CPD culture and its hostility toward cyclists - and one suggestion to protect cyclists in light of this
I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say that the CPD typically errs on the side of motor vehicle drivers vs bikers, in carrying out the law.
But I think it's worth noting that this isn't so much an attitude of indifference for cyclists so much as contempt for cyclists.
Here's some quotes from the comments section as well as the authors of second city cop blog, an unofficial CPD blog:
"not one cent of taxes paid by these slugs. More of the gimee-gimee crowd. Gimee protected bike lines, gimee protection while I'm riding all paid on the back of the motorist and motor fuel taxes. I'm ready to start playing bumper tag with some of these nitwits and how they ride their bikes."
"I still don't get this Divvy thing. The people who are using it are mostly people who would have walked anyway. Isn't it more carbon-friendly to walk rather than cause a bike to be manufactured? Others might have taken a cab, or the CTA, or a car, those are all money-makers for the city... Anyway, I'll continue to drive my 454 Suburban and pretend that we're still a first-world nation."
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=13350456&postID=346239...
"But we do know that Rahm wants justification for taking out another hundred plus miles of serviceable vehicle lanes for bikes lanes that can only be used 6 months out of the year."
"Someone with "a lot of close calls" is either a (A) shit magnet or (B) a problem biker. Knowing bicyclists as we do, we're going to guess B."
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/search?q=Biking&m=1
"Any bicyclist suing the city for the condition of the streets should get a percentage of their lawsuit based on that which they pay into the system. That would be ZERO%. They pay NOTHING in gasoline/license/permits/taxes. They are a law-ignoring nuisance who should collect based on what they pay! Sorry for your loss, but it's a gain to the motoring majority."
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=13350456&postID=275409...
[Regarding a hit and run]
"If that happened, it's horrible..........unless it was the jackasses from Critical Mass. Then I hope the driver was behind the wheel of a truck."
"Start writing the bikes traffic tickets for every violation.Have the bike units in every district concentrate on the bike routs at stop signs and other areas as the Rahmccycles have no regard for traffic laws. Remember its for the children"
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=13350456&postID=178193...
"He can have his bike lanes but let's charge the people using those lanes and defer the costs to them. If you ride in those lanes you need a "bike city sticker" - 75 buck a year. If you get caught riding in lane without one - 75 dollar ticket. See - I just found s way to pay for it."
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2011/09/rahms-bike-insanity.html?m=1
"First off, the "bike lanes" in most of this city are for shit!!! Secondly, come down to 001 or 018 and take a look at the number of Divvy bikes being ridden by the fine, upstanding youth of our "fair city." The harass citizens, commit crimes on them and are a general menace to society. Third, we all know Rahm has his 9 1/2 fingers all up in this shit and he's getting a cut. Fourth, the non-criminal element that rides these hideous monstrositys, have no clue about bike rules. They too, are menaces to the citizens. Just get rid of the damn things!"
"Make every bike owner 12 and older require a city sticker tag. Have bike traffic units start citing these crazy cyclists who think traffic signals, and general traffic rules of the road don't apply to them."
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=13350456&postID=891010...
...
Now I will say that there were also some pro biking comments, but nothing going so far as positing that police should actually enforce laws that protect cyclists, more along the lines of "hey chill out biking isn't so bad", or "I bike, but only recreationally and on trails in the suburbs, and people are crazy to bike in the city". Whereas the posts that seemed to take delight in cyclists being run over, or posts suggesting stricter enforcement against cyclists, taxing cyclists, demeaning cyclists etc were not shouted down and there was and is this tacit acceptance of hostility to cyclists.
I mean, anyone can post comments on that blog, and we don't know for a fact that these are CPD people posting, but does it seem like that big of a stretch given what we've seen (just looking at Argonne's many posts detailing cars not ticketed, parked in bike lanes and his follow up 311 reports that seem to fall on deaf ears)?
I realize that all police are not a monolith, but they are quite a bit more monolithic than other industries and professions where there's more tolerance to having a diversity of opinion. They are very insular and do make an obvious effort to back eachother and have some uniformity of approaches and political opinions, thus the blue line and blue wall and all that.
This hostility towards cyclists from the CPD is systemic and it's part of their culture.
So what do we do about it?
Here's my two cents: the CPD has proven time and again that it is not up to the task of enforcing laws against parking in bike lanes, and writing tickets against drivers who door cyclists. I think laws should be passed that give the power to issue tickets protecting cyclists to other agencies that currently already have mechanisms in place to write tickets and prosecute and adjudicate those tickets.
