If A Police Officer Rolls A Bike Over Your Head....

If someone rolls a bicycle over someone else's head, could that be construed as excessive use of force?

Hmm...I must admit I'd never pondered that question.  Most likely, there aren't very many people who have. One who had to is Andrew Myerberg.

He is the director of Seattle's Office of Police Accountability (OPA).  The poor fellow who got tire tracks on his forehead was Camillo Massagli, who was known for showing up at street protests and playing his trumpet.  At one of those events last year, held in the wake of a grand jury's decision not to indict Louisville police officers in the killing of Breonna Taylor, Seattle PD Officer Eric D. Walter rolled his Department-issued bike--with two flat tires--over a supine Massagli's head.

Massagli, for his part, declined to pursue charges because, he explained, "I cannot use a penal system I reject for revenge, not in good conscience," though he added that Walter's and other officers' actions showed "disregard for human life."

King County Sheriff's Detective Mike Mellis investigated Walter for assault but did not find probable cause.  He reasoned that Walter and other officers had a right to "peacefully" remove protesters from the street.  Although he conceded that Walter "purposely rolled his bike over" Massagli's head, as recounted in an OPA summary, he said that such an action "would not necessarily be expected to cause someone pain."

Okay...I'll try that if I ever roll a bicycle over someone's head:  "Officer, I really meant no harm!"

At least Mellis, Walter and the officers who worked with him weren't the only ones who had input on the OPA summary.  It didn't dispute Walter's claim that that he "needed to stay on his line and could not move as it might confuse the officers following behind him."  It, however, averred that a review of video from that day found "no indication that he ever lifted the bicycle while walking over" Massagli.  

So what was the result of this investigation?  Walter got a seven-day unpaid suspension. (It's unclear as to whether or not he's served it.) Walter and the union are, of course, appealing it.  As a 14-year veteran of the force, Walter had a base salary of $130,471 in 2020 and made another $20,544. (I wonder whether working that protest was part of his regular salary or overtime.)  So the suspension, should or has he served it, would cost him about $2509 of his base pay. One wonders whether Massagli will pay in some other way--whether through physical pain or emotional trauma, now or in the future, whether or not Officer Walter meant to hurt him.

Screen grab from a video at the protest. (Courtesy of C.J Halliburton and Joey Weiser, for the Seattle Times.

More Bikes, More Parts, More Help Needed

 The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the cycling world in all sorts of ways.  You've probably noticed more people on bikes during the past year and a half.  And, if you wanted to buy or fix a bike, you probably found it more difficult, or even impossible, to find the bikes, parts or accessories you need--and that, if you can find them, they're more expensive.

That last factor--scarcity and expense--has been particularly difficult for programs that distribute bikes during the holidays.  Some, such as the Boise Bicycle Project, have, in years past, relied on bikes refurbished in local jails and prisons.  Those programs, which typically trained volunteer detainees, have been suspended or stopped altogether due to distancing requirements.  Also, the businesses--whether bike shops or big-box stores like Wal-Mart--that donated bikes or sold them at significant discounts (sometimes at wholesale prices or not much more) just don't have bikes or even helmets or other accessories to donate.  And, individuals who donate bikes often do so after buying new bikes for themselves or their kids:  the old bike is the one that gets donated.

That last fact relates to another of the problems I mentioned.  Donated bikes are usually fixed by volunteers in the distribution programs before being passed on to a needy kid or adult.   Just as the Idaho prison program mentioned in the article has been put on hold, so have other programs in which volunteers refurbish bikes, such as those in Recycle-a-Bicycle type operations, local bike clubs, schools or other organizations.  It's pretty hard to show someone how to true wheels or replace brake cables while maintaining social distance.

And, while some volunteers in distribution programs have the skills and tools to fix the bikes, they may not have the necessary parts, or any way of getting them.

So, the program in the article--and, I am sure, others--are urging people not only to donate bikes, but also to fix them, if necessary, before giving them.

If you donate or fix bikes in a program like BBP, you deserve special kudos this year.  And, whether or not we receive one of those bikes, we should be grateful for the extra effort they're surely expending this year!

Imagine There's A White Bicycle

In a terrible irony, John Lennon was murdered the day after Pearl Harbor Day.

