As much as we’ve been focused on the atrocities going on in Ferguson this week, I can’t ignore some good old fashioned cop dickery. Earlier this week New York City launched “Operation Safe Cycle,” a program that’s set to run through August 26th and is intended to crack down on unsafe cyclist behavior such as not yielding to pedestrians, riding on sidewalks and against traffic, etc. The program goes both ways, however, because it’s also set up to target pedestrians and vehicles that block bicycle lanes, which hazardously force cyclists into traffic.
So Animal’s Amy K. Nelson decided to take a ride through midtown with a GoPro camera attached to her handlebars to see how Operation Safe Cycle was going on its inaugural day, and recorded this gem. Not only were several cops blatantly standing in the bicycle lane outside of the Port Authority on 42nd Street, but the one farthest to the right looks her right in the face before actually leaning into her path. Watch:
This is some serious bullsh*t right here. Urban cyclists get a bad rap because a good percentage of them are admittedly huge dicks, but there are plenty of law-abiding cyclists who just want to get from point A to point B without risking life and limb. My husband once got pulled over by a cop who chased him down for “passing too closely by him,” but that cop at the time had been standing in the middle of the bike lane having a conversation with someone across the street, while there was oncoming traffic coming on both sides of the road. To serve and protect, my ass.