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letter to the Cambridge police department
Tomorrow I get to file a complaint. This is probably not actually going to get sent, since apparently there's a specific form you're supposed to fill out, but it was useful for me to get my thoughts down on paper.
At 7:15 in the evening on Thursday, November 18, I was riding my bicycle down Quincy Street in Cambridge from Broadway to Massachusetts Avenue. Because Quincy is a narrow, one-way street, and several cars were double-parked on the right, I took the center of the travel lane in order to stay well out of the way of any drivers who might open their doors.
About halfway up the street, I heard a car come up behind me and honk several times in what I regarded as an insistent manner. Because the driver was following me too closely to stop in time if I fell, I held out my hand behind me in a "stop" gesture, indicating that he should stay back. The driver reacted by honking again, revving the engine of his car and pulling up even closer behind me. This alarmed me considerably and made me afraid for my safety. When I had passed the last double-parked car on the street, I pulled over to the right to let the car pass.
I was extremely surprised to see that it was a Cambridge Police Department car, and even more surprised when the officer swerved to the right and stopped directly in front of me, blocking my way. The officer yelled at me from inside the car, asking if I thought I was being a "wise guy." I replied, "Excuse me?"
The officer got out of his car and continued to berate me. He shouted again that I was "being a wise guy" and told me to "get over there," pointing at the right side of the street. For a moment I actually thought that he was going to try to arrest me until I realized that he was telling me where I should be riding. "Get over there where you belong, on the side of the road!" he yelled.
I pointed out that the right half of the road was blocked with double-parked cars. "I don't care!" the officer shouted. I said that the law allows bicyclists to take up the full travel lane if necessary. He replied, "I don't care!" I asked him if he meant that he didn't care about the vehicular laws of Massachusetts. "I don't care!" he yelled, as he got back in his car.
Although I briefly considered asking the officer for his name, rank and badge number, it was clear by then that interacting with him further would only inflame the situation. The car's license place was either 264H or 246H. The number written on the top of the car, on the sirens, was 226. The officer was a heavyset man with silver hair in his 50s.
According to Massachusetts law (Chapter 85, Section 11B), bicycle operators have the same rights to use public ways as the operator of any other vehicle. Because the officer did not turn on his siren and did not advise me that I had broken any laws, but instead drove his car in a threatening, aggressive way and yelled at me to "get out of his way," it seems clear to me that his sole intent was to intimidate me despite the fact that I was not doing anything wrong or endangering anyone.
I respectfully request that this police officer be formally reprimanded for abusing his position of authority to harass me.
At 7:15 in the evening on Thursday, November 18, I was riding my bicycle down Quincy Street in Cambridge from Broadway to Massachusetts Avenue. Because Quincy is a narrow, one-way street, and several cars were double-parked on the right, I took the center of the travel lane in order to stay well out of the way of any drivers who might open their doors.
About halfway up the street, I heard a car come up behind me and honk several times in what I regarded as an insistent manner. Because the driver was following me too closely to stop in time if I fell, I held out my hand behind me in a "stop" gesture, indicating that he should stay back. The driver reacted by honking again, revving the engine of his car and pulling up even closer behind me. This alarmed me considerably and made me afraid for my safety. When I had passed the last double-parked car on the street, I pulled over to the right to let the car pass.
I was extremely surprised to see that it was a Cambridge Police Department car, and even more surprised when the officer swerved to the right and stopped directly in front of me, blocking my way. The officer yelled at me from inside the car, asking if I thought I was being a "wise guy." I replied, "Excuse me?"
The officer got out of his car and continued to berate me. He shouted again that I was "being a wise guy" and told me to "get over there," pointing at the right side of the street. For a moment I actually thought that he was going to try to arrest me until I realized that he was telling me where I should be riding. "Get over there where you belong, on the side of the road!" he yelled.
I pointed out that the right half of the road was blocked with double-parked cars. "I don't care!" the officer shouted. I said that the law allows bicyclists to take up the full travel lane if necessary. He replied, "I don't care!" I asked him if he meant that he didn't care about the vehicular laws of Massachusetts. "I don't care!" he yelled, as he got back in his car.
Although I briefly considered asking the officer for his name, rank and badge number, it was clear by then that interacting with him further would only inflame the situation. The car's license place was either 264H or 246H. The number written on the top of the car, on the sirens, was 226. The officer was a heavyset man with silver hair in his 50s.
According to Massachusetts law (Chapter 85, Section 11B), bicycle operators have the same rights to use public ways as the operator of any other vehicle. Because the officer did not turn on his siren and did not advise me that I had broken any laws, but instead drove his car in a threatening, aggressive way and yelled at me to "get out of his way," it seems clear to me that his sole intent was to intimidate me despite the fact that I was not doing anything wrong or endangering anyone.
I respectfully request that this police officer be formally reprimanded for abusing his position of authority to harass me.
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(I’m sorry you had to deal with that, but I’m glad it wasn’t worse than it was.)
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How about sending this to the newspapers as a letter to the editor? I bet they'll notice it then.
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Then again, this is Cambridge . . .
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Glad you survived your encounter with the law intact.
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Fun!
(Anonymous) 2004-11-21 07:21 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Fun!
I had a similar reaction with respect to being cited. The IA sergeant asked me if the officer wrote me a citation, and I said he never even suggested it. Only later it occurred to me that that undermined the claim that I was violating the law somehow. Surely if that's why he pulled me over, he would have threatened to write me a ticket? If only he had, my path would be so much clearer now!