Anti-bicyclist police are out there

http://www.sltrib.com/home/5457871-155/bicyclist-claims-his-ribs-were-broken :x
Bicyclist says his ribs were broken by an Ogden cop arresting him
By PAMELA MANSON | The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Jun 29 2017 12:27PM • Last Updated Jun 29 2017 05:44 pm
A Utah man alleges in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that an Ogden police officer trying to arrest him kneed him in the back so hard that the force broke three of his ribs and punctured a lung.
Guy Phillip Gailey, 43, says he already was laying facedown on the ground with his hands on his head when the officer put the full weight of his body behind his knee and "suddenly and violently" drove it into his back. When he screamed in pain and said he needed immediate medical attention, officers at the scene taunted him with remarks including, "Be a man" and "Aw, Guy, you aren't really hurt," according to his suit.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, accuses Officer Rylee Marble of the Ogden Police Department of violating Gailey's constitutional rights by using excessive force and seeks an unspecified amount of money in damages.
Lt. Danielle Croyle said the police department has not seen the lawsuit but that an internal review determined Marble acted appropriately.
In his incident report on the arrest, Marble said he slipped and fell on the grass, unintentionally kneeing Gailey in the back.
"As I was quickly approaching I observed Guy was getting on the ground and placing his hands above his head," Marble wrote in the report. "As I reached down to grab Guy's right hand, to place him in custody, my momentum caused me to slip in the grass; which carried me forward to where my left knee struck Guy in the lower right side of his body."
But the suit alleges that in approximately seven minutes of audio on dashcam and body cam footage that has been provided to Gailey's lawyer so far, "no one comments or talks about any alleged 'slip' or 'unintentional' injury to Gailey by Marble."
The footage was obtained from the police department by Gailey's attorney, Robert Sykes, under a Utah Government Records Access Management Act request. The faces of officers were blurred out by the department.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Sykes noted the officers on scene turned off the sound on their body cameras partway during the incident. The suit said that action "amounts to concealing evidence of Marble's misdeed."
Sykes also said he believes there was bad blood between the two men and that Marble was out to teach his client a lesson. At one point in the footage, an officer asks, "How many times you ran from me, Guy?"
The suit says Gailey was riding his bicycle south on Harrison Boulevard on the sidewalk at about 2:30 a.m. April 6 when an officer going north in a marked vehicle passed him, then turned around. The officer apparently intended to stop Gailey for the traffic infraction of riding his bike the wrong way on a sidewalk, according to the suit.
Marble, who was in his own police car, joined in the attempt to apprehend Gailey, the suit says.
"After some minutes, and a few seconds' distance from the officers, Gailey stopped, got off his bike, and said, 'I give up. I'm done,' and 'assumed the position' (i.e., got on the ground face down with his hands on his head)," the suit says.
A few seconds later, Marble arrived and ran toward Gailey, then "came down hard" on him, the suit says.
Sykes said officers at the scene refused to call for medical help initially and then sent the emergency medical responders away, eventually taking Gailey to the hospital themselves.
In an audio recording played at the news conference, Gailey said all of the air was knocked out of him and he felt as if someone had "put a sword in my side."
The recording was made this week by Sykes at a Weber County jail, where Gailey is serving sentences in unrelated cases.
Gailey had surgery to repair his punctured lung and was in a hospital for three days recovering, the suit says. It says his medical bills were about $30,000.
 
https://pvcycling.wordpress.com/2017/07/08/resist-occupy-stick-it-to-the-man-etc/ :p
Resist, occupy, stick it to the man, etc.

July 8, 2017 § 25 Comments

I had one the nicest things happen to me yesterday that’s ever happened in my professional career. A group of friends who had been wrongly pulled over by a L.A. County sheriff’s deputy, then harassed, then wrongly cited for obeying the law, invited me to a thank-you dinner.

The thank-you was because I defended all eleven of the sixteen defendants who decided to fight the bogus charges. I’d like to say that everyone was acquitted due to my amazing legal skills and brilliant courtroom wizardry, but with the exception of one actual trial, all of the cases were dismissed because the citing officer failed to appear.

Of course nothing is as simple as it sounds. Deputy Castro, the outrageous and offensive cop who wrote the tickets, did appear once, for the first trial. With the help of expert testimony from Gary Cziko, and on-deck help from Geoff Loui, and due to the deputy’s confusion, dishonesty, misrepresentation, and ignorance of the law, in that first trial the defendant was acquitted.

