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Ride ends with felony

Old 02-15-20, 10:58 PM
  #51  
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Originally Posted by Seattle Forrest
I'm surprised this got moved to A&S and not P&R. It seems like the central issue here is police overreach.
Police overreach against cyclist!
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Old 02-15-20, 11:31 PM
  #52  
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We dont blame the cyclists at all? We can break laws? That's what's wrong with this country, it is always someone else's fault.... poor law breaker, dam evil cops...please, just like all the rest of the lib whiners...Dont break the law so blatantly in front of a cop, this might not of happened....no **** huh? But let's not blame the poor cyclists
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Old 02-15-20, 11:46 PM
  #53  
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Cop was a jackass. When a cyclist hears sirens, the first thought is to get closer to the shoulder so the cop can pass. The last thing they would expect is the cop running them down. What a jackass.
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Old 02-16-20, 12:14 AM
  #54  
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Cops had complaints about the pack. Cops set up a trap. Kid's got pinched. Cop was a dick because he had to justify his sitting out there all morning. Simple as that.
In fact, the cop was probably wondering what all the fuss was about when the two kids blew the stop. Then the pack showed up. At that point, the cop knew he blew it because if he had waited 5 seconds, he would have been able to write a shload of tickets.
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Old 02-16-20, 01:59 AM
  #55  
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Originally Posted by Kimmo
But not everybody gets busted. Although we can't talk about that aspect here, because that's political, and somehow having this discussion while omitting the most salient detail isn't.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-police-itself
Actually, the reason I'm not talking about any other aspect of this situation is that I don't have enough salient information with which to form a solid opinion.

I can read and interpret the meaning of the stop signage, and that's why I commented.

DD
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Old 02-16-20, 06:21 AM
  #56  
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Originally Posted by bahula03
Having watched the videos and read through the article, that is 100% the police officer imposing the power they're entrusted with to intimidate the people they're supposed to protect. What an embarrassment.
Yes in a way, but it's more nuanced than that and why I'm so disgusted ...

Molyneaux said he believes that neighborhood complaints about the large groups of riders have led to tensions between the cycling community and law enforcement. This latest incident will likely enflame those tensions even more.
So what we have hear is, failure to communicate. Resident's essentially using the nuclear option to deal with their grievances against a perceived "nuisance". The officer executed the arrest so fast that he knew this would happen before the cyclists even showed up. The officer knew that in court the only charge that will stick is failure to stop. This is about a petty group of people perverting our laws to their own gain and power.

The officer was well within his power to do all this, not disagreeing with that. What this did was to show that this neighborhood is essentially a "sundown" neighborhood for cyclists.
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Old 02-16-20, 07:12 AM
  #57  
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A warning ticket should have been in order, since there was no traffic.
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Old 02-16-20, 07:28 AM
  #58  
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Two public servants stationed out in the middle of the boonies for the sole purpose of monitoring for stop sign infractions seems like a waste of taxpayer's money.
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Old 02-16-20, 07:32 AM
  #59  
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Originally Posted by Drillium Dude
Your post is indicative of the kind of ignorance many people have to what the signs right in front of their faces actually mean. The stop sign seen from the police vehicle is clearly marked "STOP - ALL WAY". That means everybody stops. All directions. Elementary.

Commence to editin'

DD
Your post is indicative of lack of reading comprehension. It’s not the stop sign in front of the officer saying what it says. It’s that traffic coming from the opposite direction must also have a sign posted stating so, and if not, the sign was never there or it was removed and not present at the time of the video. It was hard to determine that from the wide angle cam video. I’ve seen that myself on country roads, signs removed, painted over and even blown by gun shots.

Someone went to Google maps and made a nice diagram of the actual intersection, showing the sign (at the moment the Google car passed through there).

But ok, it’s a four-way intersection.

Alright, keep editing.
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Old 02-16-20, 09:19 AM
  #60  
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There was a whole lot of dumb in that video. The cyclists ignored the stop sign right in front of the cops, then didn't tune into the sirens until the cop was on their wheel. From that point the police work was just horrendous. It's hard to believe anyone would think the officer's actions were appropriate given the whole of the circumstances.

Gonna guess this one. The cops were set up there specifically to target the cyclists. Why else would they be there? That would also explain why the cop took the enforcement action he did. He had a bit of a mission with cyclists.

What I saw was shameful. Somewhat shameful cycling and terribly shameful police work. That cop forever alienated every single rider there. The riders will hold a negative view of LE for the rest of their lives. Cops that carry on without regard for that have nobody to blame but themselves when the citizenry holds them in contempt. That cop is an embarrassment to my former profession.

