I received a traffic citation tonight.

David Kerber

wrote:

I think you'd get it thrown out in a heartbeat by any honest judge,
but it might not be a good idea to **** off the officer if he
routinely patrols that section of road. Tough call as to whether or
not to fight it.

I usually find myself agreeing with you Dave but definitely not this time. From
the OP's version of events I'd have to conclude the cop was 100% wrong. I don't
care if he's wearing a badge or not, when someone is *this* wrong you should
try to redress your grievance and the place to do that when dealing with the
police is in court.
In addition to pleading not guilty in court, the OP should bring the ticket to
the issuing officer's headquarters and ask to speak to the officer's
supervisor. If that supervisor is even minimally competent the chances are
he's already reamed the officer for his actions. When I've been in a
supervisory role the phrase I've used is, "There's real work that needs to be
done out there. Try removing your head from your ass and doing some of it.".

Regards,
Bob Hunt

In article ,
says...
David Kerber

wrote:

I think you'd get it thrown out in a heartbeat by any honest judge,
but it might not be a good idea to **** off the officer if he
routinely patrols that section of road. Tough call as to whether or
not to fight it.

I usually find myself agreeing with you Dave but definitely not this time. From
the OP's version of events I'd have to conclude the cop was 100% wrong. I don't
care if he's wearing a badge or not, when someone is *this* wrong you should
try to redress your grievance and the place to do that when dealing with the
police is in court.
In addition to pleading not guilty in court, the OP should bring the ticket to
the issuing officer's headquarters and ask to speak to the officer's
supervisor. If that supervisor is even minimally competent the chances are
he's already reamed the officer for his actions. When I've been in a
supervisory role the phrase I've used is, "There's real work that needs to be
done out there. Try removing your head from your ass and doing some of it.".

Regards,
Bob Hunt

I posted this before I read the other responses to it, and reading
them and their reasoning, I've come to the conclusion that my response
was full of s***. He should fight it. I just hope the young officer
takes it as a learning experience and doesn't take it out on the OP
at some later time.

--
Dave Kerber
Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

"Hunrobe" wrote in message
...

"dlakey"

wrote a rather long post and then asked:

So is it true that the cops make up the laws while they are on the road??

---snip---

No, you just met a jerk that happened to be wearing a badge. Every occupation
has it's share of jerks.

Should I fight the ticket?

There's no need to "fight" the ticket. Go to court armed with copies of the
appropriate local statutes and plead not guilty. Mention the phrase, "Franks
motion". The ticket will likely be dismissed on the spot.

Well said, Bob.

Matt O.

"Dennis P. Harris" wrote in message
...


i always carry a copy of state statutes and regs pertaining to
bike in my bike bag. it's been printed to fold up to wallet size
by our bike club, and we used them as safety handouts for several
years.

the relevant laws for arkansas appear to be very brief --- you
might want to copy and paste the relevant parts from your browser
into word, and then print it in small type, so it's pocket sized.

My laminated card of PA bike laws has come in handy on more than one
occasion, although in recent years the local "share the road" campaign seems
to have actually had a positive influence on police understanding of
cyclists' basic right to the road. If nothing else.

RichC

(with venom dripping) perhaps he's a clear channel listener....Pat

In article ,
(Papayahed1) wrote:

(Dennis P. Harris) wrote:

i always carry a copy of state statutes and regs pertaining to
bike in my bike bag. it's been printed to fold up to wallet size
by our bike club, and we used them as safety handouts for several
years.

What a great idea!

Pennsylvania puts out a pamphlet called ³The Pennsylvania Bicycle Drivers
Manual.²
It contains 3 -4 pages of law and about 10 or so pages fron John Forrester¹s ³
Effective Cycling.²

Really want to **** the Officer off? - Hand him/her one of these.
Most states probably have simmilar publications You have to check with DMV
( Department of Motor Vehicles ).

Ride Safe

--
³Freedom Is a Light for Which Many Have Died in Darkness³

- Tomb of the unknown - American Revolution

On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 23:53:51 -0600, "dlakey"
wrote:

He get's his little cell phone out and calls up the
station and starts asking them what he can cite me for. Well after talking
to one person and not coming up with anything, she passes him to someone
else and they finally come up with "Failure to obey a Police officer." Which
just reinforces what I said all along, there was no law which said I
couldn't ride in the road

This is where you should of just ridden away. :-)


--
Scott Johnson
"Always with the excuses for small legs. People like you are
why they only open the top half of caskets." -Tommy Bowen

Dan wrote:
...He get's out of his car and tells me
"I warned you once to get out of the road, now I should just throw you in
the car and haul you down to jail." I ...try to
explain to him that my understanding was that a bicycle had as much right to
the road as any other vehicle. He proceeded to tell me that this was
absolutely not the case, and if you were going to be on a bike you had to
either be on the sidewalk, or over in the grass if there wasn't a sidewalk.
... I ask him if he could
provide me with the particular law that backs him up. He tells me he doesn't
have to do that and out there on the road he IS the law. I ask him if there
is any one to appeal HIS decisions to he says NO. At this point he says he
is just going to let me go with a warning. I guess I should have just let it
go at that. Well I wanted to know what his name was so I asked him very
nicely what his name was. Well this was apparantly the wrong thing to do.
He's like "That's IT!" He get's his little cell phone out and calls up the
station and starts asking them what he can cite me for. Well after talking
to one person and not coming up with anything, she passes him to someone
else and they finally come up with "Failure to obey a Police officer." Which
just reinforces what I said all along, there was no law which said I
couldn't ride in the road
....

He's wrong (and possibly suffering from the horror of testosterone
poisoning). A similar event happened to me, with a state motorcycle
cop telling me that a freeway service drive (with driveways,
sidewalks, and traffic lights) is limited access. He didn't write me,
probably because he knew he was wrong.

Should I fight the ticket?
Absolutely. Google for "Ken Clark Ann Arbor bicycle ticket" for
ideas and suggestions.

HTH
--Karen M.

223rem wrote in message y.com...
dlakey wrote:
Hello fellow bikers.
[...]

Sorry, I find your story impossible to believe.

????

I don't know what to say about such a response!

I've been in debating matches with cops telling me to do dangerous
stuff. Luckily, I won, and even more luckily, I wasn't ticketed.

A husband-wife couple I know are very, very dedicated utility cyclists
with decades of experience. They had a similar incident last year -
minus the ticket. The cop just yelled at them a while then drove
away. (They wrote a letter to the chief of police.)

I've heard worse stories, but I won't go into them here.

It's not common. Most cops are competent. But there definitely are
_some_ dimwits in uniform. It _does_ happen.

And yes, I'd certainly fight the ticket - and follow up with letters
to editors, to attorneys general, etc.

- Frank Krygowski

223rem wrote in message y.com...
dlakey wrote:
I hope your kidding, because I am most certainly NOT joking with you.
Believe me I wish I was!!! I really wish I had a scanner, I would scan this
freaking ticket and post it on the web and tell you to stick it up your A$$!


Riding on the sidewalk is illegal (unless you are 5 years old or
something). Even the most retarded cop would know that.

So there must be something you are not telling. He didnt bust you for
not riding on the sidewalk.

What planet do you live on? In years past I have had two run-ins with
cops that had attitude problems. One was a San Diego city cop and the
other was a Cal Highway Patrol. I won't go into all the details but I
got the name and badge number of both. It didn't do any good. You
complain to other cops who only make excuses for them.

I believe most cops are not like that but your attitude of insisting
that a cop couldn't do such a thing doesn't reflect the real world.

Tom