Deputy Castro was amazed and even a bit angry when the judge ruled for the cyclist; we were kind of shocked as well. It’s not often that the court puts on a full trial, replete with expert witnesses, to fight a bike citation that carries no DMV points and that the People have already offered to settle for fifty bucks.

That one small win had big consequences for the rest of the defendants and for the cop. Deputy Castro, shortly thereafter, was transferred out of the traffic division. You can imagine that the captain was not pleased. Castro had called in a helicopter and five additional squad cars to write up the sixteen cyclists. Additionally, most of the citations had to be amended because Castro had put down the wrong location of the violation. When you tote up the officer time, helicopter time, squad cars, time spent processing, then amending the tickets, it was a significant action on the part of the department given the minor nature of the “violation” of CVC 21202a.

Deputy Castro looked foolish to the court as she lied and contradicted herself under cross-examination, but you have to think that where she really lost face is with her fellow deputies — going to all that trouble to call out so many officers to write a stupid bike citation that she couldn’t even make stick. Keep in mind that cops have pride about their work. No policeman, with the possible exception of the Thank-Dog-He’s-Gone-Deppity-Knox, takes pride in being known as a bike ticket violation writer. It’s drudgery, has zero cachet, garners zero professional respect, and is only done when there is either (a) absolutely no other law to enforce or (b) when the city council has demanded a cyclist crackdown. (a) and (b) almost always occur in tandem …

In the short term, the willingness of the cyclists to challenge these trumped up charges led to one terrible cop being booted from the traffic beat. In the long term it reinforced to the Lomita Substation that there really are more important law enforcement issues in Rancho Palos Verdes. It communicated that with limited resources, the department would be well advised to go pick on someone else, as these fake citations will be fought tooth and nail.

The cyclists who chose to fight instead of pay had to “waste” time and energy in contesting the charges. Compared to the settlement offer of $50 and no DMV points, it might seem like a waste; each defendant had to go to court twice: Once to plead not guilty, and once to appear for trial. But it wasn’t a waste, far from it. It educated the court, it educated the sheriff’s department, and it empowered cyclists to shift gears from being victims to being advocates.

In addition to fighting all eleven tickets, the defendants re-calendared their trial dates so that in the event one of them lost, we’d still have the opportunity to appear again. Since traffic court judges rotate, that increased the chance of getting a different judge and it would have forced Deputy Castro to appear eleven separate times. The one trial we did took well over an hour; that’s a bunch of overtime the department would have had to pay.

If you compare the time and money that was spent fruitlessly trying to convince the Palos Verdes Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes city councils that cyclists are traffic with legal rights, with the the time and money that was spent fighting the tickets, which successfully changed personnel and policy, it was the best advocacy imaginable. We spent hundreds of person-hours at city council meetings only to be beaten down and targeted by crazypants trolls. The public records request (publication forthcoming) I did on Robert Chapman, local PVE sillypants and bike hater, only confirmed that traditional political advocacy doesn’t work very well on the hill. Sometimes you have to suit up and go to fuggin’ court, even when it’s “only” traffic court.

Contrast our political advocacy with the effectiveness of fighting bogus tickets. The cops don’t show up, the tickets get dismissed, and everyone realizes it’s a shit-show, including the police, who are now more reticent to waste time writing the stupid citations in the first place. It dawns on everyone that the PV Peninsula has problems that are more significant than 21202a violations and bicycle stop sign tickets.

Unfortunately, there are still far too many cyclists in the South Bay who are willing to pay the reduced fee and get on with their lives. It’s too much pain and effort to re-calendar, go down to court twice, and deal with the whole headache. So last night, at the thank-you dinner that was ostensibly for me, I took the opportunity to thank all of the people who were willing to stand up for themselves and for others as well. And if you don’t mind, I’ll take this small space to thank them again.

