Don’t taze me, bro!
As reported by Jonathan Maus of BikePortland.org, on June 10th bike-porn promoter Phil Sano (aka Reverend Phil) was “pushed off his bike, and then tasered repeatedly by a Portland Police officer in Southeast Portland.”
Apparently the official charge was resisting arrest, however the reason Phil was being pursued was for not having a headlight on his bike while riding at night. Hmm… Where have we heard this before?
As it turns out, authorities have decided to give Phil a “no charge” which means, “the case is not going forward, but the charges can brought back to life at a later date.” Click here to read the entire story.
June 15th, 2008 at 2:33 am
I’m glad I’m blind when I ride at night and I don’t go anywhere without my light. I already got yelled at once for not having one. Thank god I wasn’t attacked by the cop that yelled at me.
June 15th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Well if the police can’t attack people for victimless crimes what else are they supposed to do?
June 15th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Brilliant fucking idea: Chase a guy down in the dark (thus putting him at risk of bodily harm) and taze him (thus harming him bodily) for not having a light, all in the name of protecting him (”to serve and protect”).
It seems the main benefit derived from having a light is protection against police brutality.
June 15th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
haha all very true. i think i smell a new Urban Velo merch item: “My light protects me from the police.” Someone should start with that product design!
June 16th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Hey, can I have a badge, gun, and taser so I can be an arrogant fascist prick too?
June 17th, 2008 at 7:59 am
The thing is, maybe he was resisting arrest..or even attacking the cop…or just being a dick, but seriously, if you’re a cop and you can’t detain some dude on a bike without using your tazer….maybe you need re-training. The larger problem here is that tazers are defined as “non-lethal” (which evidence has shown repeatedly to NOT be true) and so cops use them like squirt guns…they are their default reaction if someone so much as talks back to them.
Locally (this didnt make the news) a 12 year old girl was RUNNING AWAY from two very large police men, and the first thing they did was pull out their tazers and shoot her in the back. THIS is the real problem here.
Regardless, fuck those guys and I hope he brings suit against them.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
scott, what the hell? if a cop is stopping me for a light on my bicycle why wouldn’t i be resisting and at the very least being a dick to them (the cops)? is there really nothing more serious going on around portland that the police need to focus on bike lights?
i only hope he was resisting and being a dick about it. people need to stop being such pussies when it comes to dealing with the police and stand up for themselves.