Where Were You When You Broke The Law?

 I broke a law.

Well, it may not have been a law where I committed the evil deed.  But a man did the same thing in another locale and was arrested.

To be fair, there was a warrant for his capture.  And the violation was just one charged to him when he was apprehended.

The cops who effected the bust were based in barracks in a town with one of the most quirkily beautiful toponyms I’ve heard:  Shickshinny, Pennsylvania. Imagine answering the query, “Where are you from?” with that.

Anyway, the benighted soul they ensnared, 51-year-old David Thomas Totten of Wilkes-Barre, was riding a bicycle eastbound in the westbound traffic lane of West End Road in Hanover Township.  It was just after midnight on 4 September 2023 and Totten didn’t have any lights on his bike.

Now, some officers might ignore such breaches of bicycle safety protocols. And unless the officers on duty had been involved with whatever led to Totten’s warrant—or there’s some tagging technology we don’t know about—they couldn’t have known about that warrant . So the question remains of what prompted the ones on duty to stop Totten and conduct a search that yielded a cigarette pack hiding suspected methamphetamine and a syringe.

Now, I’ve never smoked, owned or used a syringe or anything that could be construed as methamphetamine  or had warrant for my arrest (that I know of!). I’ll concede that I’ve ridden in the dark without lights or reflectors, though not within the past few decades. So what, exactly have both Mr. Totten and I done that resulted in an arrest for him, but not me.

He was carrying a table when he was stopped. I’ve done it, too, on more than one occasion. I’ve also carried chairs and bookcases—and a framed art pieces, including one that measured at least 2 feet by 3 feet (61 by 91 cm.).

The latter was a delivery I made, as a Manhattan bike messenger, from a Soho gallery to Judy Collins (yes, that one) on the Upper Wear Side. I made similar runs with oversized objets d’art and home furnishings in the steel and concrete canyons. I also hauled them as part of a move from one neighborhoods to another.

Of course, the prints, tables and such didn’t fit into my messenger bag, backpack, panniers or whatever I was using to haul stuff on my bike.  So, of course, I had to carry the item in one hand and navigate the bike with the other.

Such practices, it turns out, are transgressions against Chapter 35, Subchapter A, Section 3506 of the Pennsylvania vehicle code:

“ No person operating a pedal cycle shall carry any package, bundle, or article which prevents the driver from keeping at least one hand upon the handlebars.”

I guess it’s a good thing I was in New York and New Jersey when I committed my foul deeds—unless, of course, the Empire and Garden States have statutes like the one in the Keystone State.  Then again, if said laws exist, I would guess that the statute of limitations has run out. (Is that one of the benefits of getting older?)

From Bicycle Offense To Jail-Cell Suicide

Perhaps not surprisingly, the most common cause of death in jails and prisons, for inmates and employees alike, is suicide.  Perhaps equally unsurprising is this: About half of all inmates who take their own lives were convicted of severe violent offenses including murder and rape. My guess is that such detainees off themselves because they are facing the longest sentences--in some cases, life without the possiblity of parole--or realize that if they are released, they will be very old or have few prospects for the future, or both.

I mention all of this because Isiah Mitchell was not charged with any such crime. (At 26 years old, he was also half the age of a typical inmate suicide.) 

Last Friday, he rode his bicycle into traffic near North Barnes Avenue and Interstate 44 in Oklahoma City.  Bryant Hodge, an OKPCD police officer, pulled him over.  "You're a bike," Hodge explained.  "Ya gotta follow the rules of the road."

But a stop for a road violation took another turn.  According to Bryant, Mitchell was on his way to buy Fentanyl.  The drug "ain't something we need to be playing with," the officer admonished.  "That stuff's going to kill you."  According the arrest report, Mitchell "was happy that I kept him from making a very bad decision."

While holding Mitchell in the patrol car, Bryant found a Driving While Intoxicated warrant from 2016.  And this:  "You didn't appear for your court date," Hodge revealed.  Mitchell claimed that he wasn't fleeing justice:  He couldn't make his appointment because he'd been shot in the leg.

Three days after his arrest, Mitchell was in the Oklahoma County Detention Center, awaiting his transfer to the Garfield County Jail.  The county sheriff said there weren't enough deputies available to transport inmates.  Just before he would have been moved, staff members found him attempting suicide in his cell.  About an hour and 20 minutes later, he was declared dead in a local hospital.

So...while we can debate how appropriate was the law enforcement officials' response to Isaiah Mitchell's bicycle offense, his admission of his intention to commit another offense and his old warrant, it's hard not to think that his riding his bike into traffic didn't have to end with with his killing himself in a jail cell.

Let Us Know So We Can Do Nothing

Be a snitch.  But don't expect us to go after the perps.

That is the message Chicago cyclists are getting from their city.  

On one hand, on Wednesday morning Alderman Daniel La Spata of the Windy City's First Ward sent this Tweet:

My office has been investigating the best way to submit Bike Lane Parking Violations for enforcement to the City of Chicago. Here is the best way to submit violations for ticketing:

— Alderman Daniel La Spata (@AldermanLaSpata) June 15, 2022

He was  encouraging cyclists to take photos of drivers parked in designated bike lanes and send them to 311 so the city can pursue a citation.

That same afternoon, however, a Chicago Department of Transportation spokesperson said that while the agency encourages what La Spata advised, the City uses the information "to guide enforcement and identify hot spots to improve public safety."  Those complaints, however, are not sent to Administrative Hearings for ticketing," the CDoT spokesperson said.

Would Chicago, or any other city, tell its citizens to take videos of robberies or assaults in progress, forward them to the city, and say that it plans to do nothing with them?  How many people would want to be "the eyes and ears" of their communities?