Advocacy & Safety - Police officer vs. bike messenger -- was it road rage?

Just read this article in the SF Chron (on the website - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/11/BAG4AE663E1.DTL)

this is nuts, hopefullly with the witnesses testimony they'll hammer the cop

surely, if the guy already has one charge of assault, even if never convicted, he'd be taken off plainclothes and be moved to traffic or crossing guard or anywhere he could never be promoted again?

Just read this article in the SF Chron (on the website - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/11/BAG4AE663E1.DTL)

this is nuts, hopefullly with the witnesses testimony they'll hammer the cop


Considering the prior problems and the fact that it is San Francisco, the cop stands a good chance of going down. Well maybe not good chance, but better than the commendation he'd get in NYC.

Yikes! And I've been asked by police officers why I can't trust them. As for the officer's other incident, if the citizen was having a diabetic reaction, he probably wasn't too coherent or able to understand what was being said to him. And he was probably moving sluggish and appearing to be drunk.

I hope they throw the book at that officer, take away his badge and well, whatever else can be done.

surely, if the guy already has one charge of assault, even if never convicted, he'd be taken off plainclothes and be moved to traffic or crossing guard or anywhere he could never be promoted again?

Uhh, it might be different in the UK, but this happened in the USA. It takes a lot to get a police officer in trouble here. They routinely abuse their authority and very rarely have to pay any price for their wrongdoings.

Uhh, it might be different in the UK, but this happened in the USA. It takes a lot to get a police officer in trouble here. They routinely abuse their authority and very rarely have to pay any price for their wrongdoings.

I'm not sure UK cops are all model citizens but the "everyone starts at the bottom"(everyone does two years in uniform on the streets) policy may help a bit.

from some of the reports on Bf it does seem that cops in the US have a more up close and personal attitude when it comes to policing?

That officer's a liability to the city... while 13, 000's not a lot to some, i don't understand why they would keep someone on who has obvious anger issues which result in lawsuits. i hate lawsuits(!), but that messenger should at least press charges.

strangely enough, here in LA, the cops seem to be down for the cause.

The SFPD are a joke. Never once have I seen them enforce the law where it pertains to a bicyclist’s safety, instead they ignore the miscreant behavior no matter how dangerous; even when it's in front of their face. This incident leads me to consider that perhaps a prejudice exists within the department against bicyclists.

It's the same here. I've even brought a clear and obvious infraction to the attention of a watching cop and they simply shrugged and drove away. One of the many bains of being a cyclist.

Let's hope that cop has a good time in prison.

Man i just posted something about making a bad situation worse... funny.
Cop claims a cyclist violates some tiny ordinance, fails to signal, takes too much lane, etc.
So violates like 10 and almost kills someone then commits assault to prove a point.

It's like spending $100 to get 10 cents back, it's yelling at someone in a movie theater for talking to loud. ******** Overkill.

Hope the guy sues. I'm a reasonable guy but i would. Even if the cop had sirens and lights it's not usual to try to ram a cyclist off the road (there's limitations on doing this to cars and you almost never 'pit' a motorcycle let alone a bicycle.) Second i doubt he called it in, called for backup etc, third by not identifying himself as a cop the cyclist has a right to run and/ or defend himself (for all he knew it was some nut!)
I'd sue for a lifetime free bus pass, a free latte in the courtroom and mandatory don't be an @hole training for the officer, plus i'd want a used cop bike (for show) a bike trail named after me, and a romantic dinner for two at sunset with Burt Bakarak playing piano (i don't know why on the last one i just threw that in...)

That is some insane behavior. I had a cop pull some aggressive **** in traffic because of me one day...
I think it's so ironic that when I'm riding around town, I'm most worried about both 'professional' drivers
(delivery, taxi, etc) and police officers...

Of course, tapping a car is just as much a provocation as flipping a bird or mouthing obscenities.
Wrong place, wrong car, wrong time for that messenger.

First, the police officer will get nothing, and probably worse of all - will not care.

Ultimately, police officer's do have to jump through a lot of hoops to get into the force, the irony is that all the individuals I know who have made it fall, literally into at least one of the following categories:

1. Anger problems.
2. Abusive towards wife.
3. Cheats on wife.

In particular, and this is not to imply that all officers are like this, one lady who worked for me was married to a soldier-turned-police officer. I found it sad that he had 3 children with her, literally left her the day he was accepted on the force. He had some serious anger problems, and clearly, in leaving, other problems existed. He moved in with a 17 year old girl he was 'in love' with and less than a year later moved back in with my former co-worker. I believe recently he got a commendation, and I can tell you that the few times we've crossed paths - simple hellos with daggers were on his mind. That guy is a walking time bomb, and I've met a few others.

1. Had a police officer threaten to kill my golden retriever on sight if it touched him. Read that as, my leashed 1 year-old, friendly dog who occassionally still jumps on folks as he is young and still being trained was threated with death because this guy had K9 issues.

2. Had a situation a while back where I came home from running (I run at odd hours, but most everybody in my community knows this nowadays) to find a police officer sneaking around the apartment complex. He popped out and scared the living **** out of me enough that he thought I was trying to bolt or something. Lucky me, my downstairs neighbor is also a police officer, who was out smoking on his porch and vouched for me and my regular routine of riding/running at odd hours of the night.

I've also met some very nice police officers in 32 years, but the odds on favorite is that they always seem to make me wonder, exactly, how the hell did they pass a psychological evaluation?

This is nothing, cops in NYC and Northern New Jersey routinely behave much worse than this, and get away with it.

Municipal Jersey cops are all hired through nepotism or cronyism. It seems that being a complete scumbag is a job prerequisite.

Low pay is not the reason why low-lives are hired as cops. Cops in Bergen County, New Jersey, with 10 years on the job, earn an average of $100K/Year with a benefits package that would make a third world dictator envious.

I think its about time for a second American revolution.

I think its about time for a second American revolution.

Amen! I'll be there on my bicycle.

This is nothing, cops in NYC and Northern New Jersey routinely behave much worse than this, and get away with it.

Municipal Jersey cops are all hired through nepotism or cronyism. It seems that being a complete scumbag is a job prerequisite.

Low pay is not the reason why low-lives are hired as cops. Cops in Bergen County, New Jersey, with 10 years on the job, earn an average of $100K/Year with a benefits package that would make a third world dictator envious.

I think its about time for a second American revolution.

Check out this thread for New Jersey cops behaving badly:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=104611

More San Francisco cops behaving badly:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/02/28/policeindictments.ap/

The fact that they got away with it (http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2005-04-06/news/apologist.html) doesn't bode well for this case with the messenger.