Cop video: 2 wrongs, no rights

The video shows two police cars at high speed, without lights or sirens, under-taking a motorcycle with only centimetres of margin, and riders are outraged. But not necessarily at the cops…

The post we shared on our Facebook page has produced two main factions: those who are gobsmacked by the outrageous behaviour apparently displayed by the police, and those who are blaming the rider.

I’m addressing the latter when I say: get your priorities right! No matter what the rider might be doing, there’s no excuse for anyone, let alone police, to put someone’s life at risk in such a blatant, aggressive and thoughtless fashion.

That’s the key issue at stake here. Other motorists would be booked for what the police have done, and while I’ve heard nothing yet about disciplinary action being taken against the officers involved, I hope there is. I know that if I’d done the same thing I’d have been booked. And deservedly so.

I mean, what you see in the video is verging on road rage.

The reason people see it as road rage is because it’s the way many of us would like to treat dickheads who hog the right lane. Right lane hogs are among the most detested road users of all.

And that’s what’s got so many Facebook commentators fired up: the rider should not, they say, have been in the right lane. The implication is that he deserved to be road raged.

I don’t know that road, but it’s said to be a dual-lane, divided road with an 80km/h speed limit in NSW. It is not true that the rider must keep left*. That only applies to roads posted over 80km/h. Unless…

Unless there is a sign saying road users must keep left unless overtaking. And in one comment, someone who says they’re a local confirms that this is the case. So, then, if that’s true the rider was illegally using the right lane.

So why did the police not simply pull him over and warn or book him? That is what should have happened, not the dangerous and aggressive driving that appears in the video.

There is so much wrong with what the police have done in this video, and if there’s not a good explanation for it, such as a real emergency in which the use of lights and sirens had to be avoided, then it’s irrelevant what the rider was doing.

The people who enforce the law must be much, much better than that. Their job is to right the wrongs of miscreant road users, not to join their ranks.

*Footnote: Whether he should keep left anyway is another matter, one of common courtesy as opposed to law. Keep left, people!