There was a wonderful Turkish festival on the City Hall Square in Copenhagen last Sunday. Easily 10,000 people were in attendance to hear music, cultural events and to hang out in the sun.Along one of the streets there were a long line of posh cars parked. Illegally. The MC announced that the cars should be moved and that the police were on their way. A few moments later a couple of bicycle cops - a man and a woman - rolled up and uncerimoniously began writing tickets. Interestingly they went to work in the middle of the row of cars. Focusing on these two convertibles and not the lesser expensive cars on either side. Police officers making bitter class choices? Anyways…
Cars getting tickets from bicycle cops is always a hoot. If I ever get a traffic ticket, I hope it'll be a bicycle cop that dishes it out.
They had finished writing the two tickets for these two cars when the motorists both came sprinting up. In vain. The young guy on the right was well ready to argue but some older Turkish chaps on the sidelines told him to chill and he did. The other guy played it cool and took his ticket with a shrug.All fascinating to regard. The show had a bit of a sour ending, though. I walked over to the male cop, when they were done, to ask him a simple question. I am, as a rule, polite and smiling. I wanted to know if the bicycle unit would continue after the one year test phase which was ending soon.He was mumbly and vague and said he was quitting the unit soon anyway. Which wasn't an answer to my question. He told me to call his boss if I was so interested. I said I didn't need to when I was standing in front of an officer from the bicycle unit. He just laughed nervously.So much for a bicycle unit bringing officers to street level to interact with the citizens. Putting a human face on police enforcement. Grumpy twat. Him... not me, you stupid reader.The Smiling Blonde Cop was the focus of all the press when the Bicycle Unit launched last year. Have they all gone sour now?
