One single thing that makes you think "knob" Vol 4

[anonymous-user]

Liquid Knight said:

1/ Stealing a charity tin should qualify anyone and everyone impunity from beating the living crap out of the thief, cutting their fingers off and making them eat them before being dumped fifty miles from the nearest hospital.

It seems that worse than the stealing is the row it started on the local fb group. It has been deleted now, but it turned into a row about beating children somehow

[LuS1fer]

Liquid Knight said:

That's what Jury's are for. Any "significant" doubt brought about by the date being wrong on the CCTV could/should have been eliminated.

That scenario comes across as a bit dodgy to me but in some cases Judges should be arrested for wasting Police time. Soft sentencing or even suspended sentences of career criminals for whatever reason. I know several serving Police officers who have been wondering "why should they bother?" for quite a while. A whole lot of tax payers money wasted on a wrist slap.

No it isn't. A case can be stopped on a submission of no case to answer if the evidence is not there before a jury ever sees it and, with theft of a charity box, it is more likely to be Magistrates or a District Judge unless the Defendant elected trial. As usual, no conclusions can be drawn without knowing the full facts.

As for sentencing, there are sentencing guidelines that have to be followed which are reasonably prescriptive.
It is true that some career criminal are sometimes given suspended sentences but only where there is solid and concrete evidence they are rehabilitating, in some form or another. An example might be a career shoplifter who last offended in 2016 and then, in drink, relapsed but is still getting help from Probation or a drugs service. There might well be an argument for suspending a sentence if he'd put a lot of work in and had just got a flat and a job.

The point of a suspended sentence is that it must be activated unless unjust to do so so the career criminals will "come again" and get a new sentence AND the suspended one, consecutively. The main point of community penalties, whatever your view, is that they offer some prospect of rehabilitation whereas prison simply costs the taxpayer a huge amount of money and no rehabilitation prospect at all.

[IJB1959]

LuS1fer said:

IJB1959 said:

I had a chap steal a nearly full cancer collection box tied to the counter. Caught him on camera and passed the recording to The Police who identified and arrested him. The CCTV recording machine had re-set the date stamp to be 2012 (default) instead of 2017 after a short power cut, so the judge threw the case out as 'insufficient' evidence because of this, and as he was in prison for theft from 2010 to 2013...….judge being a knob of the largest kind.

That is a failure of technology (as it so often is) and a failure in proving a crucial element of the offence.
Had there been a statement proving the machine had reset and a statement identifying the theft on the CCTV footage as having occurred on that day, the gap could doubtless have been remedied, before trial but Police often fail to address such shortfalls and the case gets thrown out.
CPS should also have spotted that and asked for it to be remedied (we don't know that they didn't of course)
You can't really blame the Judge, whoever the real knob in this scenario was.
The criminal standard of proof is high and not based on guesswork and assumptions.

Fair points, but it was very clear on video he stole it and the power outage was proven, but it was the judge who ultimately threw it out on the advice of his defence lawyer only because the date was incorrect and therefore the video was inadmissible as evidence and the judge agreed.....total boll**ks I'm afraid.

[nonsequitur]

During recent road works on my patch, there was a level crossing followed by temporary traffic lights 100 yards or so further on. To advise potential knobs and idiots, there was a sign advising ' Do not stop on level crossing'. As we all might contemplate doing. AARRRGGGHH...

[Cliftonite]

nonsequitur said:

During recent road works on my patch, there was a level crossing followed by temporary traffic lights 100 yards or so further on. To advise potential knobs and idiots, there was a sign advising ' Do not stop on level crossing'. As we all might contemplate doing. AARRRGGGHH...

It is more than a little worrying that we share the roads with people who may need these signs.

[Blown2CV]

Cliftonite said:

nonsequitur said:

During recent road works on my patch, there was a level crossing followed by temporary traffic lights 100 yards or so further on. To advise potential knobs and idiots, there was a sign advising ' Do not stop on level crossing'. As we all might contemplate doing. AARRRGGGHH...

It is more than a little worrying that we share the roads with people who may need these signs.

where I live, people driving off the road and onto tram tracks is a weekly occurrence.

[AlexRS2782]

The moron walking in the road towards oncoming traffic on the A30 in Bagshot near Waitrose.

Why is he a moron?

Because the pavement on the side of the road he was walking on is currently closed for roadworks / resurfacing / conversion into a joint pavement & cycle lane setup. There are signs clearly advising the pavement is shut and that you must cross the road at a marked point further back and walk on the pavement on the opposite side of the road. Obviously this chap couldn't be botthered with that and thought it was much safer to walk in the road towards traffic instead

The whole situation was made worse as he was walking along with a toddler in the road too Quite possibly the grandfather responsible for looking after the kid - nice bit of Darwinism in action there.

