Advocacy & Safety - Bad Cop?

I use biking down West Washingtion Ave. at about 4:00pm 7/26, coming to the intersection of Part St. and W. Wash. when this female officer pulls out to block my way when I was in the bike lane. When I pull up and stop she was shacking her head. So I unclip and walk around her cruzer. She didn't say a word or roll down the window. I should of got her badge number, but I was so dumfoudned I just biked away. I come from a cop family with all the deparmets in my family. I am not a cop hater, mostlikely I will go into police science or reseach. What should I have done? Only thing I can say is she needs to pull her head out of her ^*(.


Thanks,

GEEK

I would have knocked on the window to get her to open it and asked directions to someplace.

Joe

Ask her out...for a bike ride!

Maybe she never saw you, and was just shaking her because of something on the radio?

Another headshaker. Did she acknowledge your presence in any way? What's the point of this thread? Did she deliberately cut you off, or just happen to be in your way?

She saw me can cut me off!!!, she used that thing call a rear-view mirror, I saw her eyes looking at me! Like I said what would you have done? Stop and screamed at her, filped off a cop, what? She had her partern was behind her. It was rush hour, maybe she thought I was a moped, in the bike lane, IDK. Has this happen to you?

GEEK

What would I have done? Steered around her and kept going. Sounds like you got upset over nothing.

Then what good are bike lanes if you can use them, if everyone is blocking, parking, and useing that lane. I use the street 85% of the time, 14% Bike Paths/Lanes, 1% sidewalks. This is %^&*, if I was like most people and not looking at the road, I would of hit her at 25 mph, that would of hurt.

I'm baiting you. You're easy to get a rise out of. Little things upset you. Take a pill.

Nan, I just hate bad cops, there are not many, but if you find one, grrrr, most of my family would die over the badge, before there would go agest the otha (sp?).

You were behind her and make eye contact as she watches you in her mirror. Now, try moving your perspective.
1) Maybe you matched a suspect description and needed a closer, slower look?
2) She is part of or aware of an operation just up the street and you were about to barge in?
3) She saw that you were about to ride into danger so she cuts you off?
4) She thought you were someone she knew?
5) She thinks you're cute and wanted to check you out?
6) You look like her ex and wanted to confront you?
7) You look like someone she should run over?

You should have asked if there was a problem? because you nearly rear ended her.

Maybe she was parking there for some other reason, and was in a hurry, and made eye contact to make sure she had enough room for you not to hit the back of the cruiser. I'm just saying from the description you gave it would be quite plausible that she was not intentionally cutting you off.

At park st doesn't the westbound W Washington bike lane turn into a general straight/right turn lane? With the other two lanes being left turns onto park? Or am I misremembering? If this is the case, perhaps she was just going straight?

I don't know what her motivation was, you know better than I, as I wasn't there, but I'm just trying to look at all sides of the story.

She didn't ram you with her car and take you down, so, all in all, not something to get very upset about.

Now here is a bad cop. Deputy Chief Bruce Smolka

http://www.cars-suck.org/CMOct2004.html
Primeggia's lame contribution was followed by a juicy display of arrogant imbecility from the almost laughably porcine Deputy Chief Bruce Smolka. Smolka was promoted to command of Manhattan South after his previous command, the notorious "Street Crimes Unit," achieved national notoriety for the police murder of street vendor Amadou Diallou by Smolka's shock troops.

In his new job, Smolka has distinguished himself by his heavy-handedness, brutality, and contempt of civil liberties running our own little Tien An Men during the Republican convention.

Chief Smolka may be a formidable guy with a nightstick, but he was not so impressive on the stand. His embarrassing performance contrasts sharply with the brilliant testimony of Matt Roth, representing Time's Up, later in the transcript.

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_88/scoopysnotebook.html
New brass: Most are chalking up the Police Department’s get-tough attitude toward Critical Mass to the 5,000-person ride before the Republican National Convention, which resulted in more than 250 arrests. However, another factor may be the change of the officer who oversees the policing of the monthly ride. Chief Bruce Smolka, a no-nonsense ex-Army sergeant, took over as commanding officer of Manhattan South earlier this year.

http://www.stillweride.org/archives/2005/04/
NYTimes: At Least 18 Arrests Made in Tense Night of a Monthly Cycling Protest
From NYTimes
By KAREEM FAHIM and JIM DWYER
Under tense circumstances, the monthly Critical Mass bicycle ride set out last night from multiple locations in Manhattan, in an attempt by the riders to thwart a police crackdown.
The police did not supply arrest numbers last night, but a lawyer who works with the riders, Julia Cohen, said at least 18 were detained.

Up to 400 people, many of them without bicycles, had gathered in Union Square Park before riders fanned out to locations around downtown Manhattan, including Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, and Madison Square Park in the Flatiron District.

In one of the first arrests of the evening, a young woman who was straddling her bike and walking it out of the south end of Union Square Park was seized and personally arrested by Assistant Police Chief Bruce H. Smolka Jr.

"You're riding your bicycle on the sidewalk," Chief Smolka said. "You're under arrest."

The woman protested that she had done nothing wrong. The chief insisted that she get off her bicycle immediately, and then he tried to pull her off. The woman argued, and then other police officers, some of them wearing plainclothes, joined the chief and forcibly removed the woman from the bike.

Ride participants tried to retrieve the woman's bike and scuffled with police officers, who then arrested a second woman.

The sight of a senior chief in the Police Department struggling in a crowded public place with the woman roused the gathering of people.

Cries of "Let her go, let her go," and "fascist state" filled the air, as Chief Smolka and other officers led the woman into a van. A line of 10 motorcycles then sealed the edge of the sidewalk at the intersection of 14th Street and Union Square East. The arrested woman began to give her name in response to a question from a reporter, but only uttered one word - "Lisa" - before she was pushed into the van and the reporter was forced away from her.

Chief Smolka is the police official in charge of southern Manhattan, and oversaw many of the mass arrests made in August before and during the Republican National Convention, including more than 100 arrests of bicyclists at a Critical Mass ride that swelled to include 5,000 riders.

Since then, the mass rides, which were conducted peacefully for several years before that, have become a point of contention with the Police Department.

Police officials have sought to require permits for the rides, which are intended to promote pollution-free transportation. They have filed for injunctions, first in federal court and more recently in state court. And they have warned that riders who run red lights, block intersections or otherwise break the law will be arrested.

In recent months, a cat-and-mouse game has developed, in which the riders try to outrun the police by starting from multiple locations, using cellphone text messages to spread the word. These efforts have been met by increasing shows of force with police officers deployed on foot and motorcycle, and in vans and helicopters. Last night, all of them were darting through the narrow confines of Lower Manhattan.

Soon after the ride began, a freelance reporter for The New York Times, Colin Moynihan, was standing on a sidewalk at Sixth Street and Avenue A interviewing people when he was briefly detained and handcuffed. He was later released by the police without charges.

So it goes on - and they're still busting reporters (and legal observers?). Still looking for other reports... with NYC Indymedia down due to hackers, it's hard to get first-hand reports. Anyone?