Off the seat of a bicycle
Chapter 55)  Another police tailgater / the pen could have become mightier than the screwdriver

Once the Pallet Theory was applied, car drivers were flipped on their head using their own ‘might-makes-right’ rules.

I was using my ‘might’ to make ‘right,’ and this is the Pallet Theory in action.

Soon however, a paramount opportunity to ‘change the law’ presented itself, except humbly, I refused to act.

Here’s what happened: A policeman started tailgating my bike on a rough downhill stretch of 10th street one afternoon. As customary, I refused to yield the right-of-way to his car, so he began tailgating dangerously close in a no-passing zone as we approached an intersection.

This cop was breaking the law.

I don’t want to mince words here; this damn fool cop was intentionally endangering a bicyclist while breaking every road law on the books. But moreover, what kind of plan do you think he had if my front wheel caught a rut and I fell down?

I felt extremely threatened by the policeman’s behavior.

Fuck the police.

An ordinary man tailgating me in that manner would’ve been clunked hard. I mean hard. But I was caught at great disadvantage because it was a rough downhill grade … meaning it was difficult to control the bike while maneuvering against his car.

I was being tailgated at high speed by a policeman … AGAIN. A-fucking-gin … after all the work I had done to prevent this exact behavior.

To put him off my tail, I rode a hard left onto a One-Way side street … unfortunately choosing to go the wrong direction. The policeman immediately chased me down and wrote two tickets: one for going the wrong way, and one for failure to ‘stay-as-far-to-right-as-practicable.’

Whoa buddy, it was an opportunity to put the entire bicycle issue into court!!!

I got a ticket for failure-to-yield-the-right-of-way-to-a-motor-vehicle-approaching-from-the-rear on a rough stretch of downhill road, while being tailgated in a no-passing zone while approaching an intersection.

It was the chance of a lifetime to challenge the coveted ‘stay as far to the right as practicable’ clause in the legal code … a clause as vague and unknowable as any ever written.

However, I didn’t know that ‘vague and unknowable’ laws were unconstitutional, and for this and other reasons, missed the opportunity to demand redress in court.

But I failed to act.

Honestly I didn’t want a legal hassle … that’s why we depend on our government to enact laws to protect people.

You should be able to go about your business on the public street without willful endangerment. Why won’t the government act?

Look at the audaciousness of this situation  … even after I forced the tailgating issue into court 3 years earlier by spitting at the police … one of the same guys who blocked my exit from the courthouse that day had just taken a police car and tailgated me.

I should have jumped on him like a cougar on a rat. But I didn’t.

I failed to act, and you can’t ‘make the sale’ or ‘score the basket’ by waiting for the other guy to make a play. God damnit, I knew that too, but there was a political nuance … the policeman who wrote the summons was constantly ‘in trouble [for being an ignoramus],’ according to my lawyer, and frankly I didn’t want to ride a success on his failure. I had no pride in that … it was a code of personal honor and respect.

Today I would hire a lawyer and push the matter of ‘tailgating’ and ‘intimidation’ and I would do this because the police and prosecutors don’t have a ‘code of honor’ … they pressed their advantage against me any time there was an opening.

… however, the prosecutor would have dropped both summonses and given me nothing but a lawyer’s bill … without a day in court.

Even so, I should have sued the city because the issues were paramount to the activist agenda: intimidation by a car, illegal tailgating, demanding passing rights in a no-pass zone, and abuse of authority … it’s outrageous when car drivers demand excessive rights over a more vulnerable vehicle … and my refusal to act probably cost lives.

I apologize to the family of every cyclist killed in the years since because of my weakness. I was weak and didn’t press a hard-fought advantage.

But in truth, the prosecutors and judges and legislators owe that apology, not me.

Two days after getting the tickets, the same policeman called from a very quiet phone. The lack of background noise reminded me of the James S.B. call. Yep, I figured out the police have a quiet room where they call people and probably keep a tape rolling. Ah-ha, so James S.B. was a cop, and they were trying to intimidate me in Chicago, lol. And this proves again that the police are continually working against bike activists.

The cop this time asked if I would agree to drop the ‘failure-to-stay-right’ ticket.

Listen to this, the government dropped the failure-to-stay-right ticket because they know it’s unconstitutional. This proves I am legally correct taking the full lane, because it was an illegal summons and that’s why they dropped it.

I asked if he would also drop the ‘one-way’ summons that resulted from his illegal tailgate, but he refused and I agreed to let it stand and paid a fine.

Had I acted decisively, would future problems between bikes and cars be given a direct venue in court? … would I no longer need to carry a screwdriver to ward away cars?

Could I have taken a pen instead of a screwdriver from that moment onward; and used that pen to write down the license plate of errant drivers?

Had I acted, would the pen have become mightier than the screwdriver?

Chapter 56) Lumbering onward
Index of chapters