A bicycle rider was repeatedly rammed by the driver of a large SUV at the No Kings rally and march on Saturday. Footage uploaded to Reddit by user HughAnnus shows the driver of a late model Range Rover attempting to drive northbound on SW 2nd just after Alder. The bicycle rider is wearing a yellow hi-viz vest and appears to have been a volunteer corker for the march.
As you can see in the video (below), the cyclist remained calm throughout the incident. After being rammed and having their bicycle go under the SUV’s front grill, the cyclist simply picks their bike back up and returns to their post. Several bystanders approached the scene and began to address the driver, film, and shout out the license plate. A photo of the driver and the license plate was posted to social media.
The person who shot this video says the woman rammed the cyclists another time before they began filming. They also say the police responded and let the driver go. This was due in large part because, “Biker was okay and didn’t push it with the cops,” the person shared on their Reddit post.
Portland Police Bureau Public Information Officer Mike Benner told BikePortland today that they are not currently pursuing this case. “The Incident Management Team overseeing this event was not made aware of this,” Benner shared. “Perhaps due to what the post suggests – the cyclist not wanting to press charges. If the cyclist has a change of heart and wants to move forward with a case, PPB would be open to reviewing this incident further.”
UPDATE, 3:17 pm: I’ve received an additional video clip from another witness and have not posted a longer video. The new clip shows a PPB Liaison Officer (special unit trained for dialogue and deescalation at protests) talking to the driver. In the video, the officer tells the driver she can either park and wait and that no matter what she does she will probably have to wait. At one point the cyclist interjects to say, “Do not endanger peoples’ lives.” The driver then responds, flippantly, with, “You know what, go give a speech to someone else.” As the woman drives away, the cyclist can be heard questioning why the officer didn’t give her a citation. “That’s pretty fucked up,” the cyclist says upon realizing the officer doesn’t plan to issue a citation.
UPDATE, 4:22 pm: After viewing the second clip where the cyclist requests that the officer cite the driver, I reached back out to PPB for clarification about why the officer chose to not cite. Here’s what the PPS spokesperson said:
“PPB understands the intention of people who want to help facilitate a march, in this case the cyclist, but it is not safe for someone to put themselves in harm’s way in front of a moving vehicle which is what our officer witnessed. As the video shows, our officer spoke with both the cyclist and driver and de-escalated the situation, allowing the driver to find an alternate route and the cyclist to return to the march. The officer then continued their role in facilitating a march that drew tens of thousands of people into the city.”