END
 
http://nyc.streetsblog.org/2017/07/25/nypds-bike-ticket-blitzes-after-a-driver-kills-a-cyclist-are-as-data-driven-as-bloodletting/
NYPD’s Bike Ticket Blitzes After a Driver Kills a Cyclist Are as Data-Driven as BloodlettingCity Hall should be embarrassed that in the Vision Zero era, police still respond to cyclist fatalities by ticketing people on bikes.
By Brad AaronJul 25, 2017 18
No matter the circumstances of a cyclist fatality, this is how the local precinct responds. Photo: Rob Foran
Over the weekend, officers with the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint responded to the hit-and-run killing of cyclist Neftaly Ramirez byticketing people riding bikes on Franklin Street, where Ramirez was struck. That’s standard operating procedure for NYPD, which returned to crash scenes to go on bike ticket sprees following the deaths of Dan Hanegby, Kelly Hurley, Lauren Davis, and Matthew von Ohlen, to cite a few recent cases.
That two of those victims were killed by hit-and-run drivers and the other three were struck while following traffic rules didn’t enter into NYPD’s calculus, because in the aftermath of fatal collisions, precinct cops are directed to issue tickets indiscriminately.

On its face, ticketing bike riders when a motorist kills a cyclist, regardless of the circumstances of the crash, is preposterous and won’t make anyone safer. NYPD can provide no evidence that suggests the practice reduces the prevalence of fatal or injurious crashes. And yet it persists years after Mayor de Blasio supposedly ushered in a more data-driven approach to traffic enforcement under the banner of Vision Zero.

When von Ohlen was killed in 2016 by a hit-and-run motorist who was eventually charged with manslaughter, Transportation Alternatives asked NYPD Chief of Transportation Thomas Chan why the department reacted byramping up bike tickets in the area. Chan said that as a matter of policy, NYPD tickets all street users following a fatality, TransAlt Deputy Director Caroline Samponaro told Streetsblog.

Since it’s harder to pull over reckless drivers than to double-park in cyclists’ path and ticket people who ride by, this unfocused approach plays out in a predictable way. In practice, the NYPD answer to cyclist fatalities caused by motorists is to punish people for riding bikes.
Last year, TransAlt asked NYPD for data on the number of post-crash summonses issued to cyclists versus drivers, and for evidence that the department’s policy helps prevent crashes. NYPD provided nothing.
Streetsblog put in a request to City Hall yesterday for evidence that NYPD’s bike ticket blitzes after a driver kills a cyclist improve safety, and has yet to hear back.
“In the Vision Zero era, it’s such a misguided policy,” says Samponaro. “City Hall should be embarrassed. It’s not the right message to send.”

Samponaro says NYPD should publish data showing its approach works. “Otherwise,” she says, “it’s just a ‘blame the cyclist’ exercise, which is very painful for families.”
TransAlt has posted a petition from Staten Island resident Rob Foran that calls on City Council members Ydanis Rodriguez and Vanessa Gibson, who chair the council’s transportation and public safety committees, to pressure NYPD to change its enforcement protocol following cyclist fatalities.

“It’s a knee-jerk reaction,” Foran told Streetsblog. “‘Somebody’s dead, let’s go out and ticket somebody.’ Seventy percent of cyclist deaths are due to driver error. You need to get out there and ticket drivers, because they’re killing people.”
Foran hopes the petition will prompt the City Council to provide oversight.
Samponaro said there’s a precedent for such action. “We have seen the council put forward police reform bills on other issues and it would be within their powers to do something here.”
 
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2017/08/06/heres-a-handy-japan-cycling-hack-pump-up-your-tires-for-free-at-any-police-box/ Free air is getting scarce around here, although getting rousted hardly seems worth it. :?
 
