Brickbat: Overpolicing

Yelizaveta Tomashevska / Dreamstime.com

When a Toronto police officer pulled over a bicyclist for riding on the road instead of the bike lane, the cyclist began to argue that he had not broken the law. So the cop called for backup, and four more patrol cars arrived to help him write the ticket. Unfortunately, it seems that none of those officers knew the law. The Toronto Police Service says the cyclist was right and withdrew the ticket.

Comments

[Hugh Akston]

Mouthy punk is lucky he can still use his legs to ride a bike.

[Yellow Tony]

That's because Canadian police"men" are faggots. If this were America (Fuck yeah!), that little bitch cyclist would've gotten what he deserved: he would've been hand-cuffed to the escort car, put in a cute dress, and fucked in his boy vagina. Because real policemen fuck their citizenry.
I bet Rufus gets away with all kinds of shit because his country's pathetic police force never bent him over and gave him the ol' Musty Crusty.

[Rat on a train]

They can legally ride in traffic lanes. They are still assholes for riding 15 on a two lane road with a 55 limit.

[Yellow Tony]

This is derived from anecdotes, but I feel safe to extrapolate because I'm awesome: 99% of city bicyclists are smug turbo doucebags who deserve having pocket fetuses be thrown at them.

[Fuck you, Shikha (Nunya)]

If you're the bike guy that rides to the front of of the line at the next red light after everyone just passed you then you get what you deserve. Sharing the road doesn't mean using only the rules you like.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Toronto Police Service says the cyclist was right and withdrew the ticket.

The resisting arrest charges, however, remain and will be prosecuted once the suspect is released from the hospital.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

How could the officer in error be acting in good faith when he was informed he was wrong by a fellow officer who, one presumes, was also acting in good faith?

[Cyto]

Yeah, that was the moment that put the lie to the whole thing. He changed the charge to "impeding traffic" to try to get around the "not in the bike lane" mistake.

I get it... he was wrong, but he was also pissed that this guy was over-the-top rude in response. So instead of cutting him loose with apologies, he made sure that they came up with a charge they could support.

And without the video, that's what would have happened. Heck, without the video and crowd, he might have gone to jail for resisting, interfering or disorderly conduct.

Still, even though they are full of crap with their justification, at least the police withdrew the charges after it became public.

[Don't look at me.]

Until they see him on the road the next time.

[MatthewSlyfield]

Ignorance of the law is no excuse (unless you are a law enforcement officer).

[John C. Randolph]

In which case, it's a job requirement.

-jcr

[Fist of Etiquette]

That video is worth watching.

[Griffin3]

That video really is worth watching [well, skim through]. I can't imagine how he beat the ride, people watching and filming or not. Any city in the states, he and would have been hauled off, processed, released from some dank station somewhere, if he even left in one piece.

I guess Canadiens really are more polite.

[Z565]

Heads up there's a story about a cop in Louisiana suing the police chief and the city of Port Allen because the police chief allegedly forces officers to attend religious indoctrination sessions every month or more and punishes the officers who resist Jesus.

[Leo Kovalensky II]

Christ, what an asshole.

[Longtobefree]

Well, Canada.
This would never happen in the USA, of course.
I suspect that the socialists to our (pardon the expression) north will realize the root cause of this confrontation was the existence of the bike lane, and remove all of them to prevent a recurrence.

[Shirley Knott]

They are far more likely to push onwards to removing the car lanes.

[Radioactive]

what do you expect from an organization whose nickname is Mounties?

[John Staszak]

I'm sorry but, as a cyclist (and libertarian, btw), if I was this cop, I would've called for back up too. This guy is a complete asshole. And, with apparently no understanding that cops are human too, he's giving an excellent class on how to push a cop into a level of frustration where they do something stupid. Something stupid like shooting his loud mouthed ass. I'm not saying in anyway the cop would be right to shoot him. But, if you do everything in your power to escalate the tension in a confrontation, you shouldn't be surprised when people snap.