[Countdown]

Jesus H Effing Christ – people who feel the need to slow down and gawp in detail at cars on the hard shoulder, as if they’re watching the first moon landing, or the arrival of their first-born. It’s just another freakin’ car, and it’s stopped on the hard shoulder. Just what is it exactly that you find so incredibly interesting about this that you need to create a 3 mile tailback in rush-hour traffic?

And, loath as I am to question the capabilities if people in high-viz jackets, HATOS – why do you feel the need to close Lane 1 when the car is already on the hard shoulder, thereby exacerbating the 3 mile tailback? Surely your 4x4 with flashing red lights that can be seen by everybody within a 2 mile radius, is sufficient to warn people that there is a broken down car on the hard shoulder? Is L1 closure needed, particularly when the passengers are on the other side of the crash barrier?

[bristolracer]

Countdown said:

Jesus H Effing Christ – people who feel the need to slow down and gawp in detail at cars on the hard shoulder, as if they’re watching the first moon landing, or the arrival of their first-born. It’s just another freakin’ car, and it’s stopped on the hard shoulder. Just what is it exactly that you find so incredibly interesting about this that you need to create a 3 mile tailback in rush-hour traffic?

Always amazed by the people who will slow down to gawp at an accident scene.
Those involved in the accident are possibly experiencing the worst day of their life, possibly watching relatives die or being seriously injured.
You wouldnt wander into a hospice to watch people suffer or die so why do you think its acceptable to rubberneck/gawp or even worse take pictures of the accident scene.
Just concentrate on your own driving, offer a prayer (if thats your thing) but dont gawp at others misery.

[captain_cynic]

bristolracer said:

Countdown said:

Jesus H Effing Christ – people who feel the need to slow down and gawp in detail at cars on the hard shoulder, as if they’re watching the first moon landing, or the arrival of their first-born. It’s just another freakin’ car, and it’s stopped on the hard shoulder. Just what is it exactly that you find so incredibly interesting about this that you need to create a 3 mile tailback in rush-hour traffic?

Always amazed by the people who will slow down to gawp at an accident scene.
Those involved in the accident are possibly experiencing the worst day of their life, possibly watching relatives die or being seriously injured.
You wouldnt wander into a hospice to watch people suffer or die so why do you think its acceptable to rubberneck/gawp or even worse take pictures of the accident scene.
Just concentrate on your own driving, offer a prayer (if thats your thing) but dont gawp at others misery.

This. I also can't stand rubberneckers.

Back in 2014 my Honda Integra was rear-ended. Fortunately no-one was hurt but being peak hour in Perth (W.A.) meant we were waiting on the roadside for a while for recovery. Without fail every few minutes we'd hear the screeching of tyres because some idiot was slowing down to rubberneck and the idiot behind them wasn't paying attention (at the risk of re-starting an argument, probably on the phone, phone use whilst driving is endemic in Australia).

[jamei303]

bristolracer said:

Always amazed by the people who will slow down to gawp at an accident scene.
Those involved in the accident are possibly experiencing the worst day of their life, possibly watching relatives die or being seriously injured.
You wouldnt wander into a hospice to watch people suffer or die so why do you think its acceptable to rubberneck/gawp or even worse take pictures of the accident scene.
Just concentrate on your own driving, offer a prayer (if thats your thing) but dont gawp at others misery.

It's a fine line between slowing down to gawp and slowing down out of an abundance of caution due to possible debris, random pedestrians etc...

I'd hate to think people try and maintain their speed so as not to be thought of as a rubbernecker when a slower speed would be more appropriate.

[Blown2CV]

jamei303 said:

bristolracer said:

Always amazed by the people who will slow down to gawp at an accident scene.
Those involved in the accident are possibly experiencing the worst day of their life, possibly watching relatives die or being seriously injured.
You wouldnt wander into a hospice to watch people suffer or die so why do you think its acceptable to rubberneck/gawp or even worse take pictures of the accident scene.
Just concentrate on your own driving, offer a prayer (if thats your thing) but dont gawp at others misery.

It's a fine line between slowing down to gawp and slowing down out of an abundance of caution due to possible debris, random pedestrians etc...

I'd hate to think people try and maintain their speed so as not to be thought of as a rubbernecker when a slower speed would be more appropriate.

no it isn't a fine line. The police clear debris to keep the unaffected cars moving. It is just people looking, and it creates huge tailbacks.

