The email below came from a participant in Reach the Beach, a large charity event ride that took place throughout Oregon on Saturday. I’m looking into the story now.
“There was a police operation in Amity during Reach The Beach where a cop was attempting to ticket hundreds of us for running a stop sign. His methods and tactics varied throughout the day and the group I was in got away with a warning after a lengthy detention. I did hear that some of you got tickets.
This officer was telling entire groups of riders that they had to “stop and get out your ID’s, you are going to get tickets.” As other riders arrived he was busy writing tickets and arguing. He was not observing any of the arriving riders as they went through the intersection, yet they were also told to “stop” and prepare to be ticketed. When people from these later arriving groups protested that they had in fact stopped he advised them “the camera would sort it out later.” When later arriving riders attempted to continue down the road, two other cops physically blocked them and told them to stop. These people were all illegally detained because the officer had no reason to believe they did anything wrong. He was not watching the intersection at that point, and these stopped riders numbered in the hundreds and were detained for various periods of time.
If he actually saw you run the sign he is entitled to stop you, write a ticket, etc… But this was not the practice he was employing when I was present.
In addition to this, a female officer way yelling at us that we were “not riding single file.” This was in neighborhood block where we were backed up for 40 yards shoulder to shoulder because of their ticketing operation.
I am personally a bit outraged regarding this violation of my civil rights and would love to litigate Amity into bankruptcy. At a minimum they should communicate better with groups that wish to bring tourists into their town. I am curious as to how many of you got tickets or were detained for lengthy periods of time?