Lake Tahoe police try a different kind of approach to assaults on bicyclists
Readers of this blog know that I represent a local bicyclist who was a victim of a violent attack with a baseball bat. Someone drove up next to him while he was riding and a passenger leaned out the window and hit him with an aluminum bat. Miraculously, he obtained the license plate number and a description of the car, and he called the police.
The police took the information and then . . . did nothing at all. They did not look for the car. They did not go to the home of the car’s owner. They did not question the owner of the car. They certainly did not look for or find the assailant. They did nothing.
When we ask them why, which we have done in several venues now, they tell us that because my client did not get a positive identification of the man who was clubbing him with a bat while he was riding his bicycle, their hands are tied and there is nothing–Nothing! Nothing at all!–that they can do.
Well, yesterday I got a call from a man in Lake Tahoe. While riding his bicycle home from work a car pulled up next to him and he was shot in the neck with a wrist-rocket type slingshot from point-blank range. A cab driver got a partial plate, and they called the police.
The police dispatcher alerted the on-duty officers and shortly afterward the car was located and stopped. Inside were two teens and one wrist-rocket. They detained the teens and brought the victim to the car. He confirmed it was the car, although he could not identify his assailant. The cops spoke with the teens and the assailant confessed to the attack. He was subsequently arrested.
What a very different story from what happened with my client here in bike-friendly Tucson, where we hope to achieve “Platinum” status soon.
–Erik Ryberg
March 31st, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Hey, If you have a plate #, why not just file a hit and run complaint. Regardless of what law enforcement does can’t you at least file a claim with the car owners liability insurance.
March 31st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Fort Collins, CO, also. 3 teens were eventually arrested for bicycle boxing in 2003.
March 31st, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Anonymous– The problem with my case is that my guy rather miraculously escaped injury. He was damned lucky to do so, and he knows it. But there are really no damages to claim.
–EBR
March 13th, 2009 at 11:14 am
[...] the police after an assault. After all, if they won’t even follow up after a cyclist has been attacked with a baseball bat, what’s the [...]
December 29th, 2009 at 9:55 am
[...] in Tucson, you can’t get the police to visit a driver even after they have deliberately and violently ass…. I guess they do things differently in Toronto. [...]