Today’s Headlines

  • Traffic Deaths at Record Low For Pedestrians, But Not Cyclists (Post, AM, Sun)
  • MTA May Save Cash By Installing Concrete Floors Instead of Granite (News)
  • Post: Fulton Transit Center Was a Boondoggle From The Beginning
  • Public Testifies on 125th Street Rezoning Today (News, Metro)
  • Hudson River Park Trust to Vote on Related’s Pier 40 Proposal Tomorrow (NYT)
  • MTA Wants to Lease Hudson Yards, Not Sell (Crain’s)
  • Cops Tase Cyclist Who Rode "Without Proper Lighting" (ChicoER)
  • Brooklyn Sidewalk Chalk Artist Jailed For 17 Hours (Voice)
  • Should I Stay Or Should I Go? Economists Model Bus Stop Dilemma (New Scientist)
  • More Towns Collecting Crash Fees From Out-of-Town Drivers (USA Today)
  • Planet Has Entered a New Geological Epoch Caused By Human Activity (Dot Earth)
  • Anonymous from EU

    Would you have included a headline that read “Cops tase a man who rode a car with broken tail light?” Because that’s what the one story is really about. A man who was drunk, rode a vehicle without lights, carried “false government documents” and FLED THE POLICE when stopped. Tasing him was a correct decision and had NOTHING to do with the fact that he was a bicyclist.

    This kind of BULLSHIT sensationalism doesn’t really look good on you.

  • Davis

    Mr. EU,

    The cop couldn’t possibly have known that the cyclist was drunk and undocumented before he pulled out the Taser. Drunk and undocumented are probably post-facto justifications for the Taser and traffic stop. I know it’s different in the EU but here in the good ol’ USA, all too often, simply being a cyclist makes you GUILTY in the eyes of the cops. Guilty, all too often, means Time to Get Out the Taser…

    http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/06/13/man-tasered-and-arrested-for-leaving-airport-by-bike/

    It is sensational, isn’t it?

  • Anonymous from EU

    Davis, you fell for the sensationalist trap. Do a reality check. NOW!

    Tell me how do cops ever catch drunk drivers if they can’t know it before stopping them? They observe the driver’s driving behaviour and if it matches that of a drunk driver then they have a valid reason for stopping.

    Did you even read the article? Not having a light while riding at night was a legal justification for him being stopped. The article says he jumped the bike when the deputy got his attention. That is called “resisting an arrest” and it was THE (legal) justification for the tasing. These are two issues the first of which lead to the other.

    I give you two headlines:

    * “Cops tase a man resisting arrest”
    * “Cops tase a man who rode a bike”

    Both describe the event truthfully (the man did ride a bike before he was tased). Which one do you think attracts more readers? Which one would a sensationalist editor pick?