Tuesday, August 14, 2007
It Shouldn't Happen to a LibDem: No 94
Colin Rosenstiel is the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader of Cambridge City Council. And he's angry. Very angry... Click HERE. Watch the video, them read the thread. He accounts for his actions at the end of the thread. Having been the victim of a cyclist with 'road rage' (he smashed my window in!) my sympathy is with the van driver!
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16 comments:
I'm afraid I'm going to side with the councillor on this one. Yes, he rather lost his cool, which isn't ideal for one of our elected representatives, but a significant fraction of men making deliveries in vans seem to think that "I've got a job to do - I've got to do 12 more deliveries before lunch" makes it suddenly safe for them to park on blind corners, block the flow of traffic and so on.
If he broke off the wing mirror then that is criminal damage - a crime.
If he is a Councillor then the Standards Board has powers to deal with this.
Part of the code of conduct is that any councillor who becomes aware that another councillor has breached the code then THAT cllr commits a breach if he fails to report.
I hope someone reports the good Councillor to the Standards Board for bringing his office into disrepute
Two entirely separate issues. Parking illegally and public order(?) offences - maybe 'threatening behaviour'. The Councillor clearly has ideas well above and below his station. It's not up to him to act as an enforcer, much as he might wish.
Do they issue their Councillors with cans of Mace, Tasers, batons, handcuffs and so on? Whilst they are at it they'd better get some stocks of body armour in too. There's always someone bigger, tougher and more bloody minded than you....
Oh dear. As a Cambridge Lib Dem, I feel I should apologise. I take it that you have sent this to Mark Pack and suggested that he post it on Lib Dem Voice?
There's no evidence that he's acting in his capacity as a councillor, which is a pre-requisite to have brought his office into disrepute. If he'd started saying 'don't you know who I am', that would be a different matter. And who says he broke the wing mirror off the van? I don't see any evidence of that either. I agree he looks a bit of tit, though that unfortunately isn't anything the standards board can do anything about.
Dangleberry: "There's no evidence that he's acting in his capacity as a councillor"
And that's a "prerequisite" under the terms of the legislation?
I think not. But let's ask the Standards Board to rule on that, eh? There are quite a few precedents where Councillors, not acting in their capacities as councillors or on official duty, have been ruled as bringing their office into disrepute.
Even if it were a prerequisite, does that make such behaviour acceptable and an example for us all?
Enforcing Council by laws is down to Council Officers. Enforcing the law is down to the Police.
Elected Councillors do not have any power to make the van move. Better to take pictures and report it to the relevant Council/Police department
Go easy on Colin. Takes a lot for him to lose his cool like that. Couldn't help but laugh because it's so unlike him.
Interesting that, in typical hypocritical LibDem fashion, he is shouting at the Van Driver that he is breaking the law whilst doing exactly that himself.
Rosentiel has, so far as I can see, potentially committed the following, criminal, offences:
1) Behaviour likely to lead to a breach of the Peace/Threatening words and behaviour
2) Assault (yes he does in fact touch the Driver)
3) Criminal Damage, if he did indeed break something on the van
In fact since the Van Driver has only breached the civil parking laws but Colin Rosenstiel appears to have potentially committed criminal offences then it is Rosentiel who has made by far the more serious mistake.
Oh and it is no longer a requirement of the, new, Code of Conduct for Councillors (to which all authorities need to have signed up by September)to grass up any fellow Councillor who you believe has broken the Code. And yes a Councillor most certainly can be reported to, and investigated by, the Standards Board for bringing their office into disrepute for something they have done outside their official capacity, principally something for which they are convicted in a court of law, something much like one of the offences mentioned above.
Go on someone, report him, you need to start by making a written complaint to the Monitoring Officer of Cambridge City Council.
And there was I just about to 'love bomb' him......
I think that everybody just needs to chill out, and think of Mumbai...
Did he break anything? If so, I must have missed it on the video - all I saw was him shouting a bit and closing some van doors. Laurence, do you always have to play the 'I apologise for everyone in my party' card? It makes you look a bit smug.
Iain, you side with the van driber for what reason. It appears that he was taken to task for breaking a law. So you support him just because he opposed a lib Dem ? Silly !!!!
Sigh. Not true Nich. Read what I wrote. Where did I say I sided with the van driver because the cyclist is a LibDem. I said my sympathy was with the van driver because of my experience of road rage with a cyclist. Click here to see why.
http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2004/03/banged-to-rights-had-great-two-hours.html
Sorry to join this one a bit late, but I'm not sure it's worth siding with the van driver because of one criminal who happened to ride a bike. Having to leave a cycle-lane to feed into traffic is very dangerous for cyclists (and for drivers, as there's a - probably disproportionate - tendency to prosecute drivers in car/cycle accidents.) Parking in cycle lanes shouldn't be regarded simply as an inconvenience to traffic like parking on a double-yellow, but as a genuine hazard like speeding past schools and blocking fire exits.
I'll declare an interest: I cycle all the time - not because I'm an eco-warrior, but because I'm a student, can't afford a car, can't park a car, and I like the exercise. I don't ride on pavements, jump red lights or go the wrong way up one-way streets. I just want to use the road, not get in anyone's way, and survive to tell the tale.
As for the Councillor losing his temper (which I know was your main point!), that's unfortunate. But if we expect more from our elected representatives then they'll end up barely human.
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