police incident @ july 4th midnight mass.
half-awake details @ two a.m.
Traffic was corked.
E-bot rode through.
A random car pulled in front of him and told him he shouldn't run red lights.
The individual pulled in front of E-bot, got of his car, flipping police lights on and approached E-bot forcefully telling him to get off his bike and to get down.
Confused, E-bot asks for his Badge.
The man, determined to show his authority, tackles E-bot, again demanding he stay down, then forcefully shows the swinging badge to E-bot.
Then the officer proceeded to tell all the bicyclists to stand elsewhere.
He refused to give his name to us. (but how many slc cops working the gang division have a shaved head and a giant bushy beard like that?)
More people arrived.
Pressure grew.
Time passed, words came and went.
A hand shake between E-bot and the officer.
Feel free to clarify any of this in the comments section.
Then it was just going over the details, and wondering should a non-fleeing person be tackled for an assumed traffic violation? Furthermore, how many people does it take to handle an assumed traffic violation?
Our encounters with the guardians of law will only multiply as the numbers of bicyclists grow at our various events. This is the second encounter I have seen in recent mind, another one at Critical Mass...oh and then that cop at U-bomb.. so make that three within only a month or so.
We really need to get some information about rights out. If anyone has any good websites relating to basic rights, esp. in relation to bicyclists, drop a line in the comments. Your Rights spoke cards maybe? I remember those being passed out a while ago, perhaps we can do a reprint.
(The rest of the pictures taken of the police incident were blurry and hard to depict.)
Coming up next, the happy side of our july 4th midnight mass. Watch for the pictures here->
http://www.flickr.com/groups/629275@N21/pool/
ciao.
zed.
(Edit: psychenaut has a much more detailed description of the incident. please read it in the comments)
Yeah, that sucked,
ReplyDeleteI definitely think it's important for the bicycling bystanders to do any documentation they want and be there to support, but If I were the person pulled over I wouldn't want them to exacerbate the situation further by bugging the cops.
Having said that, it did really suck to have 5 piggies standing around Ebot and all of us stuck off the the side, those lame-ass gangster bros.
And of course the force he used was excessive; ridiculously so. That pissed me off more than anything.
Talk to Michael Wolfe about the spoke cards, he made them for us. He may still have the file. He can likely be found through http://planetquirky.com/ or the critical mass or collective e-mail lists.
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ReplyDeleteWhat I witnessed that I can remember for certain:
ReplyDeleteI was corking 5th south and state traffic as we were heading with another rider as the group was heading north on state when most of us had made the light. Ebot was the last to come through and most of the cars were able to make it through the light before he came through. After he came through, one of the cars passed me, and started harassing Ebot. I'm not sure when the lights came on in the officer's unmarked car with Nevada plates. Regardless, first he pulled up to Ebot then quickly pulled in front of him and hit his brakes cutting him off, then jumped out of his car and pushed Ebot off his bike and tackled him to the ground, using his knee and yelling at this point that he was the police and that Ebot needed to stop moving. Ebot started asking to see his badge, which at this point was flapping from a chain around the man's neck. I would imagine that as Ebot was trying to process this unexpected and what seemed like a random act of violence, it made it difficult to tell that this hunk of metal swinging in his face was a badge and not some gang member jewelry. The cop who was responsible for this bullshit is the man in the right of the picture posted. He was undercover, didn't look remotely like a police officer (or act like it. He wasn't protecting or serving any public I'm familiar with!) and probably also the reason he didn't reveal his name to any of us. When he finally directly showed Ebot his badge, he stopped struggling against the shaved and goatee'd thug of an officer.
sorry to hear about this, I don't know what possess some police to behave so violently in the face of peaceful people who are breaking the law in order to protect themselves.
ReplyDeletei remember the times before critical mass was on the radar for most of the Portland Police Bureau it seemed like we were not a concern for them and few tickets were ever written and no one was ever tackled. There is doubtlessly some flashback nostalgia in that memory, but without a doubt once the police were made aware of us things changed, and it became much more dangerous (and or expensive) to ride a bike.
The best way to avoid this fate is to keep up excellent relations with motorists. If they love you and will defend you then cops will not attack. But if they get angry when corking and call 911 like mad, well eventually the cops take notice.
The solution I feel is to treat all motorists like potential bikers, like you want them to join your ranks. Bike up to their cars and openly share info about the ride with them and thank them for waiting. Naturally, your millage may very.
lord i hate me some violent thugs.