missbyamile

what a dick

frankenmike 

False charges can earn you some settlement money- worth pursuing IMO.

lisafilter

Just curios - what city/state was this in?

Jawn P

It seems to me that the cop just pulled him over to tell him to be safe. I think that's a pretty valid, and actually a nice for a cop to do.

GregLast

Some cops are going to be *******s. Filing complaints will not get you anywhere. Police force is a frat.

My brother just became a police officer. He's the one I trust. I don't expect anyone else to trust him.

apprecilove

i understand that. and the cop wasn't a total jackass. but i was doing what i was supposed to be doing: riding safely and i was well lit. it's like telling a woman to watch her drink and wear conservative clothes and never go anywhere alone ever.

i am doing what i can to prevent my injury/death at the hands of an idiot driver, but what are the cops doing to stop the folks who are CAUSING the problems?

xiamsammyx

I actually rode by a cop the other day as i was pulling up to my house, he just got done ticketing a speeder and as i rode by he started tailing me up the block and then pulled into my drive behind me, I looked at him curiously and he pulled up next to me.
"that's an IRO, eh? I've never actually seen one in person, its pretty awesome"
...proceeds to chit chat with me for almost 20 minutes about bikes, i was caught completely off guard.
Its really weird I have had 3 interactions with cops since I moved to my new municipality about 10 months ago and all e have been positive... One was even bike related... I feel like I've found the twilight zone.

Treespeed

No one has asked the obvious question, were you riding with lights?

91MF

i have been blasted in the face[no ****] with pepper spray by the police at a insane house party. then at the ambulance another cop approches me and it turns out he is the brother of a friend. he 'vouches for my character' and i wasnt even arrested.
that **** hurts btw.

dayvan cowboy

i've never had problems with cops on bikes(even after zipping by one stopped at a traffic light on my bike with no lights wasted i know it was stupid). I've been stopped by cops on my campus for bull**** at night(ive got a 4 inch beard and used to have shoulder length hair so i look "suspicious"), one that resulted in me getting a marijuana ticket and 9 months disciplanary probation with my school(get in any more trouble with the law before jan and i'm suspended). I work for the school's production department as a tech guy and while working graduation last year, I was being trailed by the OUPD whenever I walked around the building until my boss figured out the "shady looking character" the police were trailing was me.

I used to work in a gas station a few years back that was right in the middle of my town. Cops came in all the time and would just chat with us. I became close enough to the one that he would tell me how many officers would be on the road that night and what areas they'd be patrolling. They even knew I was stoned most of the time and just laughed about it. My friend I worked with got a warning when a cop who came in a lot pulled him over for going 15 over, running a red light, and admitting he was racing his friend. Knowing cops has its plus side, thats for sure.

nomnomnom

Best of luck on your complaint. Sadly so, the cop's boss is going to say he was 'following procedure' and did nothing wrong, and not a darned thing will come of it. Don't let this stop you from filing a complaint, though.

Just be glad you were on a bike and not driving a car. I was pulled over years ago while stone sober, the cop got it in his head that I was high on marijuana, and proceeded to have my car towed, and I was arrested and taken to the station. The 'drug recognition expert' at the station determined that I was in fact NOT on any drugs whatsoever, and I was let go with no charges filed. However, I did have to spend almost $300 the next day to get my car out of the tow lot.

edit: If you were arrested for dui, even if no charges are filed, the arrest will show up each time you are pulled over, and the cops will hassle you about it.

F.T.P.

pirate

What a scam.

I'm not sure if you mean for this story to humanize cops, but stories like this make cops look like even bigger sleazebags.

nomnomnom

[QUOTE=pirate;7889067]What a scam.



[QUOTE]
For sure. Most of the money went to the tow company, but I had to pay $75 to the police department for them to tell the tow company that they have permission to give my vehicle back to me.

dayvan cowboy

Hmm, now that i think of it it can be taken either way. I'm not even sure how i view them based on that.

devilshaircut

Uh, from what the posted stated, he was responsibly riding his bike, and this cop stopped him because he *thought* the cyclist didn't have lights. But he did have lights. And instead of the cop saying "Oh, sorry, I didn't see them," he starts to lecture the cyclist about safe bike riding? Nevermind the fact that the cyclist DID have proper safety equipment. Nevermind the fact that the cyclist wasn't breaking any traffic laws. Nevermind the fact that a traffic crime about 10 orders of magnitude worse was occurring somewhere else (assuming this was in a large urban area).

Cops waste too much time lecturing cyclists, issuing tickets to cyclists going through a reds at deserted intersections, in general being mommy, and not enough time ripping up the licenses of dangerous drivers.

melon

i get stopped fairly routinly as i ride around at night, and there is alot of trouble caused by pikey kids on bmx's in my area. kids on bikes are the local polices pet hate. by assosciation they assume that i must be up to trouble if i too am on a bike.

often i am stoned or a bit drunk, but i normally get away with it once they talk to me, as i have a ****ing nice bike, in my 20s, and dress really sharp, which is the total opposit of the idiot kids on bmx's that they usually encounter.

occasionally ill be crusing and a group of said kids on bmx's will try to cause trouble, but i just make them look stupid by completely speed dropping them.

alheim

oh do you?

devilshaircut

Normally it would be ridiculous to mention that you dress nice ... but in the context of this thread, I think it's relevant. It is patently obvious that cops will treat you differently depending on how you dress and how you are groomed.

Dion Rides

Everybody hates cops until they need them.

planyourfate

Bicycle cops often have killer rides. I want a cop bike.

Flimflam

I've done some stupid **** on the road in front of police before (not knowingly, they were just in the oncoming traffic at a light I just blew through - that kind of thing) but never been pulled over.

I think it does have a lot to do with how you're handling yourself and how you look - I probably look like a nutbar cyclist, so they figure I know what I'm upto and not causing any problems.

The odd time there've been accidents or like last night, electricity and phone wires and miscellaneous vehicle parts strewn all over the road I've had to talk to police, sober or not, and asked them if I can go on the sidewalk or how to get around the problem quicker than their detour - I'm always very polite, always do the "yes sir, no sir" game and had no trouble. The only time I had a guy start to get in my face was when I was asking him why the police were ticketing for running reds at Critical Mass that month, when the previous month they corked for us - he got pretty uppity at that, I left it alone after we were all bunched as "*******s". I waited for him to finish writing my buddy a failure to stop ticket before asking... as I went through the same light as my buddy right beside him

coo68ley

Instead of everyone crying about the cops, why don't you try stepping in their shoes for a couple of hours...go on a ride along and see how bizarre it is. Someone told me to do that after I was *****ing about them like you all are. Its a completely different world from inside their car. Empathy is a good thing.

na975

i was washing my bike at a fire hydrant and now i got a summons and have to go to criminal court,from what info i could get on the internet i could be facing a $1000 fine or 30 days in jail or both : ( here in NYC.

Paulthe

I was pulled over on a two way semi busy street a month or less ago for riding in the street. I was the opposite of "yes massa..." and was a complete jackass to the cop because of obvious reasons. He let me go with a "warning" and told me to stay off the road as I rode off, in the street of course.

By no means am I trying to sound badass or show off, it isn't even impressive. I'm just sharing my recent run in with the police.

Flimflam

On what charge(s)?