"This story from the latest 'Villager:
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_30/femalebicyclist.html
Female bicyclist in Hudson Park is handcuffed for disobeying rules
By Jessica Mintz
A Chelsea woman went to court Nov. 18 after being charged with the violation of riding her bicycle in a restricted area - in this case, on the waterfront esplanade in the Hudson River Park. That charge, along with a charge of disorderly conduct, was dismissed, but Nanci Simari hasn't felt much like riding her bike since.
The incident occurred on Oct. 9 near Pier 40, when according to Simari, at least five Park Enforcement Police officers took her bike, roughly handcuffed her and brought her to the 6th Precinct.
Simari, who said she suffers from anxiety and panic disorders, became extremely distressed when confronted by the officers, one of whom she identified as Lee Addison.
""He grabbed my arm,"" wrote Simari in a letter to The Villager. ""I tried to wrangle away, and when I realized that he wasn't letting go, I started panicking and screaming, 'Let go of me!!'""
Simari said that ultimately five officers responded to the situation; in the midst of a panic attack, she was handcuffed, patted down and her pockets searched before she was taken to the precinct. There, according to Simari, she was repeatedly threatened with a night in jail before walking away (her bike had been impounded) with two criminal court summonses.
Chris Martin, the Hudson River Park Trust's spokesperson, said that he investigated the incident, though he couldn't confirm the names of the officers involved in the arrest. ""She refused to get off her bike despite repeated requests, then proceeded to resist arrest,"" Martin said.
Park Enforcement Police are Parks Dept. employees contracted by the Hudson River Park to provide security. It is within the scope of their powers to arrest people, according to Martin, who said, ""In regard to that situation, they acted appropriately.""
A Parks Dept. spokesperson said, ""According to our reports, she was asked at at least three different locations to ride in the designated area. There is a path that runs parallel to the pedestrian path, about 20 feet away.""
And, said the Parks spokesperson, who also supported the actions of the enforcement squad, the bicycle restrictions are important for public safety. ""Park Enforcement and the police have a challenge in enforcing the regulations, and we rely on the public to follow the rules established for the safety and enjoyment of everyone,"" said the Parks spokesperson. ""What if a bicyclist hit a child riding on the wrong path?""
After a bit of detective work on Simari's part, she tracked down and retrieved her bike the next day, but, she says, ""I haven't ridden my bike since."" She still questions the rationale of allowing rollerbladers to use the esplanade walkway, but not bicycles. ""The bike path is right next to the highway, where you're breathing in the highway fumes, versus being in between trees and the water."""
Hudson River Park
The NYPD begins issuing tickets to vehicles parked in the bike lane?
Also, when he grabbed her arm, did he tell her she was under arrest?
just for you, I wrote 3 tickets on 1st ave today for parking in the bike lane. Any other requests???
Are you really NYPD?
If so, thank you for today. And please do continue writing those tickets. Parking in bike lanes is hazardous to us and conveys disrespect for the law as much as smashing a window or jumping a turnstile.
Anything else you can do to make the streets safer for the non-car-driving public will make you even more of a hero in my eyes.
In turn, I will urge my fellow cyclists all the more earnestly to observe the law and respect the rights of others.
(I still wonder if the cop told the woman she was under arrest so that she knew what was happening. If someone grabbed me while on my bike, I suspect that my instant reaction would be to try to get away too.)
"yes, I am a cop in manhattan, with central park as my base. one of those guys that drives around in one of those 3 wheel scooters, or, the cop-in-the-box, as i call it. And I am a member of the NYCC. It doesn't sound like the ""cops"" in the story were NYPD, but Parks Enforcement, which is a horse of a completely different color. Green, not Blue.
Although the NYPD does have it fair share of dopes, some of us do love what we do, and have other interests like bicycling.
and don't talk on the phone while driving, that is my favorite ticket to write."
So, does that mean we in the NYCC have the law on our side?
And you write cell phone tickets? Yea!
I'm also glad to know not everyone in the club works in financial services (like me) or computers. (Now there's an idea for a poll.)
"If the park cops are telling the truth, which I more or less tend to believe, she was doing the equivalent of riding on the sidewalk. I don't know what her problem was. The Hudson River path clearly demarcates what is and is not for bikes. The paths are parallel. It's not as if she would have had to have gone a mile out of her way.
Then she resisted arrest.
There's an old saying (Transylvanian this time, not Montenegrin) that ""If you spit in the eye of the vampire, he bites you in the neck."" It sounds better with a Transylvanian accent, but you get the idea.
Your Pal,
Etoain"
I apologise for getting off the subject of this thread, but I am confused. Long time no hear from Etoain, at least until the last week or so. The last we heard was that he had made it to Paris.
But what's up with the different spellings of your name. We were so used to Shrdlu and now I've seen at least two different variants on the message board in the last few days?
"I too apologize for interrupting this thread, but here is the information requested by Anthony Poole in the post above:
Etoain Shrdlu continues to be my given Montenegrin name. However, if I put my correct name in the author line when posting messages, my post gets erased automatically. Credit this to a former assistant to the webmaster who did not like me or my posts, and who therefore built into this site a clever electronic censorship device -- a kind of web nanny for the protection of innocent-minded cyclists who might otherwise be tempted into a life of sin, lust, aphorism coining, Cyclistic Marxism and Montenegrin citizenship or...who knows what?
I would gladly use my own name if I could. However, in order to make my words appear on this board, I must continue using various nommes de guerre.
I would gladly tell you about my curious travels by bicycle from France to my homeland, via Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy and other nations, with my new friends Maurice the Marxist Cyclist and Melvina the Mountain Biking Mud Maiden, but that would probably get me completely banned from the board again, even under my faux names. Plus a certain cyclist with her own nomme de guerre, Harriet Beecher Stowe, would send me a nasty note telling me that ""empty barrels make the most noise."" That seems to be her favorite aphorism and she uses it against others, as well as me.
In fact, I fear Anthony, that by outing my various names, you may have caused this to happen anyway, and that my posting days on this board are again numbered. But we shall see. Meanwhile, to get back to the topic at hand, please to stick to the designated path when bicycling on the Hudson River Bikeway, most especially below 59th Street. As the old Montenegrin saying goes, ""Watch where you are going.""
Your Pal,
Etoain"
