Off the seat of a bicycle
Chapter 34)   My right to be different.
Previous chapter

The police were looking hard at me … maybe as an enigma of violation vs. law or suspicion vs. charge … I dunno, but I had worked for influential people in their homes doing repairs and that personal connection with the community was no doubt known.

Somehow or other I ended up in the prosecutor’s office on another day … and the office was perfectly ordered with a fat cop positioned next to the prosecutor’s desk in a big metal chair.

It was an ‘off the record’ meeting and we talked about the tickets for a moment before I blew out, ‘I know how to ride a bike,’ to which the fat policeman gave a hillbilly (la-de-da) belly laugh. His reaction caused me to flash over instantly and look straight at the prosecutor … that was exactly the attitude that killed cyclists on the road ... his attitude was the very reason I was sitting in the office that day … but moreover, it was disrespectful of my American right to be as stupid as I wanted to be and dedicate my life to things he disagreed with.

That fat cop hadn’t seen his belt buckle for years and maybe he needed some exercise. How about we put him on a bike and I’ll drive a car and show him some of the shit I’ve seen. I’ll get my passenger to hit him in the back with a cane pole, or we’ll open the door on him, or throw a soda on him … we’ll cross the center lane or swerve close to him … maybe we’ll get liquored-up and flip a cigarette in his face or hurl a bottle at him or get out of the car like we going to beat his ase … all those things are good fun on the road aren’t they? He’d probably get a big chuckle out of it ... right after he cleaned the poop out of his shorts.

The flashover must have filled the room because that fat cop shut up instantly and looked at the prosecutor wide-eyed. The prosecutor started to make an offer, but I said something about my lawyer, excused myself and left. I respected my lawyer and would have lost credibility if I made some fool deal without his hand involved.

The prosecutor was a conniver, and you could see him measuring me for soft spots. I didn’t see malice that day, but he was trying to sell a deal. No matter, I wanted to factor him out. Fuck him and his fat friend. I trusted my lawyer’s connections at the courthouse. Anyway it was good that we met, and both got a chance to gauge a potential courtroom adversary, but I didn’t understand how easily he would turn a social courtroom to his favor by making me mad over some idiotic point.

The inescapable fact about society is that people who are different get treated differently, and if I got mad in front of a jury then I would be found guilty. If I looked different riding a bicycle furiously up the road while looking around at the scenery while using no hands and carrying a stack of boards, then people would automatically see a ‘difference’ that required abatement.

People hone in on ‘differences’ and instinctually try to correct the deficiency that exists between their beliefs and your behavior. It is instinctual human nature … demanding and forcing conformity is a basic strength of society … regardless of any law to the contrary. And this was the challenge my actions posed to society.

This is why police cars steered at me when I refused to yield right-of-way. This is why James stopped me for the fruitfly reason of having no light. This is why my guy tailgated me up the hill. Conformity is paramount, and there is huge cultural pressure put on people to conform.

The police defend culture first, and only enforce the law secondarily. This is a pure fact of human behavior. How else can anyone explain Selma or segregation or slavery … not that I want to diatribe into civil rights, but isn’t it also a civil right that bicycles be given equal protection under the law?

How is steering your police car at a bicycle protester giving that person equal protection under the law? Regardless whether they are at that moment breaking a traffic law or not. As long as the person is not an imminent threat to the safety of the officer or anybody else, what reason does a law officer have to steer his car and endanger that person … except for the inexcusable reason of correcting ‘perceived’ errant behavior ...

… and this question is especially poignant since the courts have never dealt with the points of law under contention.

My activism forced changes: I caused the police to respect my demand for riding space without their direct intimidation … but at a great personal price and at great personal danger.

Listen up here … I caused that change. I changed the first impulse of policemen. And cyclists like me in other towns have done the same. AT GREAT PERSONAL RISK. Yet no action is taken by the courts unless people like me trample over the dearly protected social order that the police have been hired to protect. I put the court into a great quandary.

However the biggest challenge I issued was not so much my bike riding as it was my right to be different. And that has always been too large of a request from those in social authority.

Chapter 35) The chicken fly
Index of chapters