These aren’t kids. The quad rider was a 27 year old man who “[tested] positive following a drugs test” and who also appears to have previously been convicted of possession of an offensive weapon in public. He was jailed for 15 months for this.
The judge described the gang:
travelling at speeds of 35mph*, weaving in and out of traffic, ignoring red lights, and travelling on the opposite carriageway at one stage. This was highly dangerous and posed a significant risk to the public. Many of those who were riding concealed their identity.
* The speed limit in built-up areas here is generally 30mph or 20mph
It’s crazy that anyone is defending the riders when video shows them:
- riding on the wrong side of the road (in the UK we drive on the left)
- riding on the pavement
- riding without number plates
- so presumably these are not road-legal bikes
- so presumably the riders are not insured
- failing to stop for police
- hitting a pedestrian
Sources
heh, “carriageway”
Sure, these guys were pricks but the police looked likely to kill someone over there.
Yeah that’s what I see. Some asshole running into the road trying to hurt bikers and getting hit because he runs in front of one, to then start attacking one of the people he was trying to hurt. ACAB.
Stopped one
Not gonna comment on the choice of method for the intervention but I have a feeling this gang’s members can probably be seen saying things like “immigrants fock up our country mate” and then go eat in an Indian restaurant.
which gang, the cops? definitely
Annoying bikers.
Looks like it’s a big problem on either side of the Atlantic.
That doesn’t justify trying to get them to crash and hurt themselves.
I mean UK police carry no firearm and are held to much higher standards. And the driver of the atv literally ran someone over and didn’t stop.
What kind of police DO you want to have?
You can argue for revolution and civil war in the UK because of fascist politics from both labor and tories, but then you’re talking about armed soldiers not police.
“Labor” sic That’s not the British spelling - are you an outsider looking in, sharing your perspective?
Lol, fucking Americans. Now, as we spell labour correctly, would you like to hear the opinion of a Canadian instead?
Yeah, please.
I forgot Canada had a Labour Party too. I know the Aussies yankified their party’s spelling, which is a shame; from my point of view.
They’re talking about the annoying kids on bikes. Unless you’re doing a Lemmy switcheroo and I missed it.
Motorcycles. And you either want to live in a civilized society or not. So on the one hand UK police are pretty great as far as police go, and absolutely have the right to stop motorized traffic for being “annoying” in a residential street. You absolutely do want to police shit like this. These are just bourgeois kids doing stupid dangerous stuff.
On the other hand there is the political stuff and increasing illegitimacy of the UK government. But I see nothing political here.
Seriously, what am I supposed to be upset about here? Traffic stops?
Hell yea kids fight the power
“Hell yea, ride without insurance and under the influence!”
A positive drug test does not prove driving under the influence.
It merely proves drug use in a timespan that can be easily be a week.
Yeah fuck these guys for sure but dude you didn’t have to fucking prance out in front of them either that was a stupid way to try and stop it.
I hate these “gangs” of kids on ATVs and motorbikes with no licenses. They completely F up traffic, pulling stunts, lunging at cars, and sometimes even wrecking and stopping traffic entirely. They’re like those biker tools that block intersections so the entire gang gets through or street takeovers.
Cars already take over the roads, why shouldn’t people try to take them back?
My local bicycle ride that blocks intersections while the riders go through is known and protected by the police – the legal theory is that if the front of a vehicle entered the intersection on a green light, the “vehicle” can continue through the intersection if the light changes. And a group of people riding bikes as one unit is considered one vehicle.
A bike ride with many people in it is considered a single vehicle if they all ride together with no big gaps through the intersection. There are volunteers called “corkers” who will stand in front of the intersection to clearly signal to motor vehicles that it is not safe to enter the intersection yet. They’re trained in deescalation in case someone is really upset that they had to wait an extra minute or two on a Friday night.
