Which has everything to do with that fact that most cops are 100+lbs overweight.
Fat-ass asses drive big cars and bad attitudes all over your sexy bike riotz.

i wasn't familiar with the gainesville video prior to now, and i hadn't realized that as the student is yellin, kerry is talking....and at one point, the student yells "why are you arresting me?" and kerry says "because it's a very important question"....coincidence? probably, yeah. but innacurate? i think it's a spooky coincidence.

There is no such thing as an alleycat or bike race on the streets. There are only "scavenger hunts" with no rewards of money or goods of value.

I'm a noob. What's a community ride? Is it just people saying, let's ride together on a certain night? Why should it be controversial?

There are things you could do to get the cops off your back. I'd start by showing my face around the precinct, so they know you're decent. Ask them how you should be riding in order to stay safe (you already know, but they don't know you know, and it'd be funny to hear their answer anyway). If they're going to pull the whole "we're here for your protection" act, you might as well hold them to it. If you're pushy enough, you might get them to sponsor some community workshops (or at least expose their hypocrisy) All of this serves to get them working for you, since they are public servants, rather than commanding you.

Next time you're having a ride, take the initiative and tell them you're planning it, and tell them what sort of treatment would be most convenient. If things do get sloppy on their end, start a civilian review unit. Let them and the press know how bad they're botching the job. Have plenty of cameras on the ride, introduce yourself to the officers before an incident, instead of during of after one, and maybe even have a local official who actually supports bikes along on a ride.

If you can establish a good track record of working with them (ie making them work for you) then they'll back down.

while i admire your desire for an amicable solution i think telling the police your plans to perform a perfectly legal action (group ride, right to peaceably assemble) is like asking permission and is something that is and should be completely unnecessary. The cops have already staked their side in this issue (hell, they even made it a "sides" issue as one of the above posters pointed out.) Keep us posted, and be ready with cameras and paper for badge numbers at critical mass. good luck!

oh, yeah that makes you sound really intelligent and unbiased.........

Really, what is it with people and cops? It seems everyone under 30 years old just automatically hates cops. Am I the only one who has no problem with cops?
Police will give you an escort if the venue becomes to big. A car show I go to every year with 700 plus peope has a "slow-drag" through town. You bet your ass the police are looking for people to bust. Its not just with bikes, anything that gets to big that it can become a problem will get the police involved. Stop acting like you are the sole victim of the law.

well i think a lot of the distrust and anger specifically on this board comes from routine harrasment and intimidation by police officers toward cyclists, as well as an unequal application of the law by police officers towards cyclists.

while you just sound like an idiot in la la land...enjoy

What is it with cops and people?

Didn't read the whole thread so sorry if this has been covered, but...

Can't the organizer(s) of the ride talk to the police and tell them politely that you guys are not looking for trouble and it'd be better for everyone if they stopped acting like total idiots? Perhaps that way you wouldn't change the timing and route of the ride every week, split up into 40 groups and ride all over town etc. because if they harass you then you will...

Maybe yous folks should go to the media with this. Cause a big enough stink and maybe the law will back down some? Just thinking out loud here, but this might be the way to go. Is this ride going to happen again? I'd try and get some video of the way the cops are acting, that seems to be the way to get them in-line, you know, like Rodney King and similar incidents.

they got 'in-line' after that? news to me

You've got a point there. What I should have written was that when there is video evidence of cops behaving badly, it seems that they behave themselves a little better, for a while anyways. Its like a school yard bully; If you show their mommy evidence that they have been behaving badly, they are usually shamed into behaving better. Put video of cops bullying 300 cyclists on the six o'clock news, the general public might cause a big enough stink that the cops would have to back down, until the great unwarshed masses got caught up in the next uproar.

Better?

The more experience people have with cops, the more they tend to dislike them, or at least distrust them. This thread is a good example of cops acting in a way that will only make people dislike them more. There are good cops but it's the bad ones we tend to remember.

I doubt that would work.
1. News/media teams need to stay on the good side of the police, so that they won't be kicked out of crime scenes when they're trying to get coverage.
2. To make "good news," news crews want action and/or intrigue. They're not going to be very interested, unless people start yelling, fighting, or being arrested in larger numbers. Negative behavior is much more intriguing than positive, and when you add that to #1 (above), what you'll find is cameras focusing on the cyclists' negative behavior, portraying them in the light of a rowdy mob (if at all possible).
3. I think you'll also find that Mommy & Daddy on their hybrids will be ignored by the cameras, while "Johnny Rotten" with his tattoos and facial piercings will get camera time. This follows #1 and #2, not only because that's the guy who's most likely to have a conflict with police (in the eyes of the camera crew, anyway), but because creating the illusion that the ride is populated by "scary" or "threatening" individuals makes for "good news." In the eyes of corporate news sponsors, those folks are interesting to their target audience, which consists of Joe Sixpack consumerist sheeple (who tend to be afraid of people who look different).

Sure, small groups of open-minded people might see through the cop-colored lens on the camera, but it won't be flattering to the group in the eyes of the public.

Long & short of it is: You won't see video footage on television of cops bullying the crowd, because that's just not how it will be portrayed. Don't trust 'em.

Since when do the police arrest someone for failing to stay to the right on a bicycle? That's insane. You issue a citation and send them on their way.

cops are obviously more friendly and amicable with cars and car drivers than they're going to be with a bunch of people on bikes. cars propagate their way of life, dependence on fossil fuels and the current state of events. as previously pointed out, bicyclists are a dangerous group as far as underminding their idealogy, on the whole we tend to be young, open-minded, intelligent and for the most part liberal. i'm not surprised at all that the police are going along on your ride, large assemblies of "dangerous" people are a threat to cops' authority.

Excellent post. You are right, I should know better by now, what with working in tv for ten years, but what can I say? Even through all the bull**** I've seen in my life, I'm still an optimist.

Sorry to offend, perhaps I'm just bitter.

With something like a large bicycle ride, it's really easy for law enforcement to assert their authority, especially when the participants of the event they're officiating are so exposed. It's a lot easier to yell commands at a bicyclist than a driver with closed windows and a radio blaring. I wrote to our local police department here requesting more bicycle cops if they choose to get involved again, because the influence of the motorcycle cops and vans and undercover cars was absolute overkill. It took all the joy out of the ride. Not because they were cops, but because they were commanding constantly through their speakers, they're exhaust was disgusting, and their flashing lights were more of a hazard to us than anything else. Stop acting like we're unjustified in our complaints.

I generally agree with all the above stuff about media strategy, but don't call the media because the cops are being idiots, call them because you're having a community bike ride and it's really cool and blah blah and they can come get a bunch of B roll for a 30 second puff piece to kill time before they tell you what's threatening you and your family tonight. Then you've got them on hand and you can go, "gee, why is there one cop for every 5 people here? what's all this fuss about? we're just a bunch of nice guys trying to ride our bikes..." Cops may not be the sharpest tools in the shed sometimes, but they're a friggin' think tank compared to local TV people.

Also, you have to remember that police forces are organized hierarchically, so if you want anything done you need to be talking to someone above the person you want to do something. Usually this means just going straight to the mayor's office or the city council.

Don't appologize, I'm not offended. Quite the opposite in fact. I like it when people show me another side of issues from my own.

You say that as if you think being victimized by the law is normal and acceptable. I think we differ there.