A judge gave an earful to bike, e-bike and scooter riders — including a bona-fide two-wheeling celebrity — who have been swept up in NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch's criminal summons crackdown, at a marathon Criminal Court hearing on Monday.
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Michelle Weber lectured cyclists that they are a menace to elders and other pedestrians and must follow the law as she worked through reams of defendants slapped with the so-called pink summonses from the NYPD crackdown on low-level offenses, which formerly were punishable with a normal traffic ticket.
"These violations… [are] a real safety issue, especially for a lot of our seniors," Judge Weber told one defendant accused of riding through a red. She repeated a seemingly rehearsed safety speech to all of the dozens of cyclists whose cases she dealt with on Monday morning, the first set of hearings since the NYPD amped up tickets for bicyclists and e-bike riders to criminal summonses on April 28.
She did not consistently make the same safety plea to drivers who had been accused of recklessness. But she berated every cyclist who came before her during the two hours that Streetsblog was on hand inside the courtroom on the 16th floor of the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building, imploring them to "follow the rules" and to "wear a helmet," even though adults are not required to do so and the "rules" are famously written for car drivers.
Weber, a judicial appointee by Mayor Adams, said she attends NYPD precinct community council meetings "all the time," and later told Streetsblog that e-bikers are the top issue she hears from older New Yorkers.
"I was born and raised here. I used to do elder abuse cases and it’s the number one complaint I hear," Weber said from the bench during a break in the three hours of cases. "Our seniors are afraid."
That feedback defies the NYPD's own stats that show that e-bike riders account for just one pedestrian injury in the first three months of this year, or 0.04 percent compared to the 2,271 people on foot injured in traffic violence. Last year, 37 pedestrians were injured in 179 reported e-bike collisions, but 9,610 pedestrians were injured overall, so e-bike riders caused just 0.4 percent of pedestrian injuries over a year.
A day in summons court
The majority of cases on the May 19 docket were about bikes or e-bikes, though there were plenty of open container and pot-smoking cases.
Despite her concern about reckless cycling, Weber either ended up tossing out most tickets because cops failed to write them properly or fill in the appropriate codes. In other cases, she offered defendants an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal on the condition that they stay out of trouble for six months. All defendants whose tickets weren't tossed accepted the so-called "ACD."
One of the riders caught in the Finest's dragnet is the man behind Citibikeboys, who perform amazing stunts on Citi Bikes that are then posted on a social media account. Rider Jerome Peel showed up for his hearing at 1 Centre Street and told Streetsblog that cops entrapped him with a red light ticket while he was riding a bike near the Williamsburg Bridge within days of the new strategy's launch.
"I was entrapped, 1000 percent, I was entrapped by the NYPD officer," Peel said.
The online sensation said he was stopped at a red light on Delancey Street, but crossed it after a cop waved him down — and the Boy in Blue then gave him a summons for the offense.
Peel saw little use in dragging cyclists to court, and said the law enforcement push was not making the streets any safer.
"I would have been taught a better lesson if there was no court date and I would have had to just pay a $190 fine," Peel said. "No lesson was learned, I got off with nothing, it’s a waste of the city’s time."
Judge Weber was surprised by the large number of cyclists showing up at the obscure court room, usually dominated by people accused of infractions like breaking park rules, carrying open containers, and violating street vending regulations.
She told cyclists and e-bike riders before her to "wear a helmet, stay off the sidewalk, abide by all the traffic laws," while not giving drivers the same list of reminders — even if she dismissed cases.
In one case, she told a court-appointed attorney that she would indeed grant the dismissal for his client, but first announced, "I’m going to give him a talking to."
"You are putting everyone in danger," she told the e-scooter rider, who had allegedly run a red light. "The number one complaint of seniors is these e-bikes."
Cases that involved drivers did not result in a commensurate "talking to"; Weber merely told the accused, "Good luck to you." (She offered the same wishes to a man who had been arrested for illegal cannabis sale.)
The e-scooter rider, Rasheen Oliver, said he felt that the judge was definitely singling out cyclists.
"She was really harsh to cyclists. I didn’t hear her say the same things to drivers," Oliver told Streetsblog.
At least two defendants were charged with wearing two headphones while riding — not one of the six violations that Tisch previously said her cops would target — and one of them said the city was misusing the judicial system against cyclists.
"The fact that I spent the whole morning sitting in a courtroom dealing with this and now also the fact that I’m technically under a six-month probation, … no, I don't think it’s proportionate whatsoever," said the cyclist, who asked not to be identified.
Another cyclist said he was happy his case was dismissed because the cop wrote it badly.
"I was really worried about my immigration status," said the bike rider, who also declined to be named.
An attorney representing a client who got a red light summons said that Tisch's policy was creating a "dual track" of punishment, sitting in court for hours if you're a cyclist, or just pay a ticket if you're a motorist.
"The hassle seems to be the point," said Chris Greene of the firm Vaccaro Law.
The context
The court drama comes just two days after a hit-and-run driver mowed down a 55-year-old on Fulton Street in Brooklyn, a corridor where the NYPD has focused its criminal summonses against cyclists, and advocates said the Department was failing to keep New Yorkers safe as they claimed.
"The NYPD ... is prioritizing criminal summonses on the corridor, but the city has done little to make the street safer for pedestrians," said Ben Furnas, executive director of Transportation Alternatives. "Instead of the proactive changes we deserve, the city is focused on criminalizing biking on one of the neighborhood’s most dangerous streets."
Police ticketing citywide has surged more than 40-fold in just a few weeks, initially claiming that the sweep is driven by "data," only to admit that it is not. (Streetsblog also revealed that the NYPD Commissioner's mother, Merryl Tisch, is a loud anti-e-bike voice.)
Commissioner Tisch has said that her cops are only targeting e-bike riders and are focusing on offenses like running red lights, not stopping at stop signs, and failing to yield to pedestrians. But Streetsblog has revealed that non-e-bike riders have been caught in the law enforcement frenzy.
The tactics could also throw the tens of thousands of immigrant delivery workers into the crosshairs of federal immigration enforcement officers, advocates have said.
Streetsblog has been covering NYPD Commissioner Tisch's decision to turn traditional traffic tickets into criminal summonses like no one else in town. Here's a full list of our coverage over the past two weeks, in case you have missed something or need a reminder that when there's a big story on the livable streets beat, turn to Streetsblog:
- May 2: "Policy Change: NYPD Will Write Criminal Summonses, Not Traffic Tickets, for Cyclists."
- May 5: "NYPD’s Red Light Criminalization Marks ‘Obscene’ Escalation: Advocates."
- May 6: "As NYPD’s Criminal Crackdown on Cyclists Expands, It Grows More Absurd: Victims."
- May 7: "Komanoff: Tsk, Tsk, Tisch — Criminal Summonses for Cyclists Will Backfire."
- May 9: "NYPD’s Push To Criminalize Cycling Spells Trouble For Immigrant Workers."
- May 12: "Cyclist Launches Class Action Suit For Bogus NYPD Red Light Tickets."
- May 14: "NYPD Admits Bike Crackdown Based on ‘Community’ Vibes, Not Data."
- May 15: "Tisch Rap: NYPD Criminal E-bike Summonses Surge 4,000 Percent."
- May 15: "Quiet Desperation: NYPD’s Tisch Didn’t Tell DOT About Her Crackdown on Cycling."
- May 16: "‘All in the Family’: NYPD Commissioner and Power-Broker Mom Are Both Crusading Against E-Bikes."
- May 19: "A Valuable History Lesson for Jessica Tisch: ‘The Rules of the Road’ Were Written for Cars."