Here’s an article if anyone is interested.
https://grist.org/cities/bike-party-a-fresh-new-way-to-take-back-the-streets/
You must be American. Nowhere else would people have such an ingrained bicycle identity that they’d have to tell everyone, without any fucking provocation.
Watch the video and tell if you think your comment had any relevance.
Did you watch the video? That’s not what’s happening. They literally ran a guy over, pretty sure that’s the opposite of de-escalation.
I’m responding to the comment not the video.
The comment is about the video.
Cyclists and bikers are NOT the same.
A critical mass bicycle ride is tightly organized and usually have a set speed, and anyone involved try not to harass other drivers or pedestrians.
Jackass bikers on motorcycles and ATVs in a rowdy group do fucking annoy everyone.
A critical mass bicycle ride is tightly organized
😂 You and I have been to very different critical mass events. The ones near me are “leaderless” and kind of chaotic. Bike party is hyper organized when compared to critical mass.
Why are you comparing two completely different things? Are you being deliberately dense to start an argument? You are comparing a known sanctioned cycling event to illegal riders, and illegal riders to licensed and insured drivers who legally have a right to the road.
It’s Blahaj, they’re not known for their intelligence.
They’re like those biker tools that block intersections so the entire gang gets through or street takeovers.
This sentence describes bike party to a t, which is not really officially sanctioned – they just give the police a heads up to be nice.
I am not trying to be dense, i am just trying to explain why bicyclists block intersections to let the whole group go through. It is partially to protest cars.
The ones I see aren’t cyclists participating in group events. It’s dirt bikes, atv’s, and now even some e-bikes, unlicensed, unsanctioned, stunt riding and being general assholes on the road. Stop trying to twist reality into somehow legitimizing their BS.
I dont see why the roads should only be for “licensed” cars. Stunt riding is fine as long as it doesn’t hurt people. Sometimes they join in the bike party. It seems like you’re trying to say the roads should exclude all these vehicles, when I would like more ebikes on the road and less cars. Dirt bikes and atvs can come too.
I am not a big fan of motorized vehicles, I generally bike. But it seems to me that saying “stunt riding is fine as long as it doesn’t hurt people” is more or less the same as saying “drunk driving is fine as long as it doesn’t hurt people”. That is if we are talking about stunt driving on a public road (haven’t read the whole discussion). stunt driving is much riskier than calm driving and when you do it in a public road you transfer that risk to other people, including pedestrians and non motorised bikers, who don’t want to be involved.
I really don’t think stunt riding hurts anyone, especially compared to drunk driving. I wish that police would spend their time on real problems.
Yeah they are a real inconvenience for about 30 secs.
Usually takes longer than that to wash them off the bullbar
You realize the inconvenience and endanger everyone they pass for the duration of their ride right? Not just your little blip…
Vigilante traffic cops are fun
They are traffic too
“Traffic” takes over multiple lanes while stunting and deliberately antagonizing normal drivers? Sure, bud.
Sounds like traffic to me
This thread is a cesspit. I didn’t know lemmy attracted these types.
Certain reddit subs were basically designed or practically act like they were designed to polarize society. Like CrazyFuckingVideos or unpopularOpinion. You show the worst, most extreme things to rile up emotions, and those emotions then provide an easy recruitment to the alt-right. Basically this is how social media radicalized 90% of people.
Came here as a Reddit refugee, gonna leave as a hater of all forms of social media, federated or not
TFW you realize the centralization was not the problem.
It’s audience size.
And a question of who gets booted from reddit and who chose to leave early. I think that we’re seeing the first group hitting lemmy now.
there’s quite a bit of nasty old heads, I’m finding. On one hand, they were here first but on the other their main forms of engaging with other people is is either this pearl clutching or being unprovokedly nasty in attempt to “toughen people up”.
It is so bizzare… Almost every comment has more down- than upvotes.
Well that guy on the ATVs life is entirely over.
Crazy how fast you can end any chance at a well-off future.
