car starts to weave into your lane, you knock/bang to get their attention... they are a cop...

I saw a car stoped askew and a bicyclist down when I got to Desplanes and Washington this morning. I recognized the cyclist as someone whom I had passed a bit further back on Milwaukee and who must have then passed me up again when I stopped to fidget with my chain. I was amazed to see a police office already there until I realized that the cyclist was in handcuffs. I didn't actually witness what happened but from hearing what the cyclist was saying and what the officer was telling dispatch on his cell phone and what a witness who did actually see some of this said something similar to the following must have occurred:

The officer was off duty, likely on his way home from work in his own civilian car.

the cyclist was riding in the bike lane on des planes.

The officer was weaving lanes a bit and driving a bit aggressively (according to the cyclist and the witness the officer said he was stopped and not moving to the on duty officer who arrived later but had indicated he was in motion when initially calling dispatch)

A witness showed up who said she saw the cop weaving as he drove and asked if she should stay to give her information the cop told her that he did not need her information and she could (/should) go. The cyclist said he did need her information and she should stay. This was a red flag that caused me to stick around. I got her number on two of my business cards and tried to give the cyclist one. The officer told me I could not give someone who was under arrest anything, I said its just a business card. He took the business card from me.  I told the cyclist I would post something to thechainlink.org so he can locate me if he doesn't still have her info. in the hopes of making this searchable I'm putting his name in the Tags, but I do not know if I have the spelling correct.

The bicyclist says he saw the officer weave a bit into the bike lane and knocked or banged on the car to alert the officer to his presence, the degree of force used for this knock was of some discussion ('a light tap?' 'no, loud enough that he could hear me' - 'he banged on my car hard, for no reason I was stopped')

Clearly blood was running hot, voices were raised but everyone was civil enough.

The cyclist asked what he was under arrest for the officer cited 'reckless conduct' or something vague and could not cite a statute number. The cyclist said he is a  lawyer, threats of lawsuits for improper arrest/detainment were issued.

What a mess...

For what its worth:

I don't think any cyclist bangs on windows unprovoked. Your hand is worth more than the glass and is more breakable, that's pretty clear even when road rage of getting cut off runs high.

The cop probably was tired coming off a hard shift doing thankless work and did not have any patience left.

No damage was visible to the car or the cyclist.

I'm glad no one got hurt, but what are you supposed to do when a car cuts into the bike lane... and its an off duty cop!

If you are the cyclist, and you need the witnesses phone number, call me at: tree one too, cinco quarto tres, eighty seven, 41.

I wrote this up within an hour of what I saw, but I arrived too late to see the events leading up to the arrest and even now my memory grows fuzzy... I wish my gopro hadn't been out of batteries, or that the cyclist had had one. ugh.

Streetsblog article http://chi.streetsblog.org/2015/11/09/cyclist-arrested-by-allegedly...

Most recent Streetsblog article: http://chi.streetsblog.org/2015/11/13/witness-officer-drove-reckles...

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Permalink Reply by Maurice on October 15, 2015 at 4:53am

If a car is driving into me, my first resort also is to scream at them, but that's not always effective in a distracted driving scenario.  My fallback is to hit the car once in a way that's indistinguishable from them driving into me.  This causes them to stop 100% of the time.  If they rage out afterwards, it's a helluvalot better than being crushed under their wheels.  I don't admit that I hit them, but rather maintain that they illegally and dangerously drove into my lane, which is true.

  

YMMV, but I'm an adult male, so their rage has never escalated beyond yelling out the window from the safety of their metal box.  Most recently, a middle aged guy yelled "faggot" several times, which made me laugh and comment that it's a rather outdated insult in 2015.  He was taken aback for a bit, and then yelled "faggot" two more times.  All of the other drivers and pedestrians around us looked at him like he was a crazy person.

Permalink Reply by Tom Perotti on October 15, 2015 at 8:08am

I recently had a driver hurl the same expletive at me.

I was heading south on Wabash and he wanted to make a right turn on Roosevelt. He turned right in front of me but then had to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. I swerved to the left to avoid his car suddenly blocking the bike lane and actually had to catch myself on the back of his car with my right hand (not a purposeful bang). As I passed he yelled at me for hitting his car and I told him it was his fault for turning in front of me and that he should be more cognizant of the bike lane. His response was to peel out behind me, pull up next to me as I continued down Wabash, and yell "faggot" while attempting to spit on me (it didn't make it out the passenger window fortunately). 

Permalink Reply by Todd Nelson on October 18, 2015 at 5:17am

"Your Mileage May Vary"? NOTM, "New one to me".  I'll have to give it a whirl.

Permalink Reply by Todd Nelson on October 18, 2015 at 5:13am

Horns, bells and whistles will likely be ignored or dismissed by the motorists who are most guilty of ignoring the safety and the rights of cyclists. I think most of those are hoping to get a rise out of the cyclist. What we need is a system of reporting repeat offenders. I say that if a cyclist wants to report a close pass and has video with a credible tag shot, it's at least worth a written warning which includes a quote of the applicable law for the motorist's education. Then, if a motorist does, say, five or ten reported close passes within a year, they get a citation and an opportunity to take a defensive driving course covering cyclists' rights or discuss it with a judge. Would that overload the system too much?

Permalink Reply by Ben R. on October 18, 2015 at 8:18am
Love it, I have a dozen choice video clips that I've pulled off my GoPro over the past year. That I would put up if there was a good place to combine them. If nothing else just having a website they could be posted to and searched by license plate would be useful if someone ever is injured by one of those drivers and can use it to establish a history of reckless driving, even if the system won't act on that evidence alone. Really really wish my GoPro had been charged up that day... Ugh.
Permalink Reply by Mike Schwab on October 19, 2015 at 6:35pm

Youtube with title Close pass by IL-1234567 ?

Permalink Reply by Ben R. on October 20, 2015 at 2:40am

I should say, a lot of them aren't that specific transgression, infact I ususally don't even save that particular one because its very hard to judge from a front facing camera like mine as the 'closeness of the pass' is off to the side.

 some are; 3point turn in the middle of a block, making a right turn right in front of a bicyclist in the bike lane without signaling. pulling out from a parking spot without checking the bike lane without signaling, parking in the bike lane even when there's an open spot nearby etc. etc. etc.

Permalink Reply by Christopher on October 15, 2015 at 7:14am

If you're riding a bike in the bike lane and you're close enough to bang/tap the vehicle, the vehicle is probably in the wrong. Did you get the off-duty officer's badge number, you can and should file a complaint.

Permalink Reply by Ben R. on October 15, 2015 at 8:10am

unfortunately in the moment, I did not, and did not feel that any wrong was done to me. I will leave such complaints to the cyclist if he should choose to file them, and will simply bear witness to the events that I actually saw as I recall them.

Permalink Reply by Ben R. on October 15, 2015 at 8:07am

for what its worth,  I don't think anyone felt threatened by the positioning at the time. the cyclist was vocal enough that I believe he would have requested to be moved if he had felt intimidated or endangered in that situation. the car was parked at such an angle as to prevent traffic from really flowing properly there so there wasn't much danger and the officer was standing, usually between the cyclist on the street and any oncoming traffic, though we as pacing back and forth a bit while on the phone.

Permalink Reply by Bob Kastigar on October 15, 2015 at 7:50am

Ben: thank you for stopping, for leaving the information available, for following up.  And for posting here on the Chainlink to let the community know.

Thanks again for all your efforts.

Permalink Reply by Ben R. on October 15, 2015 at 9:14am

no problem, as mentioned before. I hope others would do the same for me

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