[nonsequitur]

Blown2CV said:

jamei303 said:

bristolracer said:

Always amazed by the people who will slow down to gawp at an accident scene.
Those involved in the accident are possibly experiencing the worst day of their life, possibly watching relatives die or being seriously injured.
You wouldnt wander into a hospice to watch people suffer or die so why do you think its acceptable to rubberneck/gawp or even worse take pictures of the accident scene.
Just concentrate on your own driving, offer a prayer (if thats your thing) but dont gawp at others misery.

It's a fine line between slowing down to gawp and slowing down out of an abundance of caution due to possible debris, random pedestrians etc...

I'd hate to think people try and maintain their speed so as not to be thought of as a rubbernecker when a slower speed would be more appropriate.

no it isn't a fine line. The police clear debris to keep the unaffected cars moving. It is just people looking, and it creates huge tailbacks.

Having driven all over, it happens all around the world.

[carlove]

Cliftonite said:

nonsequitur said:

During recent road works on my patch, there was a level crossing followed by temporary traffic lights 100 yards or so further on. To advise potential knobs and idiots, there was a sign advising ' Do not stop on level crossing'. As we all might contemplate doing. AARRRGGGHH...

It is more than a little worrying that we share the roads with people who may need these signs.

There's a road near me that is almost always queuing. There's a level crossing on this road and when there is a queue there's a massive sign that starts flashing saying don't stop on the crossing, I don't think I've ever actually seen someone stop on the crossing here, but it must happen for them to install the sign.

[jamei303]

Blown2CV said:

jamei303 said:

bristolracer said:

Always amazed by the people who will slow down to gawp at an accident scene.
Those involved in the accident are possibly experiencing the worst day of their life, possibly watching relatives die or being seriously injured.
You wouldnt wander into a hospice to watch people suffer or die so why do you think its acceptable to rubberneck/gawp or even worse take pictures of the accident scene.
Just concentrate on your own driving, offer a prayer (if thats your thing) but dont gawp at others misery.

It's a fine line between slowing down to gawp and slowing down out of an abundance of caution due to possible debris, random pedestrians etc...

I'd hate to think people try and maintain their speed so as not to be thought of as a rubbernecker when a slower speed would be more appropriate.

no it isn't a fine line. The police clear debris to keep the unaffected cars moving. It is just people looking, and it creates huge tailbacks.

I have been hand-signalled by HATOs to hurry through debris and pedestrian littered motorway accidents before. I will go at my own speed thanks.

[Countdown]

jamei303 said:

I have been hand-signalled by HATOs to hurry through debris and pedestrian littered motorway accidents before. I will go at my own speed thanks.

I appreciate YMMV but IME where there is debris in the carriageway that poses a risk to drivers Police will close the M'way until it's been cleared. It would seem strange for them to wave traffic through given that, at some point, the debris is going to HAVE to be cleared. they might as well do it straight away rather than creating a traffic jam and then doing it later.

[Liquid Knight]

It's better to have a traffic jam for a short while than another collision and potentially death later.

[Jim AK]

Last night about 5pm M25 London Conley area, J22, some throbbed in a BMW X of some sort is out of his car on hard shoulder.

Opens osr door into a live lane to let his young child out for a piss.

I know it’s difficult to do a child seat from the wrong side of a car, he let his kid out with a live lane right next to him!!

Today some dozy bint in a Range Rover Sport in a car park. I’m going slowly looking for a space & this silly cow is hooting, tries to overtake me & waving her arms about because I’m doing this. Also I can see an Ambulance turning around & obviously I’ll be allowing them through first.

Would almost be laughable if I hadn’t been in the car park of .............. a Private Hospital!!

[Liquid Knight]

Jim AK said:

Would almost be laughable if I hadn’t been in the car park of .............. a Private Hospital!!

Anything that happens in or around a hospital is benefit of doubt territory. You have no idea what news that person has been given or what they are going through.

A paramedic friend of mine told me about a time she was overtaken by someone who then jumped a red light on to a roundabout cutting several people up while she was on a blue light run to the hospital. The bad driver was in a hurry because his wife and daughter had been involved in a serious collision. He was getting out of the car outside A&E when the Ambulance arrived. His wife was the critical passenger in the back and she died half an hour later.

He was definitely knobish but understandably so.

[anonymous-user]

The shuttle bus driver at the NEC on Saturday. Disabled chap in a mobility scooter was struggling to get parked on the bus as it was a bit cramped, so I was waiting for him to finish before passing him. Lairy driver then comes over the intercom telling people to get a move on and move along the bus. Maybe if he had turned round he might have seen what we were waiting for.