Make it so that dooring or parking in bike lanes is a public health violation (a rebuttable presumption of liability with a due process right to contest it), or an environmental violation (for example), and let the agencies that already enforce certain laws under their ordinance now have the power to issue these additional tickets and (if they win) collect the fine money to be applied towards their general funds.
This will also incentivize private attorneys to take on cases where there's now been a civil finding of liability (in dooring cases) so the injured party only has to prove damages and not liability.
But I think it's worth noting that this isn't so much an attitude of indifference for cyclists so much as contempt for cyclists.
Here's some quotes from the comments section as well as the authors of second city cop blog, an unofficial CPD blog:
"not one cent of taxes paid by these slugs. More of the gimee-gimee crowd. Gimee protected bike lines, gimee protection while I'm riding all paid on the back of the motorist and motor fuel taxes. I'm ready to start playing bumper tag with some of these nitwits and how they ride their bikes."
"I still don't get this Divvy thing. The people who are using it are mostly people who would have walked anyway. Isn't it more carbon-friendly to walk rather than cause a bike to be manufactured? Others might have taken a cab, or the CTA, or a car, those are all money-makers for the city... Anyway, I'll continue to drive my 454 Suburban and pretend that we're still a first-world nation."
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=13350456&postID=346239...
"But we do know that Rahm wants justification for taking out another hundred plus miles of serviceable vehicle lanes for bikes lanes that can only be used 6 months out of the year."
"Someone with "a lot of close calls" is either a (A) shit magnet or (B) a problem biker. Knowing bicyclists as we do, we're going to guess B."
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/search?q=Biking&m=1
"Any bicyclist suing the city for the condition of the streets should get a percentage of their lawsuit based on that which they pay into the system. That would be ZERO%. They pay NOTHING in gasoline/license/permits/taxes. They are a law-ignoring nuisance who should collect based on what they pay! Sorry for your loss, but it's a gain to the motoring majority."
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=13350456&postID=275409...
[Regarding a hit and run]
"If that happened, it's horrible..........unless it was the jackasses from Critical Mass. Then I hope the driver was behind the wheel of a truck."
"Start writing the bikes traffic tickets for every violation.Have the bike units in every district concentrate on the bike routs at stop signs and other areas as the Rahmccycles have no regard for traffic laws. Remember its for the children"
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=13350456&postID=178193...
"He can have his bike lanes but let's charge the people using those lanes and defer the costs to them. If you ride in those lanes you need a "bike city sticker" - 75 buck a year. If you get caught riding in lane without one - 75 dollar ticket. See - I just found s way to pay for it."
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2011/09/rahms-bike-insanity.html?m=1
"First off, the "bike lanes" in most of this city are for shit!!! Secondly, come down to 001 or 018 and take a look at the number of Divvy bikes being ridden by the fine, upstanding youth of our "fair city." The harass citizens, commit crimes on them and are a general menace to society. Third, we all know Rahm has his 9 1/2 fingers all up in this shit and he's getting a cut. Fourth, the non-criminal element that rides these hideous monstrositys, have no clue about bike rules. They too, are menaces to the citizens. Just get rid of the damn things!"
"Make every bike owner 12 and older require a city sticker tag. Have bike traffic units start citing these crazy cyclists who think traffic signals, and general traffic rules of the road don't apply to them."
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=13350456&postID=891010...
...
Now I will say that there were also some pro biking comments, but nothing going so far as positing that police should actually enforce laws that protect cyclists, more along the lines of "hey chill out biking isn't so bad", or "I bike, but only recreationally and on trails in the suburbs, and people are crazy to bike in the city". Whereas the posts that seemed to take delight in cyclists being run over, or posts suggesting stricter enforcement against cyclists, taxing cyclists, demeaning cyclists etc were not shouted down and there was and is this tacit acceptance of hostility to cyclists.
I mean, anyone can post comments on that blog, and we don't know for a fact that these are CPD people posting, but does it seem like that big of a stretch given what we've seen (just looking at Argonne's many posts detailing cars not ticketed, parked in bike lanes and his follow up 311 reports that seem to fall on deaf ears)?
I realize that all police are not a monolith, but they are quite a bit more monolithic than other industries and professions where there's more tolerance to having a diversity of opinion. They are very insular and do make an obvious effort to back eachother and have some uniformity of approaches and political opinions, thus the blue line and blue wall and all that.
This hostility towards cyclists from the CPD is systemic and it's part of their culture.
So what do we do about it?
Here's my two cents: the CPD has proven time and again that it is not up to the task of enforcing laws against parking in bike lanes, and writing tickets against drivers who door cyclists. I think laws should be passed that give the power to issue tickets protecting cyclists to other agencies that currently already have mechanisms in place to write tickets and prosecute and adjudicate those tickets.
