Man cuts car in half to spite petty bureaucrats
The unspoken motto of our political leaders, locally and nationally, and irrespective of party allegiances, could be said to be ‘fleece not protect’. One man in Gloucestershire had a novel response to his car, legally registered off the road and parked in his garden, being clamped for extending a mere few inches—less than a wheel length—onto the public road. The car was due to be scrapped, so he took an angle-grinder to it and cut it in half.
The car owner is reported as ‘glad to get one over’ on the enthusiastically punitive officials, describing them as ‘jobsworths’.
There are many usually unsung foot soldiers in the war against the petty bureaucrats scouring our streets looking for ways to fleece the general public. While the police never seem to be around when real crimes are being committed, other officials pop up everywhere as if by magic to clamp cars, slap on parking tickets, or measure the height in centimetres by which bins are ‘overfilled’. Similarly, CCTV cameras always seem to be empty of film when checked for evidence after crimes have been committed within their viewing range—but speed cameras are, nine times out of ten, to be found in optimum working condition; roads, too, are worn, cracked, and poorly maintained—with the exception of the speed bumps installed every few metres.
If only the same priority and importance were attached to people’s general well-being, safety and freedom—as well as, or preferably instead of, property and the grab by officialdom for more money in addition to our taxes, we might all benefit from finding ourselves living in a more relaxed and happy society. Keep the speed bumps but maintain the roads, plant more trees; prosecute persistent offenders but let’s see an end to catching people off-guard for mere hours or minutes and hitting them with extortionate fines.
Of course, the predators with notepads, mobile phones, tape measures, and pocket cameras, they’re all human too—but sometimes it’s very hard to grasp that fact, and we’re left wondering if there’s a future Prime Minister lurking inside every traffic warden, and if it’s nature or nurture that makes these and other roaming bureaucrats the pedantic and opportunistic wolves they so often appear to be.
tags: bureaucrats, civil liberties, crime, jobsworths, local government, national government, penalties, politics, protest
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