And again grrrr
Your authors have been off-line for a few days, moving the office. Stop by sometime — we are now at 312 South Convent Avenue, just across Cushing Street from the Police Station. You’ll see the bikes parked out front.
Anyway, I was installing some shelves in the new office late Tuesday night when I learned that our friend N. was getting ticketed just up the street. So I ran over to see him and sure enough, there he was with a rather surly and obnoxious officer writing him a ticket for . . . riding his bike with no hands. It seems N had decided to stretch his back and got himself pulled over.
We asked if perhaps a warning would be sufficient, but that got a hostile growl that I believe included the word “ass.” I think he said “shut your ass up” but when I asked N. to verify he said he couldn’t quite make it out. The meaning was clear, though, if the words were not.
Shortly afterward two more squad cars came up. It seems the surly officer couldn’t find the violation and needed assistance. But even with four officers puzzling over the code book for what really did seem an eternity, they couldn’t come up with the violation to cite poor N. Perhaps that is because it isn’t actually illegal to ride no-handed. It probably should be, and it is illegal to carry a package that prevents you from putting both hands on the bars, but as the good officers discovered on Tuesday night, there is no statute that prohibits a person from riding no-handed.
This put our surly officer in a pretty bad mood, because he had been forcefully telling poor N. all along not to tell him how to do his job, even at one point saying he had been a cop longer than N. had been alive. To which I helpfully pointed out that for all his experience he still got it wrong. Which yielded the expected results.
We left.
By my estimation this whole thing took about two cop-hours, which is one and two-thirds more cop-hours than were used to investigate last December’s baseball-bat attack on a Tucson bicyclist. The officer spent 21 minutes on that investigation (it only merited one in that case, not four) and to my knowledge the Tucson police still have not paid a visit to the assailant to ask him to stop attacking bicyclists with baseball bats, even though they know who he is and where he lives. But as one officer told N. the other night, it is not our place to judge the Tucson Police Department’s priorities, is it?
–Erik Ryberg
September 19th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Hilarious. TPD is such a joke.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:54 am
28-816. Carrying article on bicycle
A person shall not carry a package, bundle or article while operating a bicycle if the package, bundle or article prevents the driver from keeping at least one hand on the handlebars.
I find it strangely amusing that it took me about two minutes to find this statute, and all other statues related to bicycles, in a search of the A.R.S. available online at http://www.azleg.gov/ArizonaRevisedStatutes.asp. The ‘law enforcement officers’ took… how long?
I wonder sometimes, if a person cannot enforce a law that they do not understand; Do they realize what they are effectively doing? What purpose do they have pretending they are enforcing the law?
AZPOST certified peace officers are required to commit to a code of ethics, and I’d rather give the whole thing, so here: “I will exercise self-restraint and be constantly mindful of the welfare of others. I will be exemplary in obeying the laws of the land and loyal to the state of Arizona and my agency and its objectives and regulations. Whatever I see or hear of a confidential nature or that is confined to me in my official capacity will be kept secure unless revelation is necessary in the performance of my duty.
“I will never take selfish advantage of my position and will not allow my personal feelings, or friendships to influence my actions or decisions. I will exercise the authority of my office to the best of my ability, with courtesy and vigilance, and without favor, malice, ill will, or compromise. I am a servant of the people and recognize my position as a symbol of public faith. I accept it as a public trust to be held so long as I am true to the law and serve the people of Arizona.”
I do not have faith in officers that are ignorant of the law they are supposed to enforce. A few great words come to my mind: malfeasance, misfeasance, nonfeasance. Are the people of Tucson aware that any conduct or pattern of conduct that tends to disrupt, diminish, or otherwise jeopardize public trust in the law enforcement profession is reason enough to have a peace officer’s certified status revoked?
Ask an officer to recite their code of ethics; If they cannot, or will not, it is safe to assume that they are not certified peace officers, and impersonating a peace officer is a violation of A.R.S. 13-2411 (a class 6 felony, or class 4 at worst, which is treated as the same bad as stealing $3,000 to $4,000 worth of property or the engine or transmission out of a car!). Who has the guts to arrest a false officer of the peace? Should the people of Tucson have to consider doing such a thing? It is absurd to think that it is less punishable by law to impersonate a cop then it is to steal a car! Imagine the kinds of sociopaths that will take advantage of this situation! There is potential for a multi-million dollar a year industry!
Goodness, I start thinking and I get into these awkward places… I don’t want to take what I say seriously, but looking around at the world as it is today, I wonder, is it really safer to be this concerned?
September 19th, 2008 at 8:16 am
We often need to remind people of the importance of all keystone species. Today, we are all reminded of the unimportance of some of the TPD *Keystone Cops*…
September 19th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Funny story, but saddening. It’s laughable that the cop called for backup to help him find a violation that wasn’t there.
I ride around Tucson “no hands” all the time, and had never once considered I might be pulled over for it! Wow.
I really enjoy the blog, thanks for the good work here.
September 19th, 2008 at 9:03 am
It is illegal to ride no hands on UA property (they have their own special rules since they are state property not city).
I hope you take this to the civilian complaints board, not that those bunch of toadies will do anything.
September 19th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Now I wish I would have stuck around the scene that night. It would have given me great joy to wave goodnight to the officer. I think it’s great that this harassment bust fizzled in his face. What a bunch of clowns! Score one for us.—-D
September 19th, 2008 at 11:18 am
This is such a major contention for the
bicycle community. No problem pulling over
a no-hands rider, but let unlit cyclists
go right by on a nightly basis in any
number of high-traffic areas. Uneven application
of rules that they themselves are fuzzy on.
Enforcement was Arizonas’ lowest rated item on the
“Leagues” rating of states’ bicycle accommodation
standards. Forget platinum until the cops take
seriously the proper regard for bicycle rules and
responsibility. I’m enough of a driver to understand
the fustration drivers feel when a dark-clad, unlit
cyclist comes out of nowhere riding on the wrong side
of these dark streets.
And, yes, if the cops refuse to set appropriate priorities then the priorities will have to be set
for them.
September 19th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
I got a ticket for wading. I was a skinny teenager–at a city park and there was a big fountain. I was sitting there and put my feet in the fountian to cool off. There was no one around. This officer came out of nowhere, up behind me and grabbed me then shoved me to the ground.
He keep yelling, and wanted my name–I gave him a fake one of course. We got in a tug of war with my bike because he said he had to confiscate it for evidence.
He was an old cop-mustache type. I remember his face got really red, and sweat was dripping from his head during the tug of war. He let go and shoved me away and he left. I think he was about to have a heart attack.