[Updated: 11:28am]
“The driver said the civilian investigation seems like a ‘vigilante’ move that won’t fix anything.”
–From a story on KGW
The Oregonian and KGW have picked up the story about an effort by a local lawyer to work toward a citation against the driver in Tuesday’s collision.
Today’s Oregonian also features a forceful opinion piece from local lawyer Robert Reid.
KGW’s story is titled, Cyclists vow to take law into their own hands, ticket drivers Attorney urges cyclists to issue tickets to drivers (thankfully, they’ve just changed their headline), and it includes a poll that asks, Should civilians be able to write tickets?.
Quoted in the story are lawyer Chris Heaps, Police Bureau spokesman Brian Schmautz, and the driver in Tuesday’s collision.
“Portland Police Bureau defended their actions and said if they investigated every accident, officers wouldn’t have time for anything else.”
–Oregonian reporter Noelle Crombie
Compare KGW’s treatment with the Oregonian.
Posted on their breaking news blog (which means the story is likely to appear in the print version tomorrow) the Oregonian titled their story, Portland lawyer plans to pursue case against driver who struck, injured cyclist in North Portland this week.
Writer Noelle Crombie goes into more depth about the “initiation of violation” process. The story does not include a police perspective but does include several quotes from Heaps including, “We think their [the Police Bureau’s] resources are being misused.”
“When the law is reduced to a set of written suggestions, to be ignored at the whim of public authorities, then none of us is safe.”
–Attorney Robert Reid in an opinion
piece in today’s Oregonian
Also in the Oregonian today is an opinion piece by local criminal attorney Robert Reid titled, Reducing the law to a mere suggestion. If his name sounds familiar, that’s because this is the same Robert Reid who was biking home just after the Interstate fatality and told the Oregonian, “I’m really absolutely fed up with the idea that we have to abdicate our rights in order to have safety on the streets.”
Reid’s piece is a forceful condemnation of how he feels the Multnomah County DA’s office and the Portland police have handled recent bike/car collisions. He writes that they, “have apparently decided that killing cyclists is either justified or it is excusable.”
Reid shares how he felt about the police statements in the media following the fatality on Burnside, “…when one officer stated to the press that there was no negligence or recklessness in young Tracey Sparling’s death, he was more than just incorrect; he was giving voice to the law enforcement community’s view that cyclists’ lives are not worth protecting.”
He ends with, “When the law is reduced to a set of written suggestions, to be ignored at the whim of public authorities, then none of us is safe.”
For more background on the citizen initiation of violations process (which is much more involved than KGW’s simplistic reference to cyclists “writing tickets to drivers” would have you believe) see these past stories: