19 August (Part 2) - Abuse of power. By Bexley council leader and her traffic wardens
As
reported
in June, Bexley council has equipped its traffic wardens with video
recording devices; “to help improve customer service” if you believe the propaganda. We
are beginning to see what Bexley council meant by that.
One might have expected a thoroughly nasty individual like Teresa O’Neill, leader of
Bexley council, to take delight in the prosecution of a motorist, but the spiteful
decision to feature his case on the council’s website probably came easy to her. For
someone well versed in the art of lying to the police to get residents
arrested it may have barely rated on her political tricks meter.
Strangely, Teresa O’Neill doesn’t appear to have made a website feature of
the Civil Enforcement Officer who, a witness claimed,
used his ticket machine as
a weapon. Bexley council took that case to court but the judge threw it out. A
Bexley council spokeswoman said: “We are disappointed with the outcome”. Well
they would be, wouldn’t they? Justice does not feature highly on Bexley
council’s priorities.
Neither
presumably is the recognition of irony a Bexley council strong point. Filming
people in the street without permission provides “transparency” but in the
council chamber it is banned to “respect the wishes of members of the public”.
One of the problems with dishing out power to those without the intellectual ability to
use it responsibly is that the power will be abused, something we commonly see
in Bexley councillors, police officers, and dare I say it, Civil Enforcement Officers.
In the latter case we are likely to see them ganging up on and goading
motorists. A lady witnessed such an incident in Broadway only a few days ago
and sent me this report.
I regard the recent development of parking police wearing cameras to be a violation of a citizen’s privacy;
people should be able to approach the parking police without fear of being
recorded or intimidated with cameras.
This afternoon I saw an altercation between three parking attendants operating as a gang, and
a driver parked in a layby. They were arguing and one of the parking attendants was actually
holding up his camera and reaching forward to shove it in front of the
other man's face. The attendant looked really scary and threatening.
The car driver got very angry, and I'm not surprised. I would have been scared and shaking.
Even as the driver drove off one parking attendant was still leaning into the passenger
window pointing and shouting. After that the threesome immediately huddled together, looking
as if they were checking to see how good a snapshot they got. Presumably they managed to give
the driver a penalty notice, hence the altercation, so why make things worse by aggravating
an already unpleasant situation?
Obvious I would have thought. Give a jumped up little hitler a big advantage over his opponent
and he will start a war.