Last edited by Paul Barnard; 02-16-20 at 05:50 PM.
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Old 02-16-20, 02:29 PM
  #61  
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Originally Posted by Paul Barnard
There was a whole lot of dumb in that video. The cyclists ignored the stop sign right in front of the cops, then didn't tune into the sirens until the cop was on their wheel. Then from that point to police work was just horrendous. It's hard to believe anyone would think the officers actions were appropriate given the whole of the circumstances.

Gonna guess this one. The cops were set up their specifically to target the cyclists. Why else would they be there? That would also explain why the cop took the enforcement action he did.

What I saw was shameful. Somewhat shameful cycling and terribly shameful police work. That cop forever alienated every single rider there. The riders will hold a negative view of LE for the rest of their lives. Cops that carry on without regard for that have nobody to blame but themselves when the citizenry holds them in contempt. That cop is an embarrassment to my former profession.
The modern LEO has no say in doing their jobs anymore, they must follow policies and procedures to the "T". The average police person is just a dumb drone of the state. On the other hand the person on bike asked for it.
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Old 02-16-20, 03:25 PM
  #62  
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Something very similar to what happened to this cyclist happened to me once. At 6:57pm one Saturday in a small town on the Connecticut coast, I parked my car on a nearly empty street near a sign that said “no parking 9:00am to 7:00pm” and went in to the nearby art-house movie theatre to catch a 7:00pm showing of a dismal foreign movie. After the crappy movie, I returned to find a parking ticket written at 6:58pm. What I did not know at the time was that that Saturday was a declared Chicken**** Day in Connecticut, just as this cyclist didn’t now that it was Chicken**** Day in Florida.

I never stop at a Stop sign when riding my bike if I have clear lines of sight showing that it is safe to blow past the sign. I have run Stop signs in such situations in view of The Police with impunity. But I would never do this on Chicken**** Day.

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Old 02-16-20, 05:47 PM
  #63  
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Originally Posted by CoffeedrinkerNC
The modern LEO has no say in doing their jobs anymore, they must follow policies and procedures to the "T". The average police person is just a dumb drone of the state. On the other hand the person on bike asked for it.
That's not correct at all. Officers always have varying degrees of discretionary latitude. In this case if some protocol dictated that he had to take one course of action with one rider, it would have applied to the other as well.
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Old 02-16-20, 06:14 PM
  #64  
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I think it's clear that this cop's motivations in making this BS arrest, selecting the latino biker while ignoring his partner in crime, and asking after his citizenship, were, um, deplorable.
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Old 02-16-20, 06:25 PM
  #65  
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Originally Posted by Paul Barnard
In this case if some protocol dictated that he had to take one course of action with one rider, it would have applied to the other as well.
Justice Sotomayor has observed in her dissents that you are absolutely correct, but the majority strongly disagrees with you. Unlawful stops are the law of the land right now, only the most EGREGIOUS unlawful stops are unlawful. Is there any “plausible” pretext?

You may or may not know, but some people operating vehicles have to full stop at stop lights, some people operating vehicles can’t turn right when there is a no right turn on red sign, and when walking some people have to wait for the walk light. Even more amazing, even waiting for the walk light can also be the wrong answer for those very same people.

And the current law cares not a whit that one person in an unlawful stop was treated differently than another person in an unlawful stop. If there was a “plausible” pretext for arresting and searching one, it matters not that there were others where there was a “plausible” pretext who were not arrested or searched.

There is so much “discretionary latitude” that it works well for SOME people ALL of the time.

(Our poster child is Joey.)

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Old 02-16-20, 07:39 PM
  #66  
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Someone should, if possible change the thread title to "Ride Ends with a Misdemeanor." He wasn't charged with any felony. There is more than a little difference between the two. Also, the person arrested was an 18-year-old adult. I only mention that because many of his ride mates were all protesting to the cop that he "is a minor" and "he is just a kid." The adult that was arrested never denied that he was a minor, or if he did I did not hear it.

Also, in the one video as the police officer gets out of his vehicle it sounds clear to me that one of the two riders protests that we have the right...and then it tails off. That was before the cop says anything to them about why he has pulled them over. I wonder where he was going with that "we have the right" and why he felt the need to say it?

Is there anything above that is not true or accurate? Anything?

I don't want to misstate anything after I messed up so badly with my first posts because I sloppily and inexcusably did not adequately check all the facts or details of the incident that were posted or linked to an article.