Make it so that dooring or parking in bike lanes is a public health violation (a rebuttable presumption of liability with a due process right to contest it), or an environmental violation (for example), and let the agencies that already enforce certain laws under their ordinance now have the power to issue these additional tickets and (if they win) collect the fine money to be applied towards their general funds.
This will also incentivize private attorneys to take on cases where there's now been a civil finding of liability (in dooring cases) so the injured party only has to prove damages and not liability.
Views: 1163
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by V W on
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I think the issue isn't technology, not that technology isn't helpful but it's that those with the power to enforce don't have the will to do so, those who might be willing to enforce laws to protect cyclists aren't given the power to.
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Permalink Reply by Dave Jacque on
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Second City Cop attracts a certain type of person that (I sincerely hope) isn't representative of the majority of the CPD. I strongly suspect that most of the comments are not posted by cops. While I think most departments have some deep-rooted policy and personnel problems, I wouldn't use that blog to generalize.
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I'd like to think it's not representative, however, the mentality espoused there seems consistent with many of my encounters and experiences and much of what I've seen posted here about others experiences. I know that when I was doored, the police officer blamed me for it and didn't ticket the driver and did it as an incident report and not an accident report. I know that is the norm (blaming the cyclist and not doing it as an accident report, as they ought to be doing) from talking to some well known bike attorneys.
I know that I've seen bike mounted (bike patrol?) officers not even blink when they see cars parked in a bike lane, and just ride around it and ignore it and not ticket the driver.
I know there was that incident posted about here where a cyclist was arrested by an off duty cop for tapping on his car (likely because the car was veering into him).
I know there was the hit and run that I posted about recently where the victim was told he has to show up to the station because for whatever reason they won't come to him to take his police report.
Is it that much of a stretch to think police officers would have this disdain for cyclists?
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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on
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A CPD officer I know says that too many of his fellow officers DO sound like the cranks on Second City Cop.
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Which sadly should not come as a surprise. One thing that sticks out is how big they are on pushing the group think on eachother. For example this recurring theme of "stay fetal" (do as little as possible and let crime get worse, because "society is against us so let them pay for tying our hands"). I think the aim there isn't so much out of altruistic concern for their fellow officer to keep them from getting themselves in trouble as the latest viral video subject, so much as "I can't get away with half assing my job unless we all do it." Plus the CPD's culture of conformity. How many police officers can feel emboldened to be liberal democrats, how many can feel safe being whistle blowers? They can't, they've made it all about marching to the beat of the same drum. SCC commenters largely subscribe to the same ideology that we know police tend to subscribe to.
Also, again, it's not just the inflammatory quotes I posted above, it's the lack of any real dissent against this rhetoric on that site, that reinforces my point about the culture of contempt for cyclists.
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Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on
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Where do copcycles fit in to this? I found some of them to be more aware of our situation just a bit.
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As I noted just above, many times I've seen them riding around cars parked in the bike lane, never once stopping to ticket any of them. I'd love to see the statistics on how many bike lane tickets have been written by cops on bikes.
Also, surely one of them has been doored at some point, I'd love to see how that was handled, compared to how we know cases of regular cyclists being doored are handled.
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Permalink Reply by blingy on
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I know of at least one case where a bike cop was hit by a car and the driver was immediately arrested. Not sure if anything was filed but they definitely don't arrest most drivers that run over cyclists.
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+1
I'd love to see someone FOIA this info at some point (records concerning all instances of bike cops getting doored or hit by cars and all instances of any other cyclist getting doored or hit by cars over a given time period) to illustrate the disparity in enforcement.
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Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on
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http://www.thechainlink.org/forum/topics/chatter-chicago-police-bic...
"Driver arrested immediately." State and Monroe - CPD bike officer hit Sept.,2016
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Permalink Reply by Jeremy on
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I was standing near the fire station outside Wrigley Field for the Billy Joel concert last month. Two uniformed officers rode up on police bicycles and spent the next hour fiddling with their phones while smoking cigars. Cops that ride bikes are still cops.
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Permalink Reply by Argonne69 on
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"He can have his bike lanes but let's charge the people using those lanes and defer the costs to them. If you ride in those lanes you need a "bike city sticker" - 75 buck a year. If you get caught riding in lane without one - 75 dollar ticket. See - I just found s way to pay for it."
I really got a laugh out of this one. I'm sure this wanker has written hundreds of tickets for vehicles illegally parked in the bike lane. Hell, I bet I could lose both my hands in a gruesome industrial accident, and still have enough fingers left to count the number of tickets he/she has written for illegally parked vehicles. I won't be losing any sleep over the threat.
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