http://gothamist.com/2017/08/17/cyclist_road_rage_nypd.php :x
Cyclist Says Driver Hit Him In Fit Of Road Rage, But NYPD Wouldn't Take His Statement
BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ IN NEWS ON AUG 17, 2017 11:23 A
Greg Keller in the hospital following the crash (Twitter
A Manhattan cyclist claims an NYPD officer refused to take his statement after he was struck by a hit-and-run driver early Monday morning. Then, after leaving the hospital and heading to the police precinct, he says a second officer told him he was "making it worse for himself" by insisting on providing his side of the story.
Greg Keller, 45, told Gothamist that he was biking west on Worth Street in Lower Manhattan on Monday morning when a red sedan began tailgating him, getting as close as six inches away. The driver, attempting to pass a car in the left lane, struck the back wheel of his bicycle, before "taking off very fast," Keller said. But there were multiple witnesses on the street, and they tracked the driver down in a parking lot and informed him that he was "busted," according to the cyclist.
"Minutes later, I'm still laying in the street, and a cop comes over and asks me what happened, and I said a f-cking car hit me and took off," Keller recalled. "Then the driver, because people had chased him down, comes jogging up and says, 'Hey it was me I'm sorry.'"
According to Keller, the police officer interviewed the driver, Lamont Melendez of Queens, for 10 to 15 minutes, but "never asked me what happened or gave me a chance to tell my part of the story." He was then taken to the hospital, where he learned that he had ligament damage in his shoulder.
A few hours later, still sore from the crash, Keller went to the 5th Precinct on Elizabeth Street to add his perspective to the police report. It was here, he said, that "things became very heated."
"There's a different cop who walks up with an already completed accident report, claiming that he was at the scene—I never saw him, there was only one cop when I was there," the Keller recounted. "So the cop says, 'We gave him a summons for failure to yield, what else do you want?' and I tell him it was an assault, it was fleeing the scene of an accident, and you need both sides of the story for the report."
"He said everything we need to know is already in the report," Keller recalled. "He was yelling it, and it was this obvious police tactic, where he raised his voice totally over-the-top. He kept telling me, 'You're making it worse for yourself.'"
Ultimately, Keller doesn't think he was able to convince the officer to add the hit-and-run allegations to the police report—though according to Steve Vaccaro, a safe streets advocate and attorney who frequently represents cyclists, it likely would not made a difference.
"What we know about hit-and-runs is that if it doesn't involve a fatality or a near-fatality, then it's not elevated to the collision investigation squad, and is the responsibility of a someone from the detective squad," Vaccaro told Gothamist. "And we've have had very inconsistent follow-through in various precincts in terms of detectives investigating hit and run crashes."
Representatives for the NYPD confirmed that Melendez had received a failure to yield infraction, but did not respond to a request for comment about Keller not being able to offer a statement. The failure to yield infraction—as opposed to the failure to yield misdemeanor—is supposed to be issued to motorists who violate the right of way of a pedestrian or cyclist without injury. The infraction typically carried a fine of around $100.
Phone calls made to a number Melendez gave police went unanswered.
"I wanted the full story recorded that it was an assault with his car, as far as I'm concerned, because he was mad that he couldn't pass me," said Keller. "Plus it just really bothered me that they only took the driver's side of the story."
 
From a social science standpoint this is fascinating.
It is really easy to deliver the desired results from your data when you fundamentally affect how statistics are recorded.

The 2018 headline will read "NYC has increased bicyclist and pedestrian safety by 50%!" LOL
 
http://fox8.com/2017/08/19/he-hit-the-curb-video-shows-walmart-security-guard-mow-down-bicyclist-twice/
Now even security guards getting into the act. :x Being arrested; Who, me? :roll:
ALBUQUERQUE — A Walmart security guard in Albuquerque is seen on surveillance video running down a bicyclist in the parking lot — allegedly over a thrown soda.
KRQE reports that it happened July 21 at about 6:30 p.m.
The video shows the security guard’s car traveling north, and a few seconds later, a bicyclist enters the frame heading south.
Immediately, KRQE reports, the security car turns around and beelines for the bicyclist at a high rate of speed.
The vehicle then is used in two attempts to knock down the bicyclist. First, it bumps the bike from behind. Then, when the man gets back on his bike, he was the struck again and hits the pavement.
The worker told police that the bicyclist hit her car with a soda, so “I turned around really quickly and I started yelling at him.” She said he hit the curb with his bike.
The victim, however, said he was biking and took a drink of water when it accidentally splashed the security guard’s car.
The victim was treated for cuts and scrapes. He claimed he blacked out for several seconds, and in the video, did not get up from the second fall until more than a minute later.
The security guard was arrested on charges of aggravated battery.
 
http://gothamist.com/2017/09/21/cop_cyclist_road_rage_arrest.php
An off-duty NYPD sergeant was arrested early Thursday morning in southwest Queens after threatening a cyclist with his service weapon and pushing the 34-year-old man off of his bike, according to the NYPD.
Sergeant Bradley Beamer, 40, allegedly made an illegal U-turn near the intersection of Queens Plaza North and 24th Street in Long Island City and nearly hit the cyclist before the encounter escalated shortly before 6:00 a.m. The two began arguing, then Bradley allegedly pulled out his gun and, eventually, shoved the man off of his bike.
The cyclist, whose name was not immediately available, sustained minor lacerations to both legs, according to police.
Beamer, who police said has been on the force for 12 years, has been charged with menacing, assault and harassment. He has yet to be arraigned in Queens Criminal Court.
Additional reporting by Aidan Gardiner.
[Update 10:30 a.m.]: A spokesperson for the Queens DA's Office said that Beamer has been released with a desk appearance ticket. She could not confirm what charges were on the ticket. His next court appearance is October 20th.
 