That was 41 years ago today.  I don't think it's hyperbolic to say that it shook some of us in the way that the "surprise" attack roused Americans and the world. 

In another terrible irony, the man responsible for "Imagine" and other songs calling for peace and unity was cut down by a lone gunman who claimed to be inspired by a fictional character who probably would have listened to Lennon's (and the Beatles') music and probably wouldn't have committed violence simply because he turned all of his anger inward.

(Of course, Lennon's murder points up to one of the ways in which the US gets things backwards.  In other countries, everyone has access to health care--which includes mental health services-- but very few people who aren't police officers or military personnel have access to firearms.)

Anyway, apart from his music and being married to the woman blamed for the breakup of the Beatles (I think she was a catalyst, not a cause), he and she were known for their "bed-ins" for peace.  At their second, in Amsterdam, they were given a white bike that was part of the Provo plan. 

 

Think of Provo as a kind of Dutch proto-Occupy Wall Street:  It began as a counter-culture movement during the mid-1960s.  It had a cultural wing,  which staged "happenings" and an activist wing that provoked (hence the name) the police through non-violent means. 

There was also a political faction that actually won a seat on Amsterdam's city council and had a number of goals to make their city and country more liveable and what we would now call "green." Those goals included the closing of central Amsterdam to motorized traffic.  That, of course, is probably Provo's most recognizable and lasting legacy:  One could say that the "White Bicycle" plan set the Dutch capital on its path to becoming the cycling haven it is today.

That, I believe, is something of which John Lennon would have approved.

It Wasn’t His Fault

 When I was a Manhattan bike messenger, I sluiced through taxis, delivery trucks, buses and pedestrians with craned necks. 

But I had nothing on this courier:

The photo is fabricated, but it symbolizes a real story:  A Japanese-American bicycle messenger pedaled through the attack on Pearl Harbor with a message for General Walter Short, who was in charge of defending it.

The message?  A warning of an attack.

Japan had intended to issue a declaration of war half an hour before the attack.  The US Army had already decrypted the message the evening before, and had dispatched alerts to all Pacific-area commands. But communication problems delayed receipt of the warning in Honolulu.

Meanwhile, bureaucrats in the Japanese embassy were slow in decoding, typing and delivering the formal message to Secretary of State Cordell Hull.

The result is, of course, the “surprise “ attack.  And the bike messenger, who was sent out some time after 7:30 local time, when the warning arrived, was caught in the rain of bombs and bullets at 7:55 am.  Two hours later, he arrived, with the message.

Richard Masoner wryly wonders whether that messenger received a tip for his troubles. He certainly deserved it:  I got tips for much less!

P.S. Today is the 80th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. There are very few remaining survivors. This may well be their last opportunity to collectively commemorate the event.

(Photo from Richard Masoner’s blog, Cyclelicious.)

The Fall

 When you ride for more than a couple of decades you realize that there's no idea so ridiculous, no "innovation" so pointless or "improvement" so useless that someone won't revive it, oh, about every decade or so.

Also, you hear the same alarms about the terrible things cycling will do to you.  The only difference between now and the 1970s, when I first became a dedicated rider, is that those rumors and urban legends, and all of that junk science, can now be found on the Internet, whereas back in the day, we got it through word-of-mouth or from questionable publications. 

One of those stories is about all of the male cyclists who've become infertile, or simply have lower sperm counts, supposedly because of cycling.  Germaine Greer once repeated that bit of nonsense in one of her screeds.  Now, I've known more than a few male cyclists, including current and former riding partners, who have had multiple children.  So have many members of the pro peloton.

What about cycling could render a man incapable of replicating himself?  Usually, the saddles are blamed; a few have even cited the motion of cycling.  I think a more likely cause in low population growth in some countries might be those massive shift levers mounted on the top tubes of "muscle" bikes like the 1960s-1970s Schwinn Krate  or on the stems of many Bike Boom-era ten-speeds.  Even those, however, might have played an extremely minor role in less-than-replacement birth rates. 

Could this be the cause?

Now, I know that fall must have been painful for the young man. But I have to wonder which pain was worse:  that of the impact or of having his accident broadcast all over his nation.