Police appeal after cyclist had axe thrown at him from van window

I can understand it if they were to state that it's unlikely they'd get usable prints from the axe, but to refuse to even check if there are any seems a complete dereliction of duty. Also, not investigating because they want the victim to investigate for them seems like lazy excuse making - I bet they'd do a full investigation if someone chucked an axe at a copper from a moving vehicle.

This absolutely must be escalated and hopefully, the police involved in this will be immediately dismissed as they are not fit to serve.

In other news, the Govt. can't even be arsed to do a suitable response to the petition for addressing driver aggression against cyclists.

It seems pretty clear that in Stafforshire, crimes cannot be committed against cyclists; they are vermin and the police view any attacks on them as merely culling the herd to reduce the infestation, with attackers congratulated, not condemned and investigated.  Presumably, if the cyclist had been found dead with a bloodstained axe nearby, the police would have written it off as a tragic accident and refuse to investigate.  It was surely worth checking the cctv for a matching van, given that they had the direction of travel, a description of the van and a time.

As others have said, time to raise the profile of this in the media, the PCC, MP, complaints etc, and any local/national cycling groups that Carl belongs to.  It beggars belief that the police won't investigate a serious assault and attempted murder, and they should be named and shamed until they do.  If, as implied, they simply refuse to investigate crimes against cyclists, then their management has failed and should be replaced as not fit for purpose.

Excellent, we're allowed to hurl axes around.

Wish I'd known this years ago.

Carl is a very calm individual. 

The fact that he finds the police's willful failure to investigate a serious violent crime against the person, and to treat evidence as if it were lost property, refuse to even make the most basic investigations, merely frustrating shows a sense of zen that I can only dream of. Facking scum. facking shame on them for the scum they are (these particularly rozzers I mean)

What next? Axe murder not investigated as witnesses fail to note down NI number of suspect?

wtf! This lack of action needs to be escalated to the Police Commissioner. Cycling UK / British Cycling should step in to assist with leveraging a response and getting the incident properly recorded as attempted murder.

If they refuse to act on what sounds like a potentially very serious attempted assault with a deadly weapon then one wonders what other crimes of a more serious nature are taking up the entirety of Staffordshire Police's resources.

Maybe they could review if the time and effort involved in destroying evidence could be better employed in the fight against crime?

I think it was Staffordshire Police which issued the official 'we want cyclist blood on the road before we're interested'. They then attempted to weasel out of this, declaring that they 'didn't really mean it'. They seem to be back on their True Belief now with this insistence on 'cyclist blood on the axe'.

OMG.  This is a new low even for cop-cyclist interaction.

Not even trying to fingerprint it is absolutely disgusting

Yep something is completely wrong with the police response to this.  It is attempted murder and they simply won't do anything about it.

I'm just wondering what would happen if the cyclist in question decided to throw an axe at a pedestrian before riding off?  Im sure they would be bending over backwards to find the cyclist pursuing every lead with the utmost vigor.

But it's only a cyclist and it never hit them came their reply......

Start making some complaints Carl, move it up the chain.

Not a serious crime, just attempted murder... 

Institutionally anti-cyclist