copper #1

CHAPTER 27

Copper #1

Mid 70s

My Yamaha RD 350 was parked outside my mothers house in Pontycymmer, it was always parked in the same place, there was never any other vehicle park next to it or nearby or across the road from it, so what happened next was pretty bizarre to say the lest.

at the time I was still living with my mother, I was around 19 years old, this was sometime in the mid 70`s.

( Photo 1 ) . Me standing outside my mothers house in Pontycymmer, leaning on Brian’s bike, the photo shows the end of the street that I lived in for a long part of my life, with Carn mountain in the distance. ( photo courtesy of Brian ). Photo early 80s.?

I was sitting in the living room which looks out on to the street outside, I heard a car outside the house and I noticed through the living room window that it was a police mini that was reversing up the street.

The cop car was in the middle of the road and attempting to do a 3 point turn at the end of the street which happens to be right outside the house.

My mothers house was the very last house in a typical Welsh miners row, opposite was the old Ty Meinwr junior school that I went to when I was younger, during this time when this incident happened it was being used as a factory to produce plastic containers called ( flextank ), the school was demolished some years later, and just left as a large pile of rubble which in 2019 it is still in the same state.

Because this was a dead end there was no other option but to do a 3 point turn unless you wanted to reverse all the way back down the street, it was very rare to see a car come up the street this far, mainly because of this turning around manoeuvre the driver had to do.

I was always curious if anyone came up this far up the street, and even more so if it was copper.

The copper did the 3 point turn and he only just missed the back of my bike by inches, I did think he was going to hit it, he was really very close, only missing the rear of the bike by a fraction, so he finished maneuver then pulled forward and everything was fine.

So the copper pulls forward and then lines the car up along the curb and reverse straight back into my bike, knocking it off its stand, he did only nudge it enough for the bike basically to fall over, there was no real collision to speak off, but a nudge is a nudge and it was enough of a nudge to create a situation.

I saw all this unfold before my eyes, so I rushed out and immediately picked the bike up off the road and put it back on the side stand and then stared at the copper in disbelief.

I was thinking how the fuck did he not see the bike.

The copper just pulled the mini forward a few feet and slowly climbed out of his car, before he had time to put his hat on his head, I said “ are you fucking blind or what “.

I then proceeded to check the bike over.

The copper just stood by the mini and watched me looking over the bike.

He didn’t say a thing, he was most likely thinking about how he is going to explain this to his sergeant at the station.

The RD was not a heavy bike, and it didn’t take a lot of effort to put it back up on the stand.

The copper still didn’t move.

And then eventually he spoke “ I’m sorry, I didn’t see it ”.

I replied “ what the fuck do you mean you didn’t see it, you just did a three point turn right by the side of it.

I took another closer look at the bike just in case there was some damage I had missed.

He spoke again, still not moving from his car “ is it ok “.

I replied “ it looks ok from what I can see at the moment, but you never know with things like this “.

I recognised the copper and I knew his name.

Swearing at a copper back then would get you arrested in an instant, especially using the F word, nowa days the coppers are to busy with other stuff to worry about anyone just swearing, and they tend to ignore it, but back in the day it was a total NO, NO, they would remove you from the scene using whatever force they felt necessary, and if you were lucky you would not accidentally fall down the stairs at the police station going to the cells in Bridgend.

The running joke of the time in Bridgend was to watch out for the stairs in Bridgend police station when they take you down to the cells, oddly enough there were no stairs leading to the cells. You can make your own mind what when on there.

I had a biker friend called Duncan, who spent a lot of time down the Knights arms in Porthcawl, I believe he was a member of the ( TRAMPS mc club) Duncan was arrested on one bank holiday weekend at Coney Beach Porthcawl, I have no idea what he was arrested for, but they threw him unceremoniously in the back of the police van, then they held him down while one copper rubbed the edge of the heel of his boot repeatedly across his neck, causing it to burn under the friction of the rubber.

I always made a point of knowing what coppers were stationed up the valley, normally there are only two coppers, one sergeant and usually a young copper dumped up in the valley to get some experience and do all the sergeants dirty work.

The younger coppers where changed every now and again, so I had to keep an eye on whose who as some of these bambies are very keen on simple misdemeanors that people tend do every now and again.

