So a bike nazi was demonstrating during one of the Critical Mass rides, standing on the sidewalk next to his bike, when a police officer told him to move along. He refused, and the policeman gave him a ticket for impeding traffic and for failing to obey a police officer.
The bike nazi goes to court, and argues that the impeding traffic charge cannot apply because the law applies to "people driving cars and riding bikes." Since he wasn't riding his bike at the time, he argued that he couldn't be in violation of the law.
Attorney General Hardy Meyers conceded the point, and the Court of Appeals dismissed the ticket!
So let me get this straight.... by this reasoning I could drive my car into an intersection, get out of the car and stand on the sidewalk, and I couldn't be charged with impeding traffic? After all, I wouldn't be "driving."
On second thought, if I did do this, they'd probably give me a reward rather than a ticket. After all, I'd be advancing their agenda of creating as much congestion as possible.
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7 comments:
Portland....only in Portland.
This place is starting to really piss me off.
I can't speak for everyone who participates in Critical Mass, but I know many people who do participate don't do so to promote congestion. We actually want the opposite.
I think you would get a ticket for impeding traffic with our car in the intersection, but not for impeding traffic on the sidewalk.
This man's bike was not in the street. It was on the sidewalk, where he was standing. I often stand on the sidewalk with my bike. Why would that be illegal?
According to the story, the case was dimissed because he was not riding his bike, not because he was not actually impeding traffic.
According to the court papers, he was on the sidewalk. The cop tried to expand the "impeding traffic" rule to include impeding foot traffic. Only an activist judge would agree with that interpretation.
Mick -
you say your CritMass friends don't want congestion, yet once a month they purposefully clog up the downtown streets. Funny way of showing it.
Rob:
I've never seen Critical Mass use even 50% of any given street at any given time. How exactly do you define "clog"?
If you mean use the road according to our legal rights, then I guess you are right. :)
-Mick
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