Originally Posted by
raqball
The police target motor vehicles 99.9% more often than they target cyclists.
Radar enforcement, DUI check lanes, Seatbelt enforcement check lanes ect. are all very common occurrences in larger cities. Radar is obviously enforced daily and DUI check lanes happen every Friday and Saturday night in just about every large city across the nation.
The City sees a traffic problem / concern and directs the police to take whatever action(s) are deemed necessary and appropriate. Be that vehicular traffic, pedestrian traffic, skateboarders, cyclist ect..
The unsafe and bad actions of cyclists are being target in this instance. Not because the City or the police are out to get the cyclists, it's because the cyclists have brought this upon themselves by acting foolishly..
Actually you don't know that. Although you are speculating on why the police decided to selectively enforce a whole host of restrictions on cyclists, you may be right that this is simply the cops going after a few bad apples. Nonetheless, the list of things the police are looking for is very long and goes far beyond simply going after a few bad apples (you don't need to require an ID, you don't need to require that each and every cyclist come to a complete stop at a stop sign, you don't need to require that only 2 cyclists can go through an intersection at one time, etc.) When law enforcement gets this heavy handed, there is a good chance that they're going after a group of people because some locals got mad.
Unless, of course, you believe that drivers never get mad at cyclists who follow the rules of the road . . .