Police in Thanh Hoa city, Vietnam, are reported to be using fishing nets wrapped around bricks as a way of catching speeding bikers.
If a rider fails to stop, the police hurl the brick and the accompanying fishing net at the bike, hoping it will get wrapped around the back wheel and bring the bike to a stop.
According to Vietnamnet.vn, not only traffic police but also another 150 'night watchmen' in the city have been equipped with the fishing nets. They're patrolling hot spots where bikes have been seen racing or riding dangerously.
Reports differ as to the effects of the nets. Some say that nobody has been hurt while others report that some riders have suffered minor injuries.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
Unsurprisingly, there have been some complaints that throwing bricks and fishing nets at speeding bikes could be dangerous.
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Wouldn’t that be ‘assault with a deadly weapon’, ‘ABH’ or even ‘attempted murder’?
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LOL I just had a thought (I know, I'm a slow thinker) how many bricks do they have to carry with them every nite? I have a mental image of policemen pushing wheelbarrows
Do Greenpeace know about this???
(weirdly, I would love to see a video of this.... but personally I would use a bigger net and throw it over the whole rider)
Yea, so I see.
I saw something similar at the Gibraltar border checkpoint (about 23 years ago). As we walked past the guards office, the door was open and a guard was hitting a young woman. It was quite upsetting and no matter what her crime, if any, I think he was well out of order.
We had kids with us and they saw it too.
I had a holiday in Viet Nam a few years back. We had a day out on the back of some Honda C90's which was scary. Actually it was some dodgy copy I think called a Hongda. Didn't see any proper/bigger bikes, just loads of mopeds and step through things. The roads in the towns especially Ho Chi Minh Saigon were buzzing with them. I think throwing a net at a set of traffic lights would catch you at least 50 in one go! That would take a few bricks to bring to a halt?
Great country, great people, loved it, would love to go back Xin ciao
I've never spoken to anyone who objects to speed cameras to control traffic in danger spots. The issue seems to come when they are used purely to enforce the law. (eg on motorways) Thats when all the shouting starts.