Rules Are Rules

Roanoke police arrested Larry Wayne Dodson, threw him to the ground, handcuffed him and hauled him off to jail, all for riding his mobility scooter against traffic on the side of the road. Dodson, who is paralyzed from the chest down, had gone to get groceries at the local Kroger as he has done hundreds of times. He began going home riding down the side of Electric Road. A police officer stopped him and told him he had to ride in the same direction as traffic.

Dodson said he felt safer facing traffic and to ride with traffic he'd have to cross five lanes on a busy street. That didn't impress cops, who insisted state law said he had to ride with traffic and arrested him.