A cop thought he could intimidate a cyclist. Big mistake
This Long Beach, California cop picked the wrong kid to harass. The video begins with a hostile officer barking at two bikers to “park your bike!” He then proceeds to talk to them about biking in a section of a parkway where biking is prohibited. “If you can get that word out it will stop people complaining and I won’t come and talk to you,” he says.
“Is there a change in law?” asks the cyclist filming the meeting.
“What is that?” the cop said, surprised that his authority was challenged.
“Is there a change in law?” repeats the cyclist.
“Yeah, you can’t ride a bike on the boardwalk,” the cop said.
“When did this law change? asks the cyclist.
“It’s been a law for quite a while,” the cop said.
The cyclist, who has done his homework, hits back: “16.16.502 specific sectional code that says you can ride a bike here. So I don’t know what law you’re referring to.”
The cop responds with a vague threat: “Okay, you want to go that way? We can go that way.”
But the cyclist is too smart to fall for the cop’s attempts to intimidate him. “You want to pull out your civic code, you want to look up the code 16.16.502 that says you can ride a bike here. So if you want to come here, you want to tell me -“
“Or exactly ?” interrupts the cop, getting angry every second.
“Rainbow Harbor Esplanade, which is this whole area of this park,” the cyclist explains. “All the way all the way to here. This is the Rainbow Harbor plaza.”
Now the cop tries a little sarcasm: “So did you get your law degree on Facebook? Or where did you actually get it?”
The cyclist has none of that. “So do I have to have a law degree to be an informed citizen? Is that what you’re saying? It’s wrong to be informed? It’s wrong to know the law? It’s wrong to know your rights?”
“I just want to know where you got him,” says the cop, who still thinks that brat might be intimidated by his tough-guy approach.
But he is wrong. “I got it knowing my rights,” says the cyclist. “Is it wrong to know your rights as a citizen? Because the last time I checked when agents come and they try to invalidate your rights by telling you bullshit laws and enforcing their opinions, that’s not what you’re supposed to get. You’re supposed to support the law. And when the law says you can ride a bike here, you don’t have to come and harass someone saying that he shouldn’t ride a bike.
“Oh, is that harassment?” the cop said, hoping to start another argument that he has a chance of winning.
But he can’t win with this guy. “When you tell someone not to ride a bike when they are legally allowed to ride a bike,” he says, “yes, that’s harassment. Your opinion is irrelevant. The law states that we can ride bikes. Now. Do you have anything else to say or are you going to leave us alone?”
He finally begins to understand to the cop that he is the loser of this meeting. “Have a nice day,” he said sullenly and started to walk away.
“Yeah, you have a nice day,” the cyclist told the retired peace officer. “We’re going to keep rolling over the man. It is our right. I’ve been riding here for six years. You how many cops come here and try to shoot me?
The cop mumbles something with the word “dude” at the end.
“Hey, what’s your name officer?” asks the cyclist.
“It’s on the jersey,” says the cop, who then tells the cyclist his name.
“Yeah, thanks man,” the cyclist said. “Hey, I appreciate you not bullshitting us and walking away. Please stay informed and don’t harass the public, right? »
The cyclist concludes with a message to viewers: “So guys, that’s how you treat a police officer. Right? You don’t let the cops tell you that you can’t do what you know how to do, right? ?”
