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RR: September 2003

Click for RideReport#2 from Nick

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About 90 riders, nice group, great ride, quick little jaunt through downtown (we've been circling too long lately) and then onto Hiawatha and exiting on Lake - quite fun!

There was a problem later:

Last night, around 7:30-40, some of us were blocking a fair amount of
traffic. Chuck (a Viking-hippy looking guy) was the only one in front
of a pissed-off Escalade. Mr. Rich Escalade was apparently in a hurry
(aren't we all?) and in no mood to wait for the bike in front of him
(Chuck was also way over to the left side of the road, not in the
middle). I should also mention that the guy was agressive to other
people before this (one other guy's bike was scratched). Well, at this
point, there was only Chuck. The Escalade creeps up right behind him,
his car goes over Chuck's back tire (and expensive carbon-fiber rim)
and revs his mighty, (2 mpg?) engine. Chuck was not hurt, but at this
point everyone stopped, and the guy called the cops before we did.

When the cops came, they first questioned Mr. Bike-killer Escalade,
then they asked Chuck for ID, he didn't have any (obviously I didn't
hear everything here, maybe others heard more), then they started
arresting Chuck as they let the Escalade go without *anything* being
done to him. We asked why Chuck was being arrested, he said there was
a warrant for Chuck's arrest (ed-turns out the warrent was out of date and bogus)

We asked why they let the assalter go, the cop asked
why not, we said "He ran over a bike!", the cop asked "Is that
illegal?". Then Nick, the former rollerblader, asked for the cops
badge number. The cop said something like "Would you like to go to
jail, too?" Nick backed off, was very repectful as those who know how
unjust cops can be are, but persisted. One guy wouldn't give his badge
number (did he in the end? I'm not sure), and the cops left.

Can people who can collaborate their stories e-mail the list or me
(Chuck doesn't have an e-mail)? Also, Nick gave me the numbers he got
(4076 and 0283; the officer who threatened to take him to jail was
about 5'8" and had thinning silver hair- the partner of #0283? The
squad numbers were 220, 221, and 226.) If people have other info like
the Escalade's license plate numbers, that would be great.

The two of us who know Chuck outside of CM walked his bike back to one
of our homes and called him grilfriend, she and Joe Bob went to get
him and I haven't spoken with them yet.

I'm so glad the MPD is here to protect us.