Road rager tries to fight cyclist, points gun at him, and TPD declines to investigate
Here we go again. Over the past three or four years I have noticed an improvement in how the Tucson Police Department handles cycling incidents. It has been some years since I have filed a police complaint, which used to be a common need. There was a time when I was constantly confronting situations where cyclists were cited with some kind of made-up infraction after getting in a collision with a motorist, even when the motorist was demonstrably at fault.
But after Sgt. Tim Beam got moved out of traffic investigations, things improved a lot, and most of my clients have reported fair treatment from TPD officers. It’s also been a little while since I had a cyclist charged with, say, failure to yield after being hit by a driver who ran a stop sign. That sort of thing used to happen a lot.
But in the last few weeks I’ve gotten several reports that have me worried. I’ve been hearing about cyclists being charged with failure to control speed after getting right hooked or hit in intersections where they had the right-of-way. And now this: a cyclist who took the lane in a construction zone was yelled at, honked at, and then challenged to a fight by a motorist who sped ahead of him and pulled over. The motorist also pointed a semi-automatic weapon at him.
The cyclist got the license plate and a good look at his assailant, but the police refused even to visit the address to which the vehicle is registered. The advice given by TPD was simply that the cyclist should find another route to commute to work.
What am I missing? They have the license plate, they have a victim who can identify his assailant — why not pay the registered owner of the vehicle a visit? Is it because the victim is a cyclist, and TPD is resurrecting its former institutional disdain for people who commute by bike?
–Erik Ryberg
October 28th, 2011 at 1:29 pm
What are our rights in this situation? Can the cyclist sue the police or the driver? This is very distressing to know that the police just don’t care.
October 28th, 2011 at 7:45 pm
If I were that cyclist, I’d be calling every TV station, newspapers, local government officials, and anyone else that could put pressure on TPD to punish the cop and stop that sort of behavior from cops. What the hell are they thinking? It was just a month or so ago that a man was shot and killed in Tucson because of another driver’s road rage. The ignoramus cop that didn’t pursue this latest instance certainly doesn’t understand his or her duties well and is not worth having on TPD.
A bright, scathing light needs to be shined on TPD for this.
October 30th, 2011 at 1:33 am
[...] terrorist attempts to decapitate Aussie cyclists by stringing wire across a bike path. And even pointing a gun at a cyclist evidently isn’t enough to make the Tucson police give a [...]
January 14th, 2012 at 5:11 am
Speaking of construction zones, South Park between 36th and I-10 (three-eights of a mile) is only half-finished after four months? The Empire State Building was constructed in a freakin’ year. I’m not offering motorists any excuses, but this kind of dawdling is what makes drivers reach for their handguns, especially when a bicyclist slows them up for 40 seconds.
February 4th, 2012 at 1:56 pm
My enraged driver didn’t point a gun, but he did speed around me, cut into the bike lane, slam on his brakes, and then scream at me from the safety of his car. He also threatened to get out and stomp me, before leaving in a cloud of burning rubber. My sin? Riding south on Mountain in the bike lane. I got the license number and called TPD. They didn’t even bother to take my name and phone number. It was clear they didn’t care. I won’t waste my time calling them again.
February 28th, 2012 at 3:29 pm
Had, not just the driver, but a whole car full of people (a 20 something couple and a 40 something couple) threaten me and swerve at me on 6th. The cop came and took my statement, didn’t write anything down and said they probably wouldn’t catch them, despite my having the license plate number a witness.
February 28th, 2012 at 3:31 pm
I think the reason they actually responded to mine (as the cop basically told me) was that I reported that the driver seemed to be impaired. So the next time something like this happens just tell the dispatcher that the driver appears to be on drugs. (why else would they get so mad over nothing?)