7
me!
and Hofty borrox:D sniper rat…we have a target…sniper mad dog do you have a clear shot:D
I’ve been to CM a few times. clearly this group are a militant bunch who were looking for a bit of provocation so they could lash out. your instinct to get the hell outta dodge was the right one certainly. I’m totally behind you reporting it to the police. no doubt it was on CCTV somewhere
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They’re not allowed to cause an obstruction. No one is ‘allowed’… if you want to obstruct the highway to undertake a protest then you need to request police assistance… they do not do so…
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The courts only found that the CM rally could not have Public Order legislation applied to it because there was no apparent organiser… that’s not the same as the court deciding that it was ok for them to block the highway and cause inconvenience to others.
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The Bike protests have been organised with Police Assistance and the details of the protest have been passed to the Police prior to the protest. Thus their protests can be considered to fully compliant with the Public Order Act and lawful.
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There is no longer a large or small Police presence as you can’t police something that you don’t know about and as CM has no ‘organiser’ it chooses not to inform the police of it’s planned protest. The Police have to deal with the CM as and when they encounter it.
+1
If anyone tried to get the keys out of my bike they’d be finding out how much a size 12 boot with 18 stone of angry me behind it feels like.
I agree with both of you. Generally we would have reacted the same way and it more than crossed our minds, but, it was just a case of sheer numbers of them… I shall remember the Knee Down massive if it happens again 
I had always taken the fact the police were ‘helping’ with the obstruction as effective permission. Though I note your point 4.
I thought it was a court appearance that made the police step down from their “we’ll arrest you all next month” approach? I thought the arrest was for the blocking of highways, not public order, but I could well be wrong.
EDIT: I was under the impression that the judgment referred to in this article was that critical mass was not unlawful.
It’s still a whole load of bikes blocking the road, though, isn’t it? That’s the bit I was comparing it to, not the legality of the ride.
A lot of motorists are having to wait for a bunch of bikes to stop being in the way and slowly move on. Were a car to try to force its way through the motorcycle protests, I hardly think it’d be met with good nature.
No, I’ve just been speaking to someone who has been lately, and it appears the police have decided to stop going again. You don’t know how long they’ve been absent, do you? They normally manage this for a couple of months, then find it doesn’t dissolve and start policing it again.
The last argument to the ‘something you don’t know about’ was that it always starts in the same place and at the same time and that it’s been going on long enough for them to have noticed this. I thought it was a judge who pointed this out, but I’ve not really followed it for a while.
That is actually banned in their code of conduct because it’s illegal and sets a bad example to the punters. If it was people in High Vis then that would have been marshals, if it was people in normal clothes then they were punters. We can only control them so much as they are members of the public. They would have been reprimanded if a marshal saw them doing that though.
The fact that it starts in the same place is neither here nor there… the Public Order Act requires there to be an ‘Organiser’ and for that ‘Organiser’ to define the route. Given the anarchic nature of the CM the court found that there was no single identifiable ‘Organiser’ as a result it was declared as not being unlawful from the perspective of the Public Order Act or to put it another way the Police were told that they could not use the Public Order Act to prevent an unlawful obstruction of the highway.
The CM continues to be unlawful whenever it causes a needless obstruction of the Highway, the Police however are powerless to act as there is no ‘Organiser’ who that can hold responsible for the event – Who do you summons for the offence?
I agree with your that the Not to Bike Parking Tax protests have had the same effect for defined periods of time, however given that they were organised within the framework of the Public Order Act and the route is known. You as a member of the public had the option to avoid the area, just as you do with other lawful protest and public events that involve road closures. You also know when it will start and when it will finish.
This is not true of CM, which is should also be noted has no declared single desired outcome… it just keeps in happening… The Not to Bike Parking Tax protests will end once Westminster listen to public opinion.
I’m not in the KD masseeeve - I’m a cider drinker, me 
So the court found that it was not unlawful under the Public Order Act, but is unlawful under others?
That contradicts what I thought the policeman was telling me shortly after the event, but I might well have misunderstood him. My understanding was that it was ruled that since the police usually have no trouble policing the event, and have been doing so for years, there is no reason why they should stop now.
When they started trying to ban it, it was explained that the police were going to treat it as an unlawful obstruction by a disorganised group of people and act to disperse it. I don’t know the exact legal terms, but it boiled down to them holding the view that all CM participants were acting in breach of the law by attending this demo without permission. I’d assumed that this is what they’ve been trying to get back to - holding the participants responsible for participating and so apprehending them.
‘once Westminster listen to public opinion’ is a shockingly ambiguous outcome, but I agree with you on how much easier it is to avoid the motorcycle demo.
For the last couple of years the police seem to have policed it such that the bikes aren’t in the way so much. Moving on after a couple of minutes in a junction, keeping the group small, opening up gaps where there’s a hold up and the like, though I’ve never actually experienced it from the point of view of someone in the resulting traffic, and I’ve only gone along to a couple of them.
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The court found that the Police couldn’t use Public Order legislation to ban it because they couldn’t determine who the ‘organiser’ was. That’s not the same as finding that CM was a legal protest.
Ah, I see. Cheers!
stretch what time did this happen?
that is really bad man, I work right on that junction but was off on friday, but if I had seen that happening I would not have been impressed.
well done for keeping you cool
Ah crap
I go away for a couple of days and come back to find out i need a new route home.
Sounds like quite a situation, I thought the worst thing i had to contend with on my ride home was the scallys from the eastate throwing eggs at people as you ride by !
Cheers, it happened sometime around 9-9:30 in the evening as was heading up to the Ace - not completely sure as didn’t have a watch on me…
Hi JobyCan’t remember whether they had hi-viz on or not but I posted on here at the time about them. They were all knobs. five or six of them were bombing down Regents Street hanging onto buses, cars and my bike! One of them landed flat on her face- Ha Ha! Anyway was easy enough to find out who they were- a little subgroup on the skating forum. Never followed it up though. As I said all knobs and not worth wasting my time on .No reflection on you BTW- I’m sure you’re a responsible skater.
Maybe all those cyclists need to start paying the City of Westminster a flat-rate parking fee for keeping their bikes stationary when obstructing traffic.
Alternatively, about 1000 large nail tacks encircling them and their bikes to make sure they don’t go anywhere would be comeuppance for their use of vulcanising rubber to destroy the environment! :hehe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzmyLcDtthI
Does this whole debacle seem familiar to anyone? Mob mentality can bring the worst out of people.
So it seems, both parties are at fault. The motorcyclist for causing the obstruction and the driver for his lack of patience and aggression. Assaulting the driver on camera and sticking it on YouTube was a really sharp moved…