Was riding my commute in to Chicago yesterday morning. I was on Madison Street heading east and about to cross Kostner Ave. I saw a guy heading North towards me on Kostner riding a mtb on the sidewalk (nothing unusual about that in this neighborhood) and as I crossed Kostner a blue SUV about a block away also heading North towards me gunned the engine. I thought, what a jerk, he's trying to scare me or something. Just as I finished crossing the mtb guy comes around the corner on the sidewalk, clips a couple of women walking, splatters their coffee everywhere on the sidewalk, and goes down hard. He doesn't get up and I stop. I barely get out a "hey man you OK?" before the blue SUV pulls up and a couple of cops in body armor jump out and start calmly cuffing the guy while he's laying there. OK, I figure this guy has bigger problems then a spill on the ground. I resist the temptation to take a pic of the scene and continue on my commute.

The cops didn't do any of that screaming at or roughing the guy up. It seemed all very matter of fact. So I'll own up to having some of my own prejudice disproved about cops' behavior, especially in minority neighborhoods.

As I was riding away I was thinking about how this guy couldn't take a corner at moderate speed (12-15 mph) without crashing, and that you should have at least a little bit of skill before trying to run from the cops on a bike.

Maybe it wasn't his bike?

Maybe he was drunk?

Maybe he was innocent.

That's what I was thinking...the lack of control at low speed, just laying there after crashing, the fact that the cops didn't seem too worried about him...

True, he may have "borrowed" the bike to try and get away. Even more reason why it was a bad idea.

Haha. Whatever happened to the other thread? It had all the makings of comedy gold, but must have gotten deleted right away.

Other thread?

There are some really good cops, some really bad ones, and a bunch of lemming pablum in the middle. Sadly the really good are a tiny minority and the pablum either follow the bad or look the other way.

Not enough info to make value judgements.

The scene reminds me of old nature documentaries where they follow the bear as they wait for the tranquilizer to kick in.

There was a "best way to outrun the cops on your bike?" thread a couple days ago that was really promising -- I figured your thread was a response to it.

Ha, no I didn't know about that thread at all. Would like to say that I planned it that way, but it's just a coincidence.

This is a misinformed statement. The overwhelming proportion of cops are good. They work under incredible stress for low pay and very little favorable recognition. I'm certainly no fan of police but they do an amazing job.

Since you brought it up...Nobody claims cops rough up every suspect. That they rough up some suspects is bad enough.

Agreed on both statements. It's just that this situation had all the markings of one in which I would have expected more force to be used...poor neighborhood, a guy fleeing arrest, putting bystanders at risk. They didn't draw their weapons or even have the guy put his hands up or behind his back before approaching. And I was arm's length from the guy and they politely went around me and didn't ask anyone to step back or any of that. It just seemed like better behavior than I would have assumed.

While there are a million explanations as well, one thing about mountain bikes is that people think their knobby tires are going to be "more grippy", but on pavement they're less grippy than an equivalent slick tire. Especially when turning, the knobby parts squirms around.

So don't ride a MTB if you're on pavement and want to get away from the man.

Depends on the profile. If it is someone known for resisting arrest, being armed etc, then there's one approach. If it's unknown - another. If it's someone known for being rather harmless when caught - third.

When catching violent ones, or ones likely to try running, shouting works well psychologically, confusing them, giving cops more time to do the job.