. I don't think I'd have been so polite, or veiled, in my intentions.

If you had come up to me and said, "That's my sister down there, stop [LIFTED] filming you disgusting [LIFTED]!!" Or words to that affect - fair enough.

But 5-0 quoting bollocks just to be an asshole is a different thing.

True 'nuff. But again - from the family's point of view, the Police might have acted with the best of intentions.
That's the thing about Policing - you'll never make everyone happy, so who's day do you make worse? The family dealing with an attempted suicide, or the guy with the camera phone?

Rather than clutter up the random photo thread (clicky) with posts about my car, I'll post here:



Since I had the car machine-polished three weeks ago, I've spent around a total of 20 hours over three days. Some of that is things like removing wax residue in the little crevices with a small detailing brush. Some of it was cleaning each bit of the honeycomb grilles and applying dressing. Some of it was either machining out the front grille (bought second hand and had a lot more marks than I thought!) or the bit where some chump hit my car.

Frustratingly, flies seemed to be drawn to the areas where I had applied trim dressing so although the car was clean at the start, by the end of the day, I had them stuck and dead on various trims.

Inters was a good show in terms of what turned up. Surprisingly didn't spot many MK6 GTI cars. Bought a few things like pressed plates, the pic from when you drive in, as well as some detailing goodies.

Food was crap - I tend to be wary of food from these places so I bought some chips. "Can't go wrong with them, I thought."
How wrong was I! Undercooked and tasted foul. Taking my own food next year.

Good work!

Was it your first one then? Did you camp? My mates and I tend to do a Tesco's run on the Friday night as soon as we've pitched our tent and get some [LIFTED] in for our own bbqs etc. It's really good laugh and a social event for me, just as much (in fact probably more so these days) than a car show.

Definitely - meets for me have always been about meeting up other people and chatting, as well as perving at cars and scantily-clad girls.

Think it was my third year. I also normally go to Spring Fest and this year I went to Ultimate Dubs for the first time.

I'll clarify a few things:

- The girl was in no way injured - she had climbed about 20 feet up a cliff and threatened to jump. I'm no expert, but I'd be amazed if she walked away with anything worse than a broken limb. She was no higher than a first-floor window.

- I wasn't so much interested in the girl as the rescue, it was cool being so close to a SAR helo 'doing its stuff'. I never had any intention of putting the footage on YouTube, which is also what I said to the copper. And TBH I was all ready to stop filming until the threat to nick my phone came about, after that point I kept filming to make a point. Had there been a risk that my filming actually agitated the girl to do serious harm to herself, again I would have stopped filming.

In the end it turned out to be just an expensive attention-seeking stunt, there was never any risk of serious harm and everyone went home quite happily - except the girl, who was taken into custody. The funny thing is there's a pavement which will take you to the very top of said cliff, you'd think she'd have made her way there. Anyhoo I digress.

I really only continued filming to make my point to the copper. The Police are there to uphold UK law - I'm sure no-one disagrees with a quiet word in the ear and appealing to someone's sensitivities - but making threats and abusing the powers granted to them really crosses the line.

I also can't help but feel that had I been a BBC journo. they wouldn't have said a word.

Simple solution put an airbag under where she will fall and taser her. That will bring her down without anyone being at risk.

Or do what the Chinese guy did when the man was threatening to jump, and holding up traffic... climbed up, shook his hand then pushed him off!

Yes but not half as fun as seening her getting tasered on the news or youtube. Though I suspect that litigation would be the reason they do not push her off. If she broke a leg she would be entitled to sue.

I've already been thinking about that and am pretty sure they wouldn't have said anything in that case. Probably because a professional team would know the law pretty well and in no way could be intimidated by the plod.