Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Ran a light - got thrown in Jail! (SF)

For realz: http://www.flickr.com/photos/neas/

I ran a red light (Portrero) and 2 stop signs (on 24th) on my bicycle. For 2 minor traffic infractions - I was hand cuffed, taken downtown, detained for 2 hours, and verbally reprimanded by the arresting Sergeant.

His eloquent lecture taught me and YOU a valuable lesson: Respect authority, obey traffic laws, put some lights on your bike and... that this particular Mission Sergeant is an arrogant ego maniac and I hope none of you ever have to encounter this MF.

that sucks. you couldn't get away from him?

running a red light and blowing a stop sign, will not get you thrown in jail...running your mouth and blowing your top with a cop will.

running a red light and blowing a stop sign, will not get you thrown in jail...running your mouth and blowing your top with a cop will.

i'll second this. there's part of this story that we aren't hearing.

how much was yr ticket?

running a red light and blowing a stop sign, will not get you thrown in jail...running your mouth and blowing your top with a cop will.


i'll second this. there's part of this story that we aren't hearing.

Naw he told ya, sez right there "respect authority", just didn't go into detail about how that figured into his detainment
:D

running a red light and blowing a stop sign, will not get you thrown in jail...running your mouth and blowing your top with a cop will.

Yes - totally right. It was a solo Sergeant - and he didn't put on his light or siren. I was riding with my female friend and he just cut his car in front of us. She swerved - I actually physically hit the bumper of his car - although not hard.

When he got out - I said "What are you doing!? You just totally cut us off" - that's as heated as I got. Wait - I'll give you my lady friends words:

""
so he got out and you were like, "what are you doing?"
he was like, "excuse me, you just ran a red light and two stop signs and you are lecturing me?"
you said something like, you just cut us off!
he said something about how the way you were riding makes a bad name for all bicyclists and his son drives a bike- i mean rides a bike
and u said something
and he was like, do you wanna go to jail? and called for back-up
and i think you said like, no i don't want to go to jail
""
Once the backup showed up - they searched me and took me to Jail. But Luckily not my female friend.
So yeah - I did say something. I was shocked at getting cut off so abruptly and probably should not have been agitated - since it was a cop you know. And Sergeants esp deserve more respect.

I ve had similar situations with cops, and after all my experience, I have learned to treat the stituation like they are doing me a favor, otherwise, they will use their power to make you feel the wrath of the law, be it an upgrade to your violation or night in jail.

Oh for the record - I have to say that every other SFPD officer I've encountered has been descent and respectful. I've even been to the movies with SFPD officers - crazy huh? And the deputies that took me to the station were nice. They were like - so how was your night? I'm like before this - I went to see a Dinosaur Jr. Cover band and that was cool. He was like - that's a 90's grunge band. I'm like "yeah".

I asked - do you typically arrest cyclist for running red lights? He said "um - that's our Sergeant" and our boss - so no. but we do what he says.

Yo. Fight that ticket. Report it to the city about the manner they went about getting you to pull over. You have a witness. Use it. Also. The fact that the arresting officers name is scratched out and then the letter M is on the ticket. Im sure there is a way you can contest this. contact www.times-up.org. Im sure they can help you out.

You should know by now that cops are above the law. They can cut you off, run you off the road, or whatever, there's nothing you can do about it but kiss ass and play to their school-yard-bully egos.

What was the offense he arrested you for?

Edit: and yeah, I've also had many good experiences with SFPD, but have heard that there are a few in the city who are absolute nightmares to cyclists...

Maybe you could obey the road rules and this wouldn't happen?

along the lines of YellowFixedGear's response, i thought as long as you show you put on reflectors and bought a light you can get the ticket dismissed? ...and of course as soon as it's dismissed you can take all that off again if you'd like. Although you should probably check to make sure that this actually works. anybody else here ever heard of that?

I ve had similar situations with cops, and after all my experience, I have learned to treat the situation like they are doing me a favor, otherwise, they will use their power to make you feel the wrath of the law, be it an upgrade to your violation or night in jail.
Exactly. I hear you - I feel the same. At the end of the night - HE did do me a favor - and I said "thank you" - this was after a very "fatherly" lecture in the holding cell. He came in all quiet and sat down next to me. And spoke for about 30 minutes about respect and stuff. I tried to blank it out - being handcuffed to the wall and all. But he took off 2 stop signs and all of the no lights on my bike etc. Thanks! Then he gave me my bike back and I rode home.

Not too sure what www.times-up.com or .org could do for you. I think you are thinking of transalt.org. They have some links on their site about dealing with traffic arrests. But these are NYC links, and we all know **** ain't right here now.

I am in on the whole yes sir, no sir deal when I know I just messed up.

next time hit him as hard as you can and sue the city for all it's worth. that kind of behavior by a cop should not be tolerated.

next time hit him as hard as you can and sue the city for all it's worth. that kind of behavior by a cop should not be tolerated.


yup. If you would have fallen off your bike, im sure they would have let it go. No sirens, lights or turn signals? Say you hurt something (because they cut you off) and need to call an ambulance.. :D

What was the offense he arrested you for?
I wasn't "arrested" - I was simply detained. It was pretty clear before they put me in the car that the Sergeant just wanted a few "words" with me.

The citation is for 1 stop sign & 1 red light.

It's almost worth fighting I think because:
1. It appears he scratched out his name.
2. He made it clear that if I decide to fight the citation - that the other 2 stop signs are on there + the lights and reflectors and that the judge could include them. (So he recommended not fighting it)
3. Also what ego Sergeant will actually make it to bike traffic court.