Why the cop arrested just one of the two is a question that deserves to be answered and the department owes it to the community to respond.
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Old 02-16-20, 08:09 PM
  #67  
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Originally Posted by BengalCat
Also, in the one video as the police officer gets out of his vehicle it sounds clear to me that one of the two riders protests that we have the right...and then it tails off. That was before the cop says anything to them about why he has pulled them over. I wonder where he was going with that "we have the right" and why he felt the need to say it?
With the cop taking so long to catch up to the cyclist, and then yelling out the window "pull over, pull over", the cyclist more than likely thought that the cop was on their case for riding on the road. Running the stop sign was old history for the cyclist.
So the cyclist were protesting that they have a right to be riding in the traffic lane.
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Old 02-16-20, 08:40 PM
  #68  
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Originally Posted by BengalCat
Someone should, if possible change the thread title to "Ride Ends with a Misdemeanor." He wasn't charged with any felony.
He was charged with violating Florida 316.1935 2, a felony of the third degree.

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Old 02-16-20, 08:43 PM
  #69  
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Originally Posted by BengalCat
Someone should, if possible change the thread title to "Ride Ends with a Misdemeanor." He wasn't charged with any felony. There is more than a little difference between the two. Also, the person arrested was an 18-year-old adult. I only mention that because many of his ride mates were all protesting to the cop that he "is a minor" and "he is just a kid." The adult that was arrested never denied that he was a minor, or if he did I did not hear it.

Also, in the one video as the police officer gets out of his vehicle it sounds clear to me that one of the two riders protests that we have the right...and then it tails off. That was before the cop says anything to them about why he has pulled them over. I wonder where he was going with that "we have the right" and why he felt the need to say it?

Is there anything above that is not true or accurate? Anything?

I don't want to misstate anything after I messed up so badly with my first posts because I sloppily and inexcusably did not adequately check all the facts or details of the incident that were posted or linked to an article.

Why the cop arrested just one of the two is a question that deserves to be answered and the department owes it to the community to respond.
​​​​​​He was charged with fleeing and resisting arrest. They won't hold up, but the officer changed him with a felony.
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Old 02-16-20, 09:32 PM
  #70  
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The fact that the officer thought that 2 cyclists running a stop sign with no traffic around then was serious enough to chase them with sirens blaring looks bad to me. What a waste of their duties.
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Old 02-17-20, 07:44 AM
  #71  
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Originally Posted by BengalCat
Someone should, if possible change the thread title to "Ride Ends with a Misdemeanor." He wasn't charged with any felony. There is more than a little difference between the two....

I don't want to misstate anything after I messed up so badly with my first posts because I sloppily and inexcusably did not adequately check all the facts or details of the incident that were posted or linked to an article.

I can't get past this discrepancy.
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Old 02-17-20, 12:28 PM
  #72  
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Originally Posted by alo
I think police performance is measured by how many people they book. When they have not got enough, they start booking people for very trivial things. Sometimes they make up false charges.

Police should be after are the real criminals.
Fixt.
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Old 02-17-20, 12:37 PM
  #73  
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Originally Posted by DrIsotope
One wonders why the cops see the need to so actively defend this sorta-intersection in the middle of nowhere. The cops are also parked on gravel, which dead-ends into trees in about 300ft. So it's a bend with two gravel driveways joining it.
If you read the article, it's because the old white people that retired there from the midwest complain about cyclists (probably passing them in their golfcarts).

So it's the Karen's of the world ******g things up again.
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Old 02-17-20, 02:12 PM
  #74  
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The only real offense by the cyclist was wearing ear pods on a group ride.
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Old 02-17-20, 03:07 PM
  #75  
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In the OP linked article it stated:

He [the police officer] takes Lopez to the Seminole County Jail, where Lopez is booked on a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest without violence and fleeing and eluding a law enforcement officer, a felony.


Of course, it ultimately will be the prosecutors that decide what exact charges if any to formerly file and prosecute Lopez on. Plus in most states, if they decide to prosecute for a felony they will have to convince a judge at a preliminary hearing that they have enough to do that.

If I were to bet I would feel comfortable betting that in the end, the cyclist will not end up with a felony conviction. IMO the worst-case scenario in the end legal wise will be he ends up with a misdemeanor or traffic violation. It is even possible, though perhaps not probable, that all charges will be dropped.

So we have multiple issues here. The cycling protocol, stop signs, (I only stop if there is a danger of side traffic or someone is getting to the intersection in their car as I arrive too), the behavior of cyclists, the behavior of the cop, and what will be the legal outcome.
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