To be honest the valley was very quite with regards to crime, everyone knew everyone else, or they knew your family and it was impossible to get away with anything.

The most trouble the coppers would have, would be in the pubs on the weekends.

Welsh people like most Celtic people like a drink or two, and there was always fighting in one pub or another over something simple like rugby or politics.

Young coppers are always trying to make a name for themselves, so they can get a better and busier posting and pulling in motorcyclist seems to be one of their favorite pastimes.

Maybe I should have slowed down a bit, but that would have been no fun.

This copper was new on the valley beat.

He was a young copper maybe a little over two years older than me.

He looked quite worried, he said “ are you going to report the accident “.

I thought ( HELLO), I could get something out of this.

I replied “ there is a few scuff marks, I won't know until I get the bike checked out and take it to a garage “.

I knew there was nothing wrong with the bike, but I was not going to tell him that.

He just stood there silent.

I said “ I tell you what, if I don’t make a complaint to your Sargent “.

I could see by his eyes, this was what he was thinking, he didn’t what a complaint like this on his record so early in his career.

I continued “ you just remember what you did today, and we can forget about it and it never happened “.

And then I dropped a bombshell on him, is that ok with you PC PLOD.

( I’m not going to use his real name, has he may still be serving with the police ).

At me, saying his full name, his eyes opened wide.

He said “ how do you know my name “, he stuttered a little when he spoke.

He looked real stressed.

I said “ I know you, because I went to the same school as you did in Ynysawdre and you were in my brothers year “, his name was easy to remember has we share a similar Welsh name.

( small clue there )

He said “ ok, so if you are happy with that, we will leave it all slide “.

I said “ ok, no problem “.

And that was that, he went to do whatever he came up the street for and I went back in the house.

Almost a year later, I had some pay back for my bike being knocked over, when I was pulled over for speeding .

( Photo 2 ) Part of the A 48 road that I was pulled in for speeding, the A 48 is the straight line in the middle of the photo.

I was riding on the A 48 between Cowbridge and Cardiff.

The A48 is a long open road linking Bridgend and the city of Cardiff, it is an ancient road many hundreds of years old, it was first laid down by the Romans 2000 years ago, it has been developed over each century to accommodate any new transport that has been developed over the many years of its existence.

One of which was making the road wider than most roads in Wales, there are still only a small number of villages along its route that you would ride/drive past on your journey, considering how old the road is there is very little evidence of settlements on the road itself.

The road completely skirts Cowbridge town, with a very convenient double lane bypass with some nice sweeping curves.

The bypass travels the length of the town and then carries on toward Cardiff.

The A48 is around 19 miles long from Bridgend to the outskirts of Cardiff and has some nice sweeping bends and lots of eager coppers watching speeding motorist.

As I was riding along, I passed a parked up cop car at the side of the road tucked into a siding that I did not spot until it was too late.

I flashed passed it at 100 mph, I was laying over the tank trying to cut the wind resistance down, so I could get a higher speed, as soon as I seen the cop car in my mirror, I throttled off and not using my brakes to slow down, so my brake light would not come on, I didn’t want to show them I was braking.

I would eventually slow down to the speed limit of 70 mph, but it would be slow getting there by not using my brakes, but it would allow the copper to catch up with me very quickly which may give the impression to them that I was not traveling as fast as they thought I was, and possibly giving me something to argue about.

I knew from the off that I could not out run the police car, the police used these Triumph P.I.`s for pursuit of vehicles, known to all road users of the time as JAM SANDWICH’S because of the red strip that runs across the middle of the police car.

There was no way I could out run it, so I hoped for the best and hoped they had better things to do.

I looked in my mirror and I could see the cop car pulling out onto the road and coming up behind me.

I thought here we go again, and kicking myself for not spotting the copper earlier.

The car stayed behind me for another mile or so just keeping its distance, most likely hoping I would make a run for it, so they could have some fun by chasing me.

I just stayed inside the speed limit and waited for the siren to give its wee waa sound.

The cop car pulled a little closer to me, shortening the gap between us.

When it came close enough, he flash his lights and put his siren on for a few seconds.

