jake_m
10-02-2008, 08:34 PM
I wanted to share this directly with you guys because after the way the cop treated me I want to tell some folks who will give a damn.
Today at about 5:30pm I was leaving downtown via Broadway. I had crossed the overpass over 405 and was on Caruthers heading into the bumper to bumper traffic. As I'm on Caruthers nearing SW 6th, I can hear an ambulance coming from somewhere. I don't know where it's coming from but rather than stop and wait for the ambulance to pass, a car in front of me turned onto 6th from Caruthers and stopped in the bike lane. As I came around her I yelled that she was stopped in a bike lane--no profanity, but her window was open. I passed her and made my way to SW Sheridan where I made my way into the left turn lane. At this point, I hear an engine rev behind me and a car come screeching to a stop directly behind me. I turn around and she begins to yell at me. Asking why I yelled at her. I told her she was stopped in a bike lane. She guns her engine again at me and stops just short of hitting my back tire. I flinch and decide to let it go and turn around and wait for the light to change. We get the green arrow to turn onto Sheridan from 6th and the car in front of me goes. I begin pedaling and she guns her engine and passes me on the left going into what would be on coming traffic. All the while yelling at me. A cyclist behind me and a cyclist heading north on 6th would have witnessed it, but I didn't get names unfortunately. I pull over and call the police and give them her plate number because, to my mind, she at the very least harassed me and drove carelessly.
Normally I don't like to get involved with the police, but I had been thumbing through BTA's cycling handbook that makes it seem so easy, and I'd been the butt of plenty of driver hostility so I'd thought this time would be the time I did something.
An hour later a police car arrives to take a statement. Daniel Tatro was the responding officer. He asks what I happened, I tell him and he says, "What do you want me to do?" I tell him I want a report taken and have it referred to the DA for prosecution. He immediately starts giving me a hard time about how the driver lives all the way out in far SE and he'd have to call her and hear her side and he essentially doesn't think anything would happen. So I explain to him that I think he could at least take a report and send it to the DA because I think she harassed me and drove recklessly--which are both misdemeanors--but if not, at least careless driving which is a violation. He still keeps giving me her side of the story (without talking to her) about how she did this because of that, and maybe she'll say this and even said, "now I'm not making excuses for her but. . . "
Finally, I'd gotten just as frustrated with him as I had with her, and I said, "so you're saying you don't believe me?" And we went round and round on this and whether or not she did drive carelessly or if she did anything wrong. At some point, I told him that this, this right here, is why cyclists don't call the police, because nothing gets done, and no one takes our side. I told him there's a HUGE difference between me tell her she's in a bike lane, and her trying to hit me with her 3000 lbs car, while I'm on a bike. Still nothing; more excuses. After it was all said and done, i told him to forget it because nothing was gonna happen.
So, another fuck you from the Portland Police Bureau and a friendly reminder that we are all on our own out there.
Today at about 5:30pm I was leaving downtown via Broadway. I had crossed the overpass over 405 and was on Caruthers heading into the bumper to bumper traffic. As I'm on Caruthers nearing SW 6th, I can hear an ambulance coming from somewhere. I don't know where it's coming from but rather than stop and wait for the ambulance to pass, a car in front of me turned onto 6th from Caruthers and stopped in the bike lane. As I came around her I yelled that she was stopped in a bike lane--no profanity, but her window was open. I passed her and made my way to SW Sheridan where I made my way into the left turn lane. At this point, I hear an engine rev behind me and a car come screeching to a stop directly behind me. I turn around and she begins to yell at me. Asking why I yelled at her. I told her she was stopped in a bike lane. She guns her engine again at me and stops just short of hitting my back tire. I flinch and decide to let it go and turn around and wait for the light to change. We get the green arrow to turn onto Sheridan from 6th and the car in front of me goes. I begin pedaling and she guns her engine and passes me on the left going into what would be on coming traffic. All the while yelling at me. A cyclist behind me and a cyclist heading north on 6th would have witnessed it, but I didn't get names unfortunately. I pull over and call the police and give them her plate number because, to my mind, she at the very least harassed me and drove carelessly.
Normally I don't like to get involved with the police, but I had been thumbing through BTA's cycling handbook that makes it seem so easy, and I'd been the butt of plenty of driver hostility so I'd thought this time would be the time I did something.
An hour later a police car arrives to take a statement. Daniel Tatro was the responding officer. He asks what I happened, I tell him and he says, "What do you want me to do?" I tell him I want a report taken and have it referred to the DA for prosecution. He immediately starts giving me a hard time about how the driver lives all the way out in far SE and he'd have to call her and hear her side and he essentially doesn't think anything would happen. So I explain to him that I think he could at least take a report and send it to the DA because I think she harassed me and drove recklessly--which are both misdemeanors--but if not, at least careless driving which is a violation. He still keeps giving me her side of the story (without talking to her) about how she did this because of that, and maybe she'll say this and even said, "now I'm not making excuses for her but. . . "
Finally, I'd gotten just as frustrated with him as I had with her, and I said, "so you're saying you don't believe me?" And we went round and round on this and whether or not she did drive carelessly or if she did anything wrong. At some point, I told him that this, this right here, is why cyclists don't call the police, because nothing gets done, and no one takes our side. I told him there's a HUGE difference between me tell her she's in a bike lane, and her trying to hit me with her 3000 lbs car, while I'm on a bike. Still nothing; more excuses. After it was all said and done, i told him to forget it because nothing was gonna happen.
So, another fuck you from the Portland Police Bureau and a friendly reminder that we are all on our own out there.