American Police

[Gypsy Ram]

People can be thick from anywhere, but in keeping with the anti-American sentiments which seem to be prevalent in this thread, I was in Grafton Street, Dublin a few years ago and a gentleman from across the pond asked me if I could give him directions to Dublin Castle (a distance of about 400 metres from where we were). He was holding a map, so I oriented it correctly for him, showed him the street we were on on the map, traced the route with my finger and pointed him in the right direction. It was basically "See that crossing? Go over it and walk straight down to that corner, turn left onto Dame Street and the entrance to Dublin Castle will be on your left hand side when you've walked for about 5 minutes."

He thanked me, folded the map up, walked over the zebra crossing (I watched him with interest), got to the corner, got his map out again and turned right. Of course, it could be that he was going to go there later, but I have my doubts.

You could have been French about it, pointed the wrong way, and he would have got there. 

[Gypsy Ram]

​I would love to come to the States, can you move it closer ? I was thinking about going to Disney World but spending hours on a plane makes me feel ill, thank god for Paris

In moving to the states and staying with @AmericanRam until I sort out my shiznits. 

[McRamFan]

Been to 44 of the states, Alaska, Ohio, The Dakota's, New Mexico and Nebraska are still outstanding.

I have been on a ride along with a cop friend who lives a few counties south of Chicago, we went to arrest this shoplifter and he introduced me as 'visiting from the UK' the thief said wow you brits must be hard, you don't carry guns...

[SillyBilly]

Police are a joke, I was mugged in quite a vicious and unprovoked attack and all I got was my clothes confiscated, not returned and basically told I could be charged for throwing punches in self-defense before I was knocked to the ground and beaten senseless. There was no evidence too despite being on a high street teeming with CCTV...and they were answering my nicked phone after the attack. Blood all over clothes, description of vehicle and attackers...what more do they need?

I have a police caution for a silly drunken prank I played years ago at Uni which basically counts as a prosecution in a lot of countries around the world. A police caution is a pseudo conviction so lots of Brits through this process have been criminalized in the eyes of the rest of the world for an argument with a neighbour, kicking a ball against a fence, jumping a train barrier as a youth and other sorts of heinous crimes. In some cases they encourage people to take a caution as they don't want time to be wasted through the courts to prove innocence for trivial cases - they can't be arsed to take justice further basically and advertise a caution as something to just accept and move on. WRONG. It has far reaching consequences.

So for me, an incident which perhaps could have been dealt with as slap on the wrist, an on the spot fine or a talking to now means my international travel is restricted or its not worth the hassle to go through the visa process/interviews. This is a problem for my type of work where I travel a fair bit. I have spent the last 20 years having to explain this incident to recruiters, HR persons, managers etc.(who incidentally usually laugh as it is quite comical)  - bearing in mind I don't have to declare it as it is theoretically expunged after 5 years but the truth is it follows you everywhere and your record is never clean. I wouldn't be surprised if I was barred from working with children as an enhanced DBS check/application form would probably throw me out the hiring process before interview. I am a nervous wreck when I travel to the US thinking that border control may just turn me away as they don't want my type there.

My experience reinforces to me the police are more interested in nailing ordinary people and can't be arsed to actually do their job of protecting society. I wouldn't depend on the police for anything apart from collecting their bloated pensions at 50-55 and living like kings and queens until they kick the bucket 40 years later. Bitter? You betcha.

[PrivateDerby]

Contact the force who issued it mate, if it was before 2006 it has probably been removed. Huntley put a stop to Police filtering out cautions after that. If not, you could put a case forward and get it looked into.

Agree with what you say about cautions, they're sold as a telling off but it's a record. Very good for getting cnuts on the computer but a lot of decent people take them just to get out of the nick. 

One thing I've learnt is that county forces are sh*te at bringing suspects in but I put this down to officer numbers and another cut of 20% will make it worse. Big forces with big funding flood the area as soon as the call comes in and end up nicking them more often than not. 

PC's have got a lower life expectancy than most, the mix of shift work, knocks to the head, ***** food and boredom after 30 years of adrenalin usually sees them off early.

 

 

 

 

[SillyBilly]

Contact the force who issued it mate, if it was before 2006 it has probably been removed. Huntley put a stop to Police filtering out cautions after that. If not, you could put a case forward and get it looked into.

Agree with what you say about cautions, they're sold as a telling off but it's a record. Very good for getting cnuts on the computer but a lot of decent people take them just to get out of the nick. 

One thing I've learnt is that county forces are sh*te at bringing suspects in but I put this down to officer numbers and another cut of 20% will make it worse. Big forces with big funding flood the area as soon as the call comes in and end up nicking them more often than not. 

PC's have got a lower life expectancy than most, the mix of shift work, knocks to the head, ***** food and boredom after 30 years of adrenalin usually sees them off early.

 

​Thanks for that chap, it was before 2006, I would have been about 19 at the time. I will take your advice and see what record there still is, it might put my mind at rest if nothing else. I declined a trip to Moscow a few years ago on the assumption the record is still there so it certainly has come back to bite me over the years.

Serves as a warning to the kids on here anyway, don't be a prat like me.

[Day]

Don't accept a caution, I didn't and whilst it really pissed the Police off and taken almost a year, 3 trips to court, it's about to be dropped.

Could have easily thought yeah whatever, signed the paper and had it on my record for 99 years.

Cautions make the Police look like they are working hard, why not charge you and take you to court?