I put my hand high above my head so they could see it plainly and waved, showing them I knew they were there, and I was complying to their request for me to stop, and then put my left indicator on and I slowly pulled over to the side of the road, doing everything correctly, so they had no excuse to criticize my riding.

( Photo 3 ) . The police version of the triumph 2.500 pi, pursuit car, known to everyone as a jam sandwich.

The police did not need any speed camera evidence to get you convicted for a speeding offence back then, if it went to court the magistrate would say that there were two reliable witness on the scene i.e. the mochen`s in the car which would have been good enough for the magistrate to fine you or whatever endorsement he wanted to slap on your licence.

There were no points back then, that was not changed till much later, the magistrate also had the power to ban you from driving for how long he saw fit, and all this evidence would be based on the word of two coppers, their word was never called into question, policeman don’t lie, so one particular magistrate told me.

I take it that this certain magistrate, ( no name for obvious reasons ) goes to work riding a unicorn and lives in a street called rainbow drive where the grass is always green and only bad people wear leather jackets and life is beautiful all the time, these type of people live in totally different worlds and obviously with agendas that are poles apart from the normal everyday person.

( I have a story about this particular magistrate, I can’t post it as I know for sure, I will get arrested again ).

There were two coppers in the car.

They both sat there, what seemed like ages.

I had enough time to dismount my bike and to take my helmet off and sit on the curb, while they made me wait, they were testing my patience, I found this making people wait tactic very pretentious and extremely annoying, I had to count to 10 mentally even before I they spoke to me.

One copper climbed out of the car and carrying his trusty clip board slowly walked up to me.

I stood up to meet him.

I thought here we go, there’s another speeding ticket coming.

I already had 9 Endorsement on my licence and 5 of them were for speeding.

( that’s another story, on how I had the 5 speeding tickets, I had them all at the same time ).

As the copper came closer.

Guess what.

I recognised him as PC plod, the copper that knocked my bike over, all those months ago.

He walked straight up to me and asked to see my licence and if I owned the bike etc, etc.

I answered “ you know who I am, we have meet before “, he did look at me when he arrived, but I was just another biker caught speeding and didn’t take in who I was.

After I said that you know me, he gave me a little more attention and looked at me trying to think how I knew him.

He took a long hard look, but not saying a word.

I said “ you remember me you knocked my bike off its stand with your mini in the Garw “ and then I pointed to my RD 350 , “ that one “.

He still did not say a word, they must train them not admit to anything and just keep quiet.

He spoke “ ah yes I remember, I owe you don’t I “.

I said “ yes you do “.

The other copper came out of the car, he was checking my details over the car radio.

The second copper P.C. PLOD NUMBER 2 walked up to me and said in a very condescending tone “ right then, you’ve been a very naughty boy, doing 100 mph in a 70 limit “.

He took pleasure in saying the next thing with a smirk on his face, he said “ you’ll lose your licence for this one boy “.

Then P.C. plod said “ leave this to me “.

There was silence between them for a moment, and they just looked at each other for a second.

P.C. plod number 2 said “ yeah, ok “ nodded and just walked away, he headed back to the Triumph P.I., not saying another word, he just climbed back into the car and just stared at the both of us standing by the bike.

It was obvious this kind of thing was a common occurrence in the everyday job they do.

P.C. plod said “ if anyone asks, I gave you a caution, you will still have to produce your documents, because this stop has been logged “.

He added “ that’s us quits “.

he handed me the paperwork that I needed to produce at the police station, then as he walked back to the car he turned around and said “ and slow down before I need to call an ambulance to pick you up from the road “.

I replied “ yeah, thanks “ with a very big smile on my face .

They drove off, I had a very hard stare of P.C. plod 2 has they slowly drove passed me.

I sat back on my bike feeling very happy.

I actually had something from a copper that benefited me, no speeding fine and endorsement for me today and P.C.plod 2 was dead right, I defiantly would have lost my licence for being caught going at that speed.

I rode off and kept my speed down, no point in pushing my luck.

I have never seen P.C. plod since that day, thankfully.

It was unfortunate that my bike was knocked over, but in the long term, I came out on top.

Happy days.

( Photo 4 ) . My Yamaha RD 350.