Letter to NY Times on skewed priorities
08-31-05, 01:06 PM
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Letter to NY Times on skewed priorities
August 31, 2005
A Bicycle Menace?
To the Editor:
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg needs to explain why the presence of bicyclists on our streets is a menace that justifies the diversion of police resources from combating proven threats to safety and security ("Monthly Mass Bicycle Ride Leads to 49 Arrests in Manhattan," news article, Aug. 27).
As reported in a separate article, on the same day that New York's finest were setting dragnets for peaceful cyclists, a truck killed an 86-year-old woman trying to cross 14th Street. She joined an estimated 150 to 200 New York pedestrians who will have their lives cut short by a motor vehicle this year (while none have been killed by a bicycle).
Such tragedies would surely be less common if the Bloomberg administration shifted its focus to promoting bicycling rather than suppressing it, while policing the real perils.
Kenneth M. Coughlin
New York, Aug. 27, 2005
A Bicycle Menace?
To the Editor:
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg needs to explain why the presence of bicyclists on our streets is a menace that justifies the diversion of police resources from combating proven threats to safety and security ("Monthly Mass Bicycle Ride Leads to 49 Arrests in Manhattan," news article, Aug. 27).
As reported in a separate article, on the same day that New York's finest were setting dragnets for peaceful cyclists, a truck killed an 86-year-old woman trying to cross 14th Street. She joined an estimated 150 to 200 New York pedestrians who will have their lives cut short by a motor vehicle this year (while none have been killed by a bicycle).
Such tragedies would surely be less common if the Bloomberg administration shifted its focus to promoting bicycling rather than suppressing it, while policing the real perils.
Kenneth M. Coughlin
New York, Aug. 27, 2005
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/31/opinion/l31bike.html (BugMeNot.com for sign-in if you lack one)
08-31-05, 01:13 PM
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My Alphabit's say "Oooo"
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He also happens to be an editor himself... I wonder if a few connections got his comment in print?
Either way, I don't think a police presence in the area of the truck vs old woman incident would have helped much, but arresting 49 cyclists for little more than congregating is absurd.
Either way, I don't think a police presence in the area of the truck vs old woman incident would have helped much, but arresting 49 cyclists for little more than congregating is absurd.
