Comments on: Cuffed and Ticketed for No Front Light, 2010 Edition

By: Alex Thompson

Alex Thompson — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:18:46 +0000

Thanks for the writing advice Doug. I would suggest to you that the answers to your questions are known by this blogger. For instance, the writing of “PED” is incorrect – LAPD indicates as does my experience that it should be written as “BIKE”. Re definition of bike in the law – bikes are considered a device but not a vehicle in the California Vehicle Code.

If the officer made a mistake then she made it twice. That fact lends itself to the interpretation that this was not mistake so much as it’s a misunderstanding of CVC by an officer working for the Central Traffic Division of LAPD. They deal only with traffic, so they ought to know better when it comes to the CVC. The failures in this aspect add to a pattern of failed professionalism that includes the handcuffing.

By: Doug McLaren

Doug McLaren — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:05:20 +0000

“On the other hand, it’s Townsend who could use a refresher on California law. In both citations Townsend wrote “PED” in the vehicle information field, indicating that the recipients were not motorists, but pedestrians. As you might know, pedestrians are not required to have front headlights. So you could question why Townsend wrote citations which apply to cyclists to pedestrians.”

You know, it’s a nice story and all about how the officer doesn’t know the law in this regard, but a more plausible explanation would be that either 1) the officer made a mistake, or 2) this is the procedure on how they document violations on a bicycle. (Does California explicitly define bicycles as vehicles in the law? Some states do, some don’t.)

Ultimately, harping on that one minor item detracts from the real point, which is that LAPD is handcuffing cyclists for incredibly minor code violations.

(Though it is also possible that cops feel less threatened by people in cars. If you’re in a car, you can’t leap out and attack a cop without warning. A person just standing there gives the cop less time to react when he does something suddenly. Do the cops regularly handcuff pedestrians while they write them tickets?)

By: M. Bouffant

M. Bouffant — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:04:56 +0000

LAPD officers regularly treat people like crap, then they feel threatened, so they cuff them as if they were children being given a “time-out.”

Screw the damn cops. Will they never learn?

By: LAPD still hates bikes | Blogging.la

LAPD still hates bikes | Blogging.la — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:56:53 +0000

[...] What does someone have to do to get handcuffed and detained by the LAPD? Regardless of how you might have answered those questions, the real answers seem to be that the LAPD feels spending a half an hour detaining and handcuffing a cyclist for riding a bike without a headlight (or with a headlight that was turned off by the officers in question, depending on who you believe) and then giving them a $10 fix it ticket is all it takes. Or handcuffing and detaining someone who simply approached the first scene and asked what was happening. That’s exactly what is happening. [...]

By: Streetsblog Los Angeles » Past Weekend’s Headlines

Streetsblog Los Angeles » Past Weekend’s Headlines — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:07:44 +0000

[...] LAPD/Cyclist Relationship Not Perfect Yet, Cyclist cuffed and Ticketed for Nothing (Bikeside) [...]

By: Friday’s ride, in which I dodge cars, prevent a collision and thank a bus driver « BikingInLA

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:17:43 +0000

[...] cyclists are cuffed and one ticketed for not having a headlight — even though the officer himself had turned it off. More fallout [...]

By: Gina

Gina — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:19:49 +0000

It’s not argumentative to ask why your friend is being detained, this officer needs a vacation without pay. A.S.A.P.!

I don’t like that Police State mentality some police officers have, that does not sit well with me at all.

How dare he cuff him for asking a reasonable question about his friend.

They are not superior to us, they are our paid servants, they need to remember that and check their “macho attitudes” at the door.

By: Alex de Cordoba

Alex de Cordoba — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:18:27 +0000

I would have NO PROBLEM with cyclists being cuffed if every other vehicle was cuffed as a matter of standard practice. I imagine the LAPD would have a very big problem if they enacted a policy like that.

By: Gary Kavanagh

Gary Kavanagh — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:14:11 +0000

Same crap the SMPD was doing to Santa Monica critical mass riders. They don’t care if the citations they write make any sense, or if they are relevant to laws broken, if any laws were actually broken by the rider they cite. Typical harassment of cyclists.

By: jason

jason — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:05:51 +0000

Really? So what we have here are two tickets from kids that were trying to keep up with a large group ride. Not one stretch of information comes directly from the police department other than the tickets. If you really want to make action and not just useless noise, try getting these amended to some sort of standard that is acceptable by the bicycling community. I would love to see you get some comments from the officers themselves or the LAPD regarding this incident.

By: danceralamode

danceralamode — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:41:10 +0000

It really ticks me off that they are wasting time handcuffing cyclists when they could be actually fighting crime. I had to call the LAPD last night, and they called me 2 hours after I reported the incident that nothing was happening. Well, of course, you came 2 hours late! I guess they were busy cuffing cyclists for next to nothing.