I thought about posting this after it was all resolved. But I figured you guys might have some advice - once you knew the whole story.

Then he gave me my bike back and I rode home.

On the ride home did you run any stop signs or lights? (I HOPE SO.)

you're lucky you didn't get sent to gitmo for riding a bike you terrorist hippie

You said

2. He made it clear that if I decide to fight the citation - that the other 2 stop signs are on there + the lights and reflectors and that the judge could include them. (So he recommended not fighting it)
*******************************************************************************
This is false! If he did not write you a citation for it, the judge CAN NOT count those in court. Only the ones on the ticket. The reason he does not want you to fight it.
1. He does not want to spend the day in court.
2. The judge will look at him like a fool and wind up throwing it out.
3. The judge will also see that he filled out the ticket wrong (scratched out name) and have to throw it out. (at least in NYC. If the ticket is filled out with errors, its tossed out)

What you can do is put reflectors and lights on your bike, take a picture of it and keep it with you so that durring court, if anything is mentioned you can show the judge that you have all those items now.

He is in the wrong, he dosnt want to get called on it. 99% shot, he wont even show up in court.

Im done talking. Starting to get a little drunk. Hell, I may be completely wrong with this but I still say fight it!

Im done talking. Starting to get a little drunk. Hell, I may be completely wrong with this but I still say fight it!


Thanks man - you gave me some good advice. I appreciate it! I hear you.

Remind me to add "having a heart to heart with a sergeant about traffic laws and girls while being handcuffed to a wall" to my list of things I never want to experience.

That's tough all around. You broke the law and there are consequences for that. But being detained against your will? Being cut off so you have to hit his car? I'm not liking that stuff. He should have pulled you over and given you tickets. That other stuff was bs.

Do what you think is right and do it all the time, that's my only bit of advice.

Cops get payed overtime to appear in court, they normally do these days... But they dont get payed to write a letter fighting your case.....http://www.ticketassassin.com/ is your friend!!! you wont even need to go to court, 30% success rate.

Being detained for a traffic violation is weird, are you on some sort of probation?

don't blow intersections at night, in the rain... especially in front of a cop...
pay attention to what's going on behind you... he marked you thru three consecutive intersections, he must have been pretty close behind you...

if yer being tailed, stop at the first light/stop sign and wait for him to pass you...

gee, and i heard all the cops in SF were pink bike-riding pansies...

http://www.strangevehicles.com/images/content/4460.jpg

I also got stopped by a cop for running a light in SF on Geary, but all I got was a brief lecture. They must be cracking down on whatever it is they think theyre cracking down on.

I almost almost almost ran a red light in sf infront of a cop, I normally look behind me before I run something... I had one of those feelings and while I was looking back my friends were yelling to stop. I was in the middle of the cross walk and stopped.

Man I'm glad I live in the wild east. Here, cops couldn't care less what we do on our bikes. Run a red, a stop sign, bike on roads where its forbidden, they look through us like we aren't there. After all, we aren't endangering others, just ourselves, mostly. My only police encounter was when I was drafting a bus and a passing police car flicked on its siren for a sec to tell me to hit the brakes. When they saw I did, they went on.

Sounds like it sucks getting caught breaking the law.

like, go to court, then, like, talk to the D.A., and like, see if he'll reduce it to improper equipment, then like, pay the $, and get on with your, like, life.

*if you have equipped your bike to street legal since the ticket, the D.A. will probably drop that charge, then see if he'll drop the worse charge of whatever remains, and pay up for the last charge*

like ****ing totally

Im just waiting for the day where this city will DEMAND that every person must register their bike with the DMV before being able to ride it on the streets.

Just a thought

before you fight it, make sure its worth your time. I didn't notice whether you posted the fine amount but if its like a $25 ticket, its probably not worth spending 3 hours at traffic court. I don't know what you do for a living but even if your hourly wage wouldn't cover it, spending the day at the courthouse isn't a whole lot of fun. Also, if you ever for any reason encountered that police precinct again, it couldnt hurt to have the sergeant remember you and not have any negative associations. I mean, it sounds like you didn't really piss anyone off beyond whatever got you taken to the station in the first place. Fighting the ticket could do just that. If the amount is excessive, then by all means fight it. But just consider making lemonade with those lemons too rather than just throwing them at the first cop car that drives by.

fight the ticket!!!

i run reds in NYC all the time. empirical evidence would suggest that north of 59th street and south of canal street, the cops don't really care. the little "traps" they set up in midtown to catch cyclists every now and then are funny though. funnier still was 2 weeks ago, after running a red and then slowing down for some heavy traffic, i feel a hand on my shoulder and someone with a thick carribean accent is trying to "do a cop voice" saying, "excuse me. sir. excuse me. you know you just ran a red light?" it was a messenger who had gotten a ticket earlier in the day. he was trying to be cute...

When I had to go to court a few years ago in Chicago. The judge waited until the end, called all the cyclist's related tickets up at one time, then dismissed us all. :D :D

i'll second this. there's part of this story that we aren't hearing.

Thirded. Of the numerous traffic laws I neglected whilst in SF (and globally really...) the SF cops told me to be careful of motorists. I almost fell of my bike laughing. SF cops were about the friendliest I ever dealt with. That and they ride the motorbikes they were riding back in C.H.I.P.S.

Berlin cops fined my friend for giving a motorist 'the bird', even thought they cut her off...

London cops wear funny hats and dont carry guns ;)

NYPD will try and arrest you for photography downtown on a sunday and not carrying your passport. True story.

Melbourne police are alright by me except when they open doors on me in the bike lane and break my clavicle.

ride on.