Well the cop did literally jump in front of him. So if the lawyer is any good at all I imagine he can probably get a little leeway.
the cop was attempting to get back from the motorcycles raging through. he was also wearing high-vis PPE.
furthermore, the ATV rider attempted to continue to flee until the officer pulled them off the vehicle.
ACAB but that doesn’t mean lawlessness is better.
He ran onto a street with high traffic, he didn’t have to do that and put himself at risk.
Continuing to flee is also not provable because there’s a FUCKING COP ON YOUR STEERING WHEEL.
If by “leeway”, you mean “additional charges for driving without due care and attention”, because he wasn’t able to stop in a 40kmph zone when something had been in view for 10 seconds, and seemed to be going so fast that he carried on for 50 feet after running down the emergency worker, then you’d be right!
Lets all hope he gets all the leeway he can.
But “he’s a kid man, a kid”
Like holy crap I wish somebody would smack the guy recording upside the head
The cop was visible on the road for several seconds before the collision, he did not jump in front
He was in that lane for like 30s. You might get away with that argument with a two wheeler.
Nope. The highway code states pedestrians always have right of way and other road users must be prepared to stop for them.
That’s not always reality. I said “might”
I doubt a magistrate would bother to entertain the conversation.
You might want to look again. At about second 22 of the video you’ll notice he literally jumps to the right to put himself in front of the ATV.
Yeah, he was in the whole fucking lane. Do you know what responsible motorists do when a human is in the road? It’s not “try and whip around them on the outside forcing them into another lane of traffic”.
Here you seem to need this: https://www.vsp.com/eye-doctor
Is there any type of context available? Spike mat for bikes seems pretty much interchangeable with pulling a gun in terms of likely outcome for the target.
FYI, the spike strips are designed to minimise the chances of a crash after use. They don’t burst the tires. Instead the spikes are hollow and designed to break off. This deflates the tire slowly, giving the driver a chance to adapt, but can no longer go fast.
Basically, they are far less likely to cause a crash than you seem to think.
Nah, not at those speeds. It seems police are after these kids for being a public nuisance rather than speeding.
EDIT; Ok, since people seem incapable of understanding the context of my answer: Justified or not, it is not interchangeable with pulling out a gun at those speeds. Y’alls reading comprehension sucks.
When you make posts with two statements, people tend to get lost in the meaning and focus only on one. This is why I never bring up the collection of stool samples I keep in my sock drawer.
I’ve noticed. I usually try to have the first part of anything I write act as a summary of a statement, as many people seem to only read a few words just enough to get angry enough to push the downvote button. This is how nuance is lost to headline-outrage. And there’s no reason to limit yourself to just samples when you can go for a real full-scale collection.
…public nuisance rather than spending.
Kids out there causing trouble without even having the decency to stimulate the local economy.
Heh, not sure what my autocorrect was up to there
I paid it off to give me the set-up.
Somehow given what I know of cops in that country I doubt that. Open to any evidence otherwise though
but spike traps seem reasonable for a public nuisance?
See edit
So the sane option is to try to pop their wheels and cause an accident, especially with TONS of kids right behind the lead ones?
They may be at low speeds, but imagine if Officer Porky managed to take down one of the first kids before that big section came through. That kid would have then been a road hazard and likely taken out more kids, hurting both the first and subsequent kids in the accident.
It really is too bad Porky was able to walk away after he got hit. Wish he would have gotten the injuries he was trying to inflict on the kids.
deleted by creator
It’s actually really easy to not be a selfish piece of shit. Most people do it all the time. These shitty kids made their choices, and they weren’t good ones.
So the punishment for violating road rules is execution by cop? You’re talking about attempted murder here.
I’m a motorcyclist and you don’t have a clue.
Punctured tyres aren’t going to kill anyone at that speed.
Apparently motorcycles and ATVs will explode and take out a city block if they get a flat tire. Think of the children!
