Do not jog in Seattle, if so you are a “Dumb F***” according to some in the police
It is obvious that not everybody likes endurance sports. But this is just sad.
SEATTLE – A West Seattle man survived an accident that nearly claimed his life only to learn police were apparently mocking him in the moments after it.
“They say he flew up in the air and landed on his noggin,” one officer is heard saying on dashcam video obtained by KOMO News.
“Hey, that ain’t my problem,” responds a second officer.
“That’s why you drive a car!” the first one remarks.
I know this is not representative for all policemen, and it is not an attack on the police. I just think it is sad the hatred some has for endurance people.
I know for a fact (I have first hand knowledge and second hand knowledge from a local fireman) that most of the CHP (CA Highway Patrol) assigned to our area absolutely despises cyclists. Specifically “those spandex wearing fags on wheels”. That’s a direct quote.
Every accident involving cyclist vs. car will be written in the report as cyclist at fault. There is an attorney in town who specializes in undoing this nightmare so cyclists can get their medical bills paid.
This has been getting coverage out here. Not sure if you are from the area but people are pretty disgusted. This is an athletic city and there are enough runners and cyclists that accidents happen regularly. This cop should be embarassed and the department for not doing anything about it.
Class Action Law Suits, every city, one at a time.
When police departments, district attorney offices, and city governments have to start paying out tax payers money because their legal system systematically chooses to discriminate against a defined class of people by not enforcing the laws, they will get their act together.
In general, after travel to many countries, I’d observe that the US is one of a small minority of countries where the general population’s perspective is that roads are for cars and other forms of transport (walking, running, cycling) are only tolerated as secondary users of the road. At least this is the feeling I get (which may be totally wrong).
In most other countries around the world, using one’s feet either walking, or cycling (or even running, in the case market vendors pushing their fruit to the market in developing countries), is an acceptable form of transport as viewed by the general population. I don’t fault the view that many in the US have of cyclists or pedestrians…we can argue that the US “grew up” as a world power after the second world war and the explosion of suburban living and personal automotive transport, whereas most other countries in the world “grew” up as cities around human powered means of transport, or mass transit.
I’m not exactly sure where Canada fits into this picture, but it leans more towards the US view that the car is king, although our tolerance for cyclists and pedestrians may be a bit less harsh than my perception of how the general population in the US (not ST) views things.
I agree with all of what you say and add in the factor of our distances. This is a vast country compared to most of those in Europe. Getting from here to there has always required conveyances that could take you beyond the local. To most folks, the bike is too local and the feet … well, they’d rather have a Jazzy Power Chair.
Yeah, to some degree, I don’t entirely blame the general population about having a somewhat adverserial view of bikes or pedestrians, because in reality the entire structure of North American suburban life is built around the automobile. Bicycles are thus viewed as toys that kids play with to shuttle around suburbia between their homes and those of buddies in quiet local streets. But that’s about the extent to which bicycles are generally used in North America (Canada included). They are not largely view as a legit mode of trasportation for adults to use. In general, the Canadian view might be less anti “human powered” than the general US view, but nevertheless we lean more towards the US view than say the European view (or Indian, or Chinese view for that matter, but in those countries, people who walk or bike are doing it not out of choice but neccessity…when their income grows, they graduate to scooter, to motobike, to Tata nano, to Toyoto, to BMW…but that’s another story)
Is it any surprise that the officer making the comment in the video is a porker? He should be fired. If anyone ever has a problem in CA hit me up. My wife is an attorney and hates motorist and LE blacklisting cyclist and runners.
So I’m not trying to defend the cops in this situation or start a back and forth argument. I might be new to triathlons but I’ve been a police officer for 8 years now and every profession has it’s bad apples. I’m all for the law being upheld and everyone treated fairly even by the police. Now with that said, I can say that I’ve joked with other officers at things that would disgust most other people. What most people don’t understand is that most cops, even cops in really nice places see some pretty bad stuff on a weekly or monthly basis and one way to cope/ deal with it is to make jokes. Some deal with it better than others. I work in a town where there is a violent crime daily and I’ve seen my share of homicides, shooting, children run over by cars or hit by stray bullets and anyone that says that it wouldn’t bother them is full of it. Maybe they joked in the wrong place and the wrong time or maybe they just are less then stellar police officers. Like I said I’m not interested in an argument especially seeing how this is my second post on this forum.
Totally agree with MikeK9. 10 years on for me. I’ve seen idiot drivers, riders, runners, etc. And I like to think that I, and my coworkers, keep an open unbiased mind in our investigations.
I walked outside from an incredibly gruesome triple homicide scene once, and the combination of giddiness from being up all night and realizing media was still there filming some 12 hours after it was discovered struck me as funny. I literally had to ask the media not to show that clip, as it looked like I walked out from a homicide laughing.
Not saying that’s what happened on Seattle. Just saying cops make jokes that others find inappropriate as a coping mechanism.
Agreed, 90% of the non-freeway type roads in my area have a single lane each way. When a cyclist is on the road, there is a trail of cars waiting to get by, and most are not on their way to an endurance workout. No one in the cars feels that the person needs to ride a bike, but rather they are doing for their own self-satisfaction. This self-satisfaction is holding up all of those people from getting to their destination.
This animosity will continue to be a problem in every city that does not have roads designed for multi-modal transportation.
So I’m not trying to defend the cops in this situation or start a back and forth argument. I might be new to triathlons but I’ve been a police officer for 8 years now and every profession has it’s bad apples. I’m all for the law being upheld and everyone treated fairly even by the police. Now with that said, I can say that I’ve joked with other officers at things that would disgust most other people. What most people don’t understand is that most cops, even cops in really nice places see some pretty bad stuff on a weekly or monthly basis and one way to cope/ deal with it is to make jokes. Some deal with it better than others. I work in a town where there is a violent crime daily and I’ve seen my share of homicides, shooting, children run over by cars or hit by stray bullets and anyone that says that it wouldn’t bother them is full of it. Maybe they joked in the wrong place and the wrong time or maybe they just are less then stellar police officers. Like I said I’m not interested in an argument especially seeing how this is my second post on this forum.
I understand you don’t want to start an argument and I don’t either. Thank you very much for your service and I can’t even imagine dealing with that stuff on a regular basis. However, it makes me sad that you are trying to justify making fun of the victim of a serious accident by using the excuse of some kind of sick coping mechanism. Kind of like making fun of those kids who were hit by those stray bullets. “What the f$&* were those kids doing playing on that playground. Idiots.” There is never a right place or a right time for this behavior. I think you should have stopped at “every profession has it’s bad apples.” It really is as simple as that.
As an American citizen who has lived in the Asia-Pac region (Singapore, Indonesia and Australia) for the last 12 years, I disagree with what you say about Americans Paul. People all around this region (including Australia) have the same love for cars as folks in North America. There is a definite hierarchy and cars are at the top of the list. If you ride a bike or a motorcycle in Indonesia, I can tell you from witnessing accidents that people driving cars feel as if they rule the road. Cars signify money.
Just the other day in Australia a guy in a 4WD came extremely close to me (less than half a meter) while I was riding in the bike lane. I was able to catch him at the next red light and he actually had the nerve to tell me that since bikes don’t pay rego (what an Australian calls registration) he has more rights than I do. We do however, have to follow every rule that a motor vehicle does.
My conclusion is that, at least in this region, people who drive cars are just as bad (and in some cases worse) than those in NA.
