COP THAT

A little stunned right now. Driving home through Subiaco tonight the cops in the pic pulled a car over in front of me. The younger of the two cops (on the right) then steps out into the middle of the road and extends his arm and points, I thought he was pointing at me or one of the other cars in front. But he was it turns out pointing at the dude up in front of me on a bike. The cop was yelling something but the rider had his iPod engaged and even I could see his earphones 3 cars away so he didn't hear the cop. As the rider passes him (all happens in space of 3 metres), the rider was trying to avoid all the traffic banked up by the pullover, the cop lashes out and hits the rider hard in the arm. Both the cop and rider lose balance and luckily the rider stays upright. He, like me, is totally stunned. After gaining control of his wobbling bike and removing his earphones the cop tells him to pull over to the curb in front of the car (he's just out of shot here but the younger cop is walking up to him).

The irony being that he was being stopped for not wearing a helmet. He was lucky he didn't stack it, he would have needed a helmet then. As i drove slowly past them the cop was mouthing "cos you didn't stop, if I tell you to stop YOU STOP". Seriously? Because the cop failed to use the correct hand signals (palm flat and raised upwards instead he just used a pointed finger) and because the rider amongst all of the traffic confusion, plus the earphones, didn't realise he was pointing at him, the cop can just lash out and almost knock the guy from his bike? Where the fuck are we living? Soviet Russia?

Edit: Tiang commented that this is what they would have done to the same dude in Denmark, much better :)