Knobby ATV tires can be decently thick. I wonder if spike strips meant for cars would even work properly on them.
No, we really aren’t. We are taking about a proportional force response. These people are willing to go speeding around on sidewalks and through red light intersections. They badly hurt people with that behavior. It’s not like the cop pulled a gun.
The only way I can see from your perspective is if you don’t understand how spike strips work. They don’t just pop and shred a fire, they are specifically engineered to slowly let the air out.
See edit
…. There wouldn’t have been an accident. They would have rolled to a stop, or more likely, continued to move, but with a whole lot of rolling resistance.
The cops aren’t choosing what speed they illegally ride at.
I’m not shooting you with my gun. I’m just pointing it in a random direction. If your body happens to be in the way of my bullets, that’s your problem.
The person trained for high-speed driving is driving at a speed that untrained people claim is too fast for that person’s ability in those circumstances while driving for work as an emergency worker?
Dunning-kruger is right.
You’re assuming they’re trained for high-speed driving
“They” being the motorcyclists, not the cops.
You should be able to control a bike in a straight line with a flat tyre, especially at the speed this lot are going.
And falling off isn’t as dangerous as you think.
Stop talking about shit you don’t understand with confidence. Your statements are going to get someone who believes them hurt.
To anyone reading: Take it from anyone who actually rides over this idiocy. A flat motorcycle tire at any speed is dangerous and possibly deadly.
Pussy
I ride and you’re wrong.
I’ve had a puncture at 130km/h and pulled over no problem.
And a lady fell thousands of feet with no parachute and lived. Will you advise others to make an attempt sans-chute?
Sounds like riding isn’t for you if a puncture, which happens to thousands of motorcyclists without any issue beyond a flat tyre, scares you so much.
I can’t believe you have 37 upvotes
I can’t believe its not butter.
Skill issue.
Yes. Teaching the next generation of bikers to be careful, and expecting cops to not spike strip a motorcycle is a skill that your comments seem to indicate that you lack.
Not likely to control a bike after it hits another that was laying in the street
Pretty dangerous to have one of your mates roll over you with their bike
The potential for bad outcomes through a domino effect here is pretty big
We don’t have the full story here, but going from what seems like “public nuisance” to “injury or death” seems like an unreasonable escalation to me.
You should also be able to stop if there’s an obstacle in front of you, that’s on the rider.
Yutes on bikes?
“yeh daft coont” just has a nice ring to it
ACAB
I dislike cops but in this scenario they are not the villains.
What that cop was trying to do, would have caused a serious accident and injuries if he had succeeded. Cops are always the villains, harassing teenagers and brutalizing people protesting against genocide, while protecting rich pedophiles.
What about the serious accident and injuries that the idiots could have caused by hitting children or someone’s pet crossing the road?
Your logic is “I was driving recklessly downtown and your putting an obstacle in my way is endangering me”.
No, it wasn’t the policeman endangering the biker group here, it was the people driving recklessly.
How does getting one or a few of them off the road help? If anything, police presence makes them drive even more dangerous.
But hey, that’s logic some people can’t comprehend. You’re supposed to lick the boots, and if you don’t do that you are the problem.
We don’t execute people for traffic violations!
Delusional much? The traffic stop was clearly visible to the group and the attempt to block the road as well - if you don’t slow down upon seeing an obstacle, that’s 100% on you.
Visible or not, they’re still using a spike strip against a two wheel vehicle. That’s still attempted murder.
Did you miss the part where you are supposed to slow down when you see an obstacle or even an unclear traffic situation up ahead? People who don’t do that do not belong on the road.
No, it isn’t. Even if you fall off due to the flat tyre, and that’s not a given, if you’re wearing a helmet the chances of serious injury are very low.
That’s a frankly absurd statement to make.
They didn’t seem to be driving very recklessly to me. Just in a big group. That cop could have caused a serious accident to many of them, and you would have cheered because “these damn kids”.