gogo said:
http://gothamist.com/2017/09/21/cop_cyclist_road_rage_arrest.php
An off-duty NYPD sergeant was arrested early Thursday morning in southwest Queens after threatening a cyclist with his service weapon and pushing the 34-year-old man off of his bike, according to the NYPD.
Sergeant Bradley Beamer, 40, allegedly made an illegal U-turn near the intersection of Queens Plaza North and 24th Street in Long Island City and nearly hit the cyclist before the encounter escalated shortly before 6:00 a.m. The two began arguing, then Bradley allegedly pulled out his gun and, eventually, shoved the man off of his bike.
The cyclist, whose name was not immediately available, sustained minor lacerations to both legs, according to police.
Beamer, who police said has been on the force for 12 years, has been charged with menacing, assault and harassment. He has yet to be arraigned in Queens Criminal Court.
Additional reporting by Aidan Gardiner.
[Update 10:30 a.m.]: A spokesperson for the Queens DA's Office said that Beamer has been released with a desk appearance ticket. She could not confirm what charges were on the ticket. His next court appearance is October 20th.
Click to expand...
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/nypd-sergeant-cuffed-shoving-threatening-cyclist-gun-article-1.3510991
Now apparently it was a 16 year old kid that got hurt. :x
 
http://www.sltrib.com/news/nation-world/2017/09/23/police-navajo-nation-officer-drunk-fatally-strikes-cyclist/ :cry:

http://www.12news.com/news/local/valley/man-on-bicycle-killed-in-crash-suspected-drunk-driver-a-navajo-nation-police-officer/477815238
 
http://nyc.streetsblog.org/2017/09/25/witness-speeding-driver-ran-red-and-struck-cyclist-nypd-nah-victims-fault/ Dead men tell no tales. :twisted:
Witness: Speeding Driver Ran Red and Struck Cyclist. NYPD: Nah, Victim’s Fault.A Citi Bike rider suffered severe head trauma in a collision that NYPD claims he caused. But the only witness interviewed in the press says the victim was following the rules.
By Brad AaronSep 25, 2017 14
NYPD was in typical victim-blaming mode after a cab driver seriously injured a man on a Citi Bike in Chelsea yesterday. Police told the media the victim ran a red light, but the only eyewitness cited in press accounts said the cyclist had a green and it was the driver who violated his right of way.

Sunday’s incident fits the pattern of NYPD publicly blaming crash victims who can’t speak for themselves before investigations conclude. Over a 15-day span in June and July, motorists killed four people riding bikes — Edouard Menuau, Corbin Carr, Ronald Burke, and an unidentified 81-year-old man. In every case, NYPD said the victim ran a red while citing no corroborative evidence.

Yesterday, NYPD said the driver, who reportedly works for Uber, was heading south on Ninth Avenue in a Toyota SUV at around 11:40 a.m. when he hit the cyclist, who was riding west on W. 21st Street. The victim sustained severe head injuries and was transported to Bellevue in critical condition.

“The cyclist, a 23-year-old man from Rochester, ran a red light and then ran into the Uber sport-utility vehicle cab,” police sources told WCBS.
“While approaching Ninth Avenue, the cyclist rode through a red light and was hit by a taxi going south on Ninth, according to the police account,” Patch reported.
NYPD told DNAinfo the victim “passed through the red light” but “didn’t say how investigators knew the cyclist ran the red.”

The NYPD preliminary report was contradicted by witnesses who told the Daily News the driver sped through the intersection against the light.
“The bike definitely had the green light, for sure,” Roberto Pinell told the News. “I mean, look at the bike, look at the rim, that car was going fast, that poor guy never had a chance.”

Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill can end NYPD’s harmful practice of blaming crash victims. What’s stopping them?
When a crash victim is dead or incapacitated and can’t tell his or her side of the story, NYPD often accepts the driver’s version of events as the official account of the collision. NYPD said Dan Hanegby, Kelly Hurley, and Lauren Davis — to name a few recent victims — were responsible for the collisions that took their lives before evidence revealed motorist behavior as the cause. But by the time police are proven wrong, the press has usually moved on to other stories, leaving the public to believe the victim was at fault.
After a series of incidents where police wrongly blamed crash victims, NYPD Inspector Dennis Fulton said the department, which answers to Mayor Bill de Blasio, has no plans to change the way it disseminates crash information.

The driver in Sunday’s crash, also a 23-year-old man, was not charged or issued a ticket. The News said NYPD is looking for evidence to back up the story the department already told the media: “A police source said cops were investigating whether it was the cyclist who crossed against the light.”
In the absence of charges from NYPD or Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, the driver faces no sanctions from the Taxi and Limousine Commission, leaving him free to continue operating a cab on city streets.
 
https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20171010/williamsburg/truck-traffic-commercial-trucks-traffic-safety-accidents-crashs :x
WILLIAMSBURG, GREENPOINT & BUSHWICKTransportation
NYPD Targets Cyclists and Goes Easy on Truckers In Williamsburg, Data Shows
By Gwynne Hogan | October 10, 2017
BROOKLYN — Bicyclists were hit with twice as many traffic tickets as commercial truck drivers in Williamsburg's 90th Precinct so far this year, and more than any other precinct in North Brooklyn, according to NYPD data.
Between January and Sept. 28, cyclists were ticketed 1,160 times for violations like running red lights and riding the wrong way on a one-way street, compared to 463 tickets written to commercial trucks, for violations like texting while driving or not wearing seatbelts, the data shows.
Of the trucks ticketed since the beginning of January in the 90th Precinct, only 16 trucks were given summonses for driving on streets where heavy construction vehicles and tractor trailers are banned, according to the NYPD's figures.

Just last week, a cyclist was hospitalized when a dump truck driver traveling on BushwickAvenue, a street not authorized for heavy truck traffic, made a right turn on Grand Street and crushed the biker under his wheels.
Police are probing why the driver was off-route at the time of the collision. Trucks are onlyallowed on banned streets if they're making local deliveries, according to the Department of Transportation.
An informal truck census taken at that corner for an Tuesday morning between 8:20 and 9:20 a.m. found that 77 trucks were driving on Bushwick Avenue — more than one truck a minute.

The trucks included food delivery, oil, box and dump trucks, and included companies likeQuick Containers Inc., Mr. T Carting, Statewide Oil & Heating and Fresh Direct, though some of the 77 vehicles counted may have been stopping locally or making their way to Grand Street (a truck route) from a recent stop, and thus allowed to drive there.
"Illegal truck traffic is one of the biggest issues in North Brooklyn. Trucks are taking shortcuts," said Rolando Guzman, a member of OUTRAGE, a neighborhood organization advocates for the decrease in garbage truck traffic in the area. "We can use more enforcement whin it comes to trucks, off-route trucks, trucks that are speeding," Guzman said.
"Trucks are passing in really narrow streets," or on streets that "go by schools, senior centers senior or housing buildings," he said.

The dearth of truck enforcement in the 90th Precinct stands in contrast to Greenpoint's 94th Precinct, where the July 22 death of cyclist Neftaly Ramirez who was hit by an Action Carting garbage truck, prompted a public outcry that pushed the precinct into stricter enforcement of errant truck drivers.
In August, police in the 94th Precinct wrote 94 tickets against truck drivers, nearly double the 53 they wrote the month before. And in September they ticketed 170 truck drivers, police said.
"Keep us informed, we're reacting to it," Captain Peter Rose, the head of the 94th Precinct, said. He's asking Greenpointers to report speeding, off-route and wrong-way drivers to the precinct when they see them.

The increased enforcement of trucks corresponded with a decrease in the number of cyclists they ticketed, down to 45 and 48 cyclists in August and September, down from 65 in July.
Cyclists in Williamsburg were hit with more tickets than in any of the other nine North Brooklyn precincts, data shows. 
The numbers come amidst steady growth in the number of cyclists citywide, up about 80 percent between 2010 and 2015, with bike riders making about 450,000 trips on a bicycle each day, according to the city's Department of Transportation.
In addition to the 90th, two other precincts — Bushwick's 83rd and Bed-Stuy's 79th precincts — also ticketed more bikes than trucks.

