Got pulled by the Police last night..

Lum

Yes but a rear wiper is not a legal requirement, and doesn't even come under "if fitted it must work".

The OP was doing nothing wrong, got pulled and the officer acted like a condescending moron. Now all we have is another law abiding youngster who feels alienated and disrespectful towards the police and who may now be less willing to help them out should they witness some other minor-seeming offence.


I used to get the same thing when I was young and occasionally worked lates. I'd come home through the Birkenhead tunnel which would then see me leaving the nightclub area at about 11:15. I didn't have much money and drove a rather roughh looking Mk4 Escort at the time, so I was regularly pulled over.

The first few times the officers were fine, "Have you been drinking tonight sir?", "No, officer, I'm on my way home from work", "Ok, that's fine, it's just a routine check because of the time, would you mind blowing into this so we can be sure and we'll have you on your way, I'm sure you can understand", "No problem, I understand completely".

But you get the odd one, the "experienced" officer where "experienced" really means "has a cynical, everyone is scum, attitude" or the newly qualified officer on a power trip.

On my second week of nights I was on my way home and had a puncture on a front wheel, my first ever puncture and it caused the car to pull to the left suddenly. Blue lights come on and I park in a bus stop and this git comes over and his first words, "how much would it cost to get a f---ing taxi home", "wha...", "f---ing scum like you make me sick", of course at that age you're not as tolerant of such things and haven't learned to just take the higher ground, so respond with, "It's just a f---ing puncture what's your f---ing problem, I'm not p---ed", "You should watch your attitude son or I'll have you arrested", "maybe you should set an example then rather than just jumping to conclusions, it's no wonder everyone around here thinks you lot are all scum".

For that I got the breathalyser, a full roadside MOT at which point he got even more wound up because he had nothing on me to which I asked, "are you done now? Can I change this tyre and go home", "You can't change it there, it's illegal to stop in a bus stop", "It's a breakdown and no busses run at this time of night, would you rather I changed it in the middle of the road", "I don't care where you change it", "In that case I'll change it here as it's also illegal to drive on a flat tyre, if you want to give me a ticket I'll see you in court, oh (pulls out my Nokia 9110 which was an early brick-like smartphone) and I've been recording this conversation", "Just change it quickly" and gets in his car and drives off.

Now since the last few officers I'd dealt with had been fine, I knew this was just a one-off case of an officer suffering from angry small man syndrome going off on a power trip, but had it been my first encounter with the police things would have been somewhat different.

OP: To remove that wiper, you should find a little flap at the bottom end, lift that up and there will be a nut. Undo that and the wiper just lifts off

mikey72

Inactive wrote: »

I have never had a problem with the attitude of any police officer, they have always been courteous and helpful in my experience, we would be in a real mess without them.

You've been stopped a lot then?

Inactive

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

You've been lucky then. I'm glad you've never had to put up with an arrogant copper. But that doesn't mean they don't exist.

Possibly, but of course bad attitude is often brought on by bad attitude.:)

Inactive

mikey72 wrote: »

You've been stopped a lot then?

Nope, just in normal dealings like asking the way etc.

mikey72

Inactive wrote: »

Possibly, but of course bad attitude is often brought on by bad attitude.:)

I think it's exactly as you have said.
The problem is the police who stop you have the first word, and that then sets the whole tone.
You've only got to watch a few episodes of police interceptor. The police come straight out with the attitude, patronising speech, and anything other than a "yes sir" answer, it's immediate, watch your language, don't be cheeky, I'll arrest you for that instead if we can't find a motoring offence, then they proceed to try to get a rise out of the (usually young) motorist.

Gordon_Hose

Inactive wrote: »

Possibly, but of course bad attitude is often brought on by bad attitude.:)

I have been stopped by the Police on a couple of occasions, and was nice as pie, "Good afternoon, Officer" etc...to be met with rudeness. I've also had good experiences.

But to say coppers aren't arrogant from the offset is just rubbish. Because some of them are.

FakeIrish

Inactive wrote: »

Possibly, but of course bad attitude is often brought on by bad attitude.:)

That works both ways. If a copper has a bad attitude from the start, they are more likely to get it back.

JulieGeorgiana

vikingaero wrote: »

Exactly. Any visible defect will attraction attention.

If you don't want attention then fix it pronto! For instance, a headlight bulb on Mrs V's car blew last Wednesday. I calculated that the next time I would have a decent amount of time to fix it would be on the Sunday. But instead I went out in the rain to fix it within 10 minutes of it blowing. It was a pain in the arris to do but I have the pride to want to make sure everything is 100%.

I am like this. If I noticed a headlight out, I am straight around to the Garage and they replace it!

Before anyone criticises about the cost of a garage repair... I pay £2.50 at the main dealer... or more if I buy the part and fit it myself!

The Dealer always fits me in... even if I turn up at 5.50pm and they are about to close

Point is i agree that a default on the car should be see to ASAP. If I don't have the money and it is a 'legal' requirement, I put it on the Credit Card and make sure I find that money BEFORE the bill comes in!!

On the point of messy cars thought... Mine is so dirty (as I work on a building site where they drill so it's always caked in mud EVERY day) and I have yet to be pulled over.

I do admit to not driving much at night!

Inactive

OK, a perfectly true story;

My Brother recently was taking his Wife to the local hospital for a cancer check, as he was leaving the dual carriageway, his front tyre blew out, he pulled over as far as he could on the slip road.

He is disabled, but started to try to change the wheel, a police car that was travelling in the opposite direction spotted him, turned around at the next junction and then pulled up behind him.

He explained the situation to the 2 police officers, one of them started to change the wheel for him, the other one radio'd for another police car.

A Panda car arrived and took his Wife on to the hospital, the first 2 officers changed the wheel for him.

Now they clearly did not have " attitude " did they?

Blobby8_2

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

She was obviously flying the Japanese flag!
Best way to deal with arrogant coppers is to be really, really polite. Extra polite even.

Excellent advice for dealing with any of the police force at any time I suggest. You may think them arrogant/rude/whatever but they can make things very awkward.