They didn’t slow down for the traffic stop or when they saw a police-person on the road. That’s criminally reckless.
Didn’t slow down for the guy trying to kill them?
Nah, fuck the people who ride like this, they could kill someone.
The kids are riding willingly past a cop car.
A safer thing to do is block the road with cars and kettle from behind. Then even if people flee on foot you can impound the bikes or whatever to a vastly better effect in terms of reducing public nuisance.
The officer here wasn’t improving safety, he was making a larger hazard, putting himself in danger, and ended up paying for it.
They want to use their toys and they want to cause harm.
Yes and the cop could’ve killed these kids by popping their tires while they’re riding recklessly. Rather than do actual police work that takes time and effort to remove these bikes from the streets, the cops decided to do the easiest and most dangerous thing for everyone involved. This was absolutely the worst possible way they could go about to stop people who ride like this.
Depending on the belt used the tires don’t actually just “pop” like in the movies. They get holds such causes them to deflate and become undeliverable. Ever got a punctured tire before? It’s not an instant process by any means.
There are belts can actually make larger holes as the spike comes out, but this doesn’t seem to be the case here.
They didnt shoot the kids so there’s still a small margin for “absolute worst”
Like someone jumping in front of moving vehicles
Like a child, for example?
Themselves.
Rolling around 2 ton cars with your dirtbike is a good way to kill only yourself. Even in this video, the guy on the heaviest one, a quad, plowed straight into the cop and only got tackled off it.
The cop knows this too. He jumped in front of him to tackle him.
I agree that you might get scared by people acting too rowdy, and that you might get your paint job scratched, but your chances of dying are way higher with a moving truck nearby than a few dirt bikes.
Any dumb Cunt stupid enough to stand in the middle of the road…
Those are called pedestrians.
And they’re also on the footpath.
Hell yeah, fuck them kids!
While I don’t like these bike gangs, what the police was doing is reckless. I would argue the guy on the quad just feared for his life, because the spikes could have caused an accident. So he did the safe thing and went around them, and the cop just happened to be jaywalking there.
Because Britain is saner, there’s no such thing as “jaywalking” and pedestrians always have right of way, unless they are specifically banned by the type of road.
You don’t have right of way if you just run on the street. That’s called attempted suicide.
I know, and I hate jaywalking too. I’m just applying to them what they apply to us. It’s only fair. If I was doing that same thing (save the spikes) and got run over, I’d still be (partially) blamed for it.
I thought jaywalking existed in UK. Now I know. Lucky 10000, ig.
“Jaywalking” is a made up American crime.
A pedestrian existing on a street doesn’t justify a driver running them over.
The guy on the quad could have stopped if he feared an accident.
Legit means walking like a homeless person, it’s fucking wild.
I know, and I hate jaywalking too. I’m just applying to them what they apply to us. It’s only fair. If I was doing that same thing (save the spikes) and got run over, I’d still be (partially) blamed for it.
I thought jaywalking existed in UK. Now I know. Lucky 10000, ig.
Oh fuck off. The safest thing to do is to stop and take your punishment.
They probably added a year to their sentence with that stunt, and they deserve it.
This is one of the few times I actually feel sorry for the cops.
The community simultaneously wants the crowds of dipshits on trail bikes stopped but also pretty much agrees that a teenager riding around on a trail bike who isnt setting out to hurt anyone doesnt deserve to be seriously injured to stop them.
Their hands are so thoroughly tied its insane.
Punishment for what? Using the road?
For taking an unlicensed uninsured motor vehicle on the road without numberplates or MOT certificate.
Failure to stop for pedestrian, failure to stop for police, speeding, reckless driving, and probably also driving an unroadworthy vehicle, driving without insurance, driving without a licence and you can’t believe this kid hadn’t been huffing anything that day.
Riding like an absolute scrote.
And I doubt they owned that quad either.
Riding like an absolute scrote
What an offence