The trend was reversed in three other North Brooklyn precincts. Police ticketed more trucks than bikes in the 84th Precinct, covering Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill and Vinegar Hill, Bed-Stuy's 81st Precinct and East New York's 72rd Precinct.
Two remaining North Brooklyn Precincts — Crown Heights' 77th Precinct and East New York and Cypress Hill' 75th Precinct — ticketed bikes and trucks at similar rates.
In all North Brooklyn precincts, drivers of private cars received more tickets, according to the data.

Bike and pedestrian advocates found the discrepancies between cycling and trucking enforcement troubling.
"It's discouraging to learn that the [90th Precinct] is so focused on bike violations," said Caroline Samponaro, a spokeswoman for Transportation Alternatives. "In this precinct it's a hotbed of truck traffic and commercial trucks violating the law."
"We need to be targeting that behavior that kills and injures."
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/simon-beaulieu-defence-closing-arguments-1.4367741 :x
Simon Beaulieu's defence attorney challenged the testimony of the Crown prosecutor's expert witness during his closing arguments on Monday at the Quebec City courthouse.

Beaulieu is facing charges of criminal negligence and dangerous driving causing death in the death of Guy Blouin.

The police officer struck and killed Blouin, 48, on Sept. 3, 2014, when he backed up on Saint-François Est Street in Quebec City, running over Blouin who was on his bicycle.

Defence lawyer Maxime Roy was quick to rule out the analysis provided by Yves Brière, a crime scene reconstruction expert presented by Crown prosecutor Michaël Bourget earlier in the trial.

Quebec City police officer accused of running over cyclist was backing up at 44 km/h, court hears

"This is the first time in my career I can argue with as much conviction," said Roy.

Yves Brière told Quebec court Judge René de la Sablonnière the speed of the police cruiser reached 44 km/h, based on re-enactments of the incident and brake marks on the pavement.

Brière has done 155 accident reconstruction since he started working with the Sûreté du Québec in 2011.

Roy said Brière was overly confident in his conclusions and refused to consider data provided by the cruiser's GPS, which indicated the car's speed was 22 km/h.

"I absolutely cannot fathom that my client could be found guilty of criminal negligence," Roy said.

Faulty brake system

The defence also argued that even if Beaulieu's decision to chase after Blouin was up for debate, the impact the car's faulty braking system had on the outcome of the chase was not.

Beaulieu testified that he tried to intercept Blouin because he was driving his bicycle in the wrong direction on a one-way street.

When Blouin failed to stop, Beaulieu said he suspected the cyclist might have been involved in a series of attempted bike thefts reported earlier that morning. 

​'I accompanied him from life to death': Quebec City police officer recounts running over cyclist

That's when he started chasing after Blouin, he said during his testimony.

Beaulieu said that when he saw Blouin veer towards the middle of the street he hit the brakes, which didn't respond as they should have, he said.

Jean Grandbois, a mechanical engineering expert called on by the defence, said the car's ABS braking system indeed had "intermittent" problems.

Roy told the judge that in these circumstances, the incident did not correspond to the definition of criminal negligence.

"He should be acquitted considered the braking system was unpredictable," Roy said.

Not dangerous driving, lawyer argues

Roy also highlighted that no dispositions of the Highway Safety Code ban driving a car in reverse.

He said his client never went over the speed limit of 50 km/h and that he was confident there was no other person other than Blouin in the street.

Roy also said as a police officer, Beaulieu could not be judged on the same level as a regular citizen.

"We can imagine that being on patrol requires more manoeuvres than your average person," Roy said, arguing that Beaulieu was trying to do his job and apprehend a suspect.

Beaulieu's actions 'impulsive': Crown

In the Crown's closing arguments, Bourget said Beaulieu acted in an "impulsive" way and should have been able to "predict" there might be an accident when he started backing up a narrow one-way street where there are several pedestrians. 

"Did he make all the necessary manœuvres to avoid risk?" Bourget asked.

"Given his knowledge of the neighbourhood, he would have known something was going to happen," said Bourget. 

He told the judge the police officer wouldn't have even been able to see a pedestrian exiting the Caisse Populaire on the street, and he gave no warning to let people know he was backing up, as he didn't activate the cruiser's siren.

