It sounds like uninformed harassment of a cyclist by a policeman to me. I've got a friend who was told by an NYPD officer that she couldn't ride on the streets, and should be on the sidewalk. She had to explain that that would be illegal.

In the most technical sense, what you did was illegal. As you know, the vehicle law, for all sakes and purposes, treats a bicycle like a motor vehicle. Thus, just like a car, you can't pass a car in the manner that you did (in other words, the law says you have to wait behind the vehicle in front of you. Another way to look at it is when motorcycles weave thru traffic. They're not supposed to do it because it's against the law.

But, like the poster above me states, who really enforces this stuff anyway? In that way, the poster's allegation of harassment may have some merit . . .