Beware the US Park Police on Haines Point

[rcannon100]

When the police stop you for it, it’s simply your turn to be the one that got caught today.

MMMmmmm, no. Police can hold biases just like other people. Police can be corrupt. Police can do a lot of things. However, police are put in a unique position of public trust and must be accountable for their actions.

It is fair to say that police have been biased against bicyclists. I grew up in WDC; this was true in the past. I think its probably a lot less true now, through a lot of work of WABA and a lot of work of other people. It wasnt just the bicyclists turns – police were in error and through a lot of effort, bicyclists get more respect as participants in the transportation system.

I have twice been in situations where police were absolutely abusing power. This is a very difficult position to be in. The last time, I had witnesses and I started taking down the name of the officer – when I did that, he backed WAY off. Know that you can always report a police office to your local governments inspector general (but it wont necessarily be fun).

And of course we have seen, in the history of this country, situations where police have clear been on the side of injustice.

Sometimes yeah, its the way it happened. But we should not dismiss the situation where something is going wrong and law enforcement are violating the trust and the role that is given to them.

[MCL1981]

Had you read the rest of my post beyond the first sentence, you would realize what a waste of keystrokes that entire rant was. Please do not quote one half of one sentence from a three paragraph detailed post and then rant about how wrong it is. Believe me, I am well schooled in the concept of law enforcement abusing their powers. I could tell you stories of where I used to live for hours that will put your cycling encounters to shame. This thread is not and never has been about abusive police. Please don’t make it. It is about police doing their job, highlighting the need for changes in cyclist behavior or infrastructure.

As an aside, alleging that the police only sometimes are not abusing their power is completely absurd and insulting. If you want to have that losing debate with me, please do so by PM, not in this thread as it is completely off-topic.

[dasgeh]

Once, again, I will plead with MCL1981 to have respect with people who disagree with you. rcannon100 makes a good point, that complete makes sense in light of your entire post, but is most relevant to the line he* quoted. He didn’t attack you personally or even mention you aside from the quote. And he makes a valid and interesting point.

I also don’t think there was anything in Mantadiver’s original post to indicate that he was being argumentative or disrepectful of the cops. The fact that she came away with a warning leads me to believe that the exchange was cordial. And she also makes a good point — buses violate far more laws than cyclists and they’re far more dangerous to others. I would hope that the NPP targets buses for enforcement at some point…

*Totally assuming gender here – sorry if I guessed wrong.

[MCL1981]

@dasgeh 18641 wrote:

Once, again, I will plead with MCL1981 to have respect with people who disagree with you. rcannon100 makes a good point, that complete makes sense in light of your entire post, but is most relevant to the line he* quoted. He didn’t attack you personally or even mention you aside from the quote. And he makes a valid and interesting point.

I am having respect. I don’t think asking this person not to partially quote me out of context and go on an off-topic rant is disrespectful. I think quoting one half of one sentence and then ranting about it off-topic, on the hand, IS disrespectful. If I had an annoyed tone in my response, that was the intent, it was called for, and I would do it again.

@dasgeh 18641 wrote:

I also don’t think there was anything in Mantadiver’s original post to indicate that he was being argumentative or disrepectful of the cops. The fact that she came away with a warning leads me to believe that the exchange was cordial. And she also makes a good point — buses violate far more laws than cyclists and they’re far more dangerous to others. I would hope that the NPP targets buses for enforcement at some point…

I agree completely, that isn’t what I was insinuating.

[KLizotte]

Tonight a NPS policeman was ticketing cyclists at Hain’s Pt for not stopping at the Buckeye and Ohio intersection. His bike was hidden by a tree. This was at 6:30+ pm. This must have messed up the very large peloton that was doing laps.

[DaveK]

@KLizotte 51637 wrote:

Tonight a NPS policeman was ticketing cyclists at Hain’s Pt for not stopping at the Buckeye and Ohio intersection. His bike was hidden by a tree. This was at 6:30+ pm. This must have messed up the very large peloton that was doing laps.

I do not know anything about this subject.

http://twitter.yfrog.com/g0amzfej?sa=0

Neither does Megabeth.

[sjclaeys]

The NPS are supposed to under a furlough due to the sequester. I’m glad to see how well they are using their reduced resources. If they can still afford to have someone hide behind a tree to do this, perhaps they are overstaffed.

[KLizotte]

@DaveK 51639 wrote:

I do not know anything about this subject.

http://twitter.yfrog.com/g0amzfej?sa=0

Neither does Megabeth.

Well, speaking hypothetically of course, how did the po po stop you? He didn’t look like a policeman at first glance and didn’t have a car with a siren obviously. Does he just wave his arms and point to the curb? I only saw the ticket writing part.

[DaveK]

@KLizotte 51641 wrote:

Well, speaking hypothetically of course, how did the po po stop you? He didn’t look like a policeman at first glance and didn’t have a car with a siren obviously. Does he just wave his arms and point to the curb? I only saw the ticket writing part.

Pretty much. Then Megan tried to run into him and almost got placed in the felony prone position.

/edit – Not joking. Too much, anyway…

[Megabeth]

Hypothetically…

The officer was standing off to the right side and had several other cyclists around him. He stepped quickly out into the road in front of the hypothetical female cyclist. Held his arm out in front of him and told the hypothetical pair riding together “you need to stop right here” or something along those lines.

In the short distance in which the female hypothetical cyclist was given to react to the officer now standing suddenly in the middle of her path, she had a heck of a time trying to stop in the short distance, unclip and steer to veer around to avoid hitting the officer.

[Megabeth]

Yes, he said something along the lines of “I’m an officer of the law. You HAVE to stop.” so not only did I have to brake, unclip, veer and steer I also had to get a polite sentence together that basically said, “I’m trying to but don’t want to hit you…”…Hypothetically.

[dbb]

If a hypothetical ticket was issued, what was the amount of the fine? In a past discussion with a Park Policeman, he seemed unclear to the amount of the fine, quoting a number twice what the DC Govt was charging.

[Megabeth]

$20

[Terpfan]

Today our wonderful PP were parked in both of the sidewalk curb cuts down by the Jefferson. I’m sure they will be ticketing again soon for those who go the wrong way up the brief stretch coming off the bridge, but seriously, it would helpful if they would stop being the damn impediment themselves. I should have taken a photo. The PP strike me as pretty hypocritical sometimes.

[TwoWheelsDC]

I saw what looked to be like Park Rangers (can they give tickets too?) at Hains Point this morning, but they were birdwatching or something. Or maybe they were seeing what sorts of weird sh%t was floating in the river after last night’s storms…everything smelled especially sewer-y this morning.

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