"It is not optional to put the sirens on. It's a responsibility, especially given it's part of his duty" to keep people safe, the Crown concluded. 

Blouin was struck by the reversing cruiser at 13:02 and died 23 minutes later in hospital.  
 
http://ktla.com/2018/01/21/man-shot-by-long-beach-police-was-wanted-for-biking-infractions/ :cry:
Man Shot by Long Beach Police Was Wanted for Biking Infractions

POSTED 3:41 PM, JANUARY 21, 2018, BY ERIKA MARTIN, UPDATED AT 03:43PM, JANUARY 21, 2017
Long Beach police had originally made contact with a man they shot because he had committed “traffic violations,” officials said Sunday.
Officers investigate the scene of a police shooting in Long Beach on Jan. 20, 2018. (Credit: KTLA)
Officers spotted the man riding his bike near the intersection of Burnett Street and Santa Fe Avenue around 6 p.m. Saturday and thought he looked “suspicious,” according to a news releasefrom the Long Beach Police Department.
He has since been identified as Luis Perez, a 25-year-old Long Beach man. Police are not releasing the name of the officer involved.
After being pulled over for the bicycle infractions, Perez allegedly refused to comply with what police said was “lawful detention and commands.” Officials did not explain why Perez would need to be detained for traffic violations.
He fled on foot into an alley between Adriatic and Baltic avenues, south of 25th Street, and was pursued by officers, according to police.
When one of the officers attempted to detain him, Perez is accused of punching the officer in the face more than once before attempting to disarm him.
That’s when the officer opened fire on Perez, police said.
In the news release issued Sunday police say he was struck in “a lower extremity,” but on Saturday Sgt. Brad Johnson told KTLA he had been shot in the lower torso.
Police report that Perez is in stable condition and the wound is not life-threatening.
Once he is medically cleared, he will be formally arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.
The 25-year-old is currently on probation for felony burglary, officers said.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is investigating the incident.
Anyone with information about the shooting can contact Long Beach homicide detectives at 562-570-7244, or submit a tip anonymously via 800-222-8477 orwww.lacrimestoppers.org.
 
Handcuffed For Looking Around While Riding A Bicycle.... :roll:

[youtube]mpOq9yf_DqM[/youtube]
 
https://www.reddit.com/r/CyclistsWithCameras/comments/9lhuzl/usoc_throwback_to_that_one_time_i_was_harassed/
[youtube]E7xlmPJmWCA[/youtube]
From the video description:
This video was recorded in mid-May 2018 and cut to length for public consumption. The officers were punished and the tickets I was subsequently issued were dismissed before I stepped foot in a court room, so I'm not looking to cause a witch hunt. I'm making this video publicly available now for educational purposes.

The story behind this encounter is that I was helping keep a neighborhood ride together after a couple cyclists had fallen behind. Several minutes after this video ends, I ended up put in handcuffs, detained for an hour, and given two tickets, one for not having a bell on my bike (NY VTL 1236(b)) and not having adequate lighting (NY VTL 1236(a)), even after telling them twice to look up the relevant laws. This is a textbook example of contempt of cop (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemp...).

About two months after this incident, both tickets were thrown out by the officer's sergeant (who is also a cyclist) after he reviewed both my video and the officers body cams. Both officers were reprimanded by their sergeant and lieutenant, which is satisfactory enough for me. I had also requested a personal apology from the officers, but I made it clear I did not want it to be a forced apology. The sergeant told me he passed on my contact info to them and I never received an apology.

To preemptively shut down any bootlickers, yes, an argument could be made that if I had been cooperative, this wouldn't have happened (which one of the officers said and I got on video -- just not this clip). However, what the officers were telling me was factually incorrect and is not what the state law dictates. It's the same kind of rhetoric used by people who don't like or want cyclists in the road. I know what the relevant traffic laws are and I have little patience for someone with a badge trying to make up laws to bully cyclists (the both officers would go on to say they were doing this because they were "concerned for my safety", probably to try saving face). It wasn't until the one officer said a second time that I can't ride in "the middle of the road" that I corrected her and engaged in the argument. I might have lost the battle, but I won the war largely due to this video.

I think the fact that they immediately tried coming up with other things to ticket me over while parked in the middle of the road, accusing me of "slowing down all of traffic" is very telling, but I could be biased.
Click to expand...
 
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