NYPD Cracks Down On Cyclists For Imaginary Crimes
I don’t think anyone can doubt the fact that cops have tough jobs. Yeah I know it’s hard to not be cursing at how useless cops are when you’re being robbed on a street corner at 10 at night, but the fact remains that the police do have a difficult occupation. Protecting the public isn’t an easy duty to be tasked with, which is why I always give pause before writing a blog criticizing police. But when you see a story like this, it’s really hard not to get up in arms.
Which is exactly what New York City bicyclists are doing – I mean who wouldn’t be angry about being fined for breaking imaginary laws?
But let’s step back for a moment to recap first. Apparently, the NYPD has taken upon itself to deal with the growing clash between New York City bicyclists and pedestrians by, of course, heavily ticketing bicycle riders for illegal conduct. The so-called “cyclist crackdown” being led by the police is aimed to reduce the number of bicycle-related accidents occurring in the busy street of the Big Apple. The idea being that by issuing more citations for bicycle riding violations, cyclist would become safer riders which in turn would result in fewer accidents.
The problem is that allegedly the NYPD hasn’t just been citing cyclists for breaking actual New York City laws, but also for laws that haven’t been adopted in the city along with ones that just don’t plain exist.
Now the cyclists are fight back with websites dedicated to cataloging the NYPD’s false citations, as well as a new class action lawsuit helmed by two New York law firms and coming to a courthouse near you. All of this makes for a pretty cloudy outlook for NYC’s boys in blue, especially considering that internal NYPD memos have been leaked which inform officers to increase bicycle citations and actually cite some of those aforementioned “non-crimes.”
I probably shouldn’t have to say this, but just to be clear: A person cannot be charged with breaking a law that doesn’t exist. Now there’s no question that the American legal system has its fair share of odd quirks, but that is one principle that has never come into question. Our country’s government is based on a system of checks and balances, and none of the three branches can act beyond the powers vested to them. The cops can’t just cite people for things they think they shouldn’t be doing; they can only arrest people for breaking laws that have been passed by the legislature. Doing so in the criminal context would give defendants in such cases the opportunity to employ the impenetrable defense of legal impossibility.
Legal impossibility absolves a person of a charge that stems from conduct that is not actually illegal. This defense is often contrasted with the idea of factual impossibility, which is not a viable defense in criminal law. Factual impossibility means a person attempts to break a law, but fails to do so because they are unable due to some circumstance, e.g. defendant fires a gun to kill a man, but doesn’t realize that the gun is not loaded.
So yeah, NYPD has got a lot of ‘splaining to do. But before everyone gets on their case, which again I know is tough not to do in these situations, we should really look at why the NYPD resorted to such means.
New York City is a hotbed for activity (it’s called the city that never sleeps for a reason). Travel can be incredible difficult, so in recent years bicycling has become one of the quickest ways to get around. The problem, of course, is that this has led to a lot more accidents either by cyclists being hit by cars or vice versa, not to mention the biggest problem of cyclist running over pedestrians.
NYC was then faced with a problem of how to curb all these injuries. The logical answer was to crackdown on the cyclist. It may not have been the most environmentally friendly thing to do, but by golly it would probably help prevent a lot of the dangerous cycling maneuvers going on in the city. We all know the problem is that the NYPD overstepped its bounds by allegedly ticketing people for breaking fake laws, but when faced with an epidemic level of complaints and accidents, it’s hard not to try and take the most efficient way to solve that problem, even if it means citing a cyclist for not using a bike lane.
Not to try and pass the buck, but really it seems like NYC’s legislators are the ones who dropped the ball here. They saw this problem and ranted and raved about it, yet ultimately didn’t act to do anything to fix it.
So before we go off on the NYPD, try and take a moment to see it from their point of view. Yes, they still have to pay for their alleged wrongs, but at least maybe now we can see that they were trying to help in their own twisted way.
Comments
The “logical” answer is not to crack down on cyclists. The logical answer is to begin educating people on how to ride bicycles in urban environments safely, and to provide a safer environment in which they can do so. The police are citing cyclists for breaking laws that don’t exist because even THEY (the nypd) don’t understand how to ride a bike safely in NYC.
Another falsehood in your article is that the “biggest problem [is] of cyclists running over pedestrians.” Why don’t you look up how many pedestrians have been killed or seriously injured by cyclists in the last 10 years (29) versus how many have been killed or seriously injured by cars (7,600)? Then tell me what the biggest problem is.
@wilsonks,
I’m not disagreeing with you the NYPD overstepped their power when they began citing cyclists for non-existent crimes. The greatest injustice our country’s legal system recognizes is false persecution. And yes, the NYC’s legislators should’ve definitely done a better job of pushing laws and programs encouraging safer cycling. I mentioned both of these points in my blog. But in times of heightened danger, those entrusted to keep the peace are always faced with the dilemma of what do. Though the NYPD definitely shouldn’t have been citing bicyclers for violating unenforceable laws, there is nothing inherently wrong with citing cyclists for violations of laws that do exist. Fortunately most of the citations fell into the latter. Unfortunately, there were also some that fell into the former.
As far as the statistic regarding car versus bicycle accidents. Certainly those numbers are sobering and on their face would indicate a definite skewed sense of priorities when it comes to cracking down on cyclist. But what one should also consider when looking at those numbers is that cars are inherently more powerful and deadly than a bicycle. Going full speed on a bicycle is much less likely to cause the same level of harm inherent which driving a car. Furthermore, though research into the area is premature, some studies suggest that negligent bicycle riding pays a much larger role as a catalyst for car accidents in urban cities, such as what was going down in NYC. Also bicycle related accidents are much more likely not to be reported, whereas many if not all jurisdictions require car accidents to reported. So while the 7,600 car accidents versus 29 bicycle accident might seem like a huge disparity. Those number don’t seem as far apart given these two factors. For instance, walking is probably the safest form of transportation of them all since very few injuries occur statistically, but factor in contributory negligence in relation to starting other transportation related accidents, and perhaps walking might not seem as safe. Anyway, the point isn’t to cap everything off, but rather create laws that promote unity or at least in this case peaceful and safe coexistence among the modes of transport.