Monday, April 30

Busted for Biking

By Scot McElwaney
www.bmxonline.com

The day after I talked to Sam Pederson, I visited the very park that he had talked about, the public park in the city of Alameda, Calif. While I was there, Justin "Shorty" Sealey got a ticket for riding his bike at the park.

Justin had just arrived at the skatepark and he just happened to be the only biker riding at the moment the cop drove up. It was a stroke of bad luck for Justin, but this also meant that the bike session was over for a while. The cop threatened everyone by saying that if he came back and people were riding, he would impound their bikes.

It took the cop a while to write the ticket (he had to spend some time intimidating Justin first), but after he was done, I talked to Justin breifly about receiving a $50-plus citation for riding his bike in a so-called "public" park.

How many tickets have you been issued here?
Two.

This is your second one?
Yeah.

What do the cops usually do when they bust you for riding in the park?
They usually try to intimidate you for a little bit, just to make sure you're not lying to them [about your name]. But after a while they try to make it seem like they're on your side. They say they're "into bike riding" but "it's their job and that's what they have to do." They try to make themselves seem nicer than they really are.

Do you ever try to argue with them and say that the taxpayers helped pay for the park so you should be able to ride?
All the time. I mean we helped build this place. All of us were here working on it. [The cops] just say, "take it up with someone else, it's not my job."