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Cop "Hunting" Cyclists: "You Shouldn't Even Be Riding A Bike In New York"
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jun 19, 2013
Modified Jun 19, 2013
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jun 19, 2013
Modified Jun 19, 2013
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Hours after a driver plowed into a group of pedestrians and a cyclist in the East Village, critically injuring one and inflicting non-life threatening injuries on three others, the NYPD's Ninth Precinct is cracking down…on cyclists. Photographer Dmitry Gudkov says he was cycling up First Avenue when he noticed a police officer standing near his squad car at the intersection of 6th Street. "I kind of asked him jokingly, 'Are you hunting cyclists?' " Gudkov says. "And without even blinking he says, 'Absolutely.' "
Gudkov says he laughed and shrugged off the comment. "I thought, that's pretty candid, but whatever." He biked for a few minutes, stopped to check his phone, then turned left on 9th Street. "That's when I see a cop pulled over standing next to a guy with a Citi Bike." It was the same police officer Gudkov had seen a few minutes earlier.
"I asked the guy on a bike what he did wrong, and he said the cop stopped him for running a red light." Gudkov says the man explained that he was trying to turn right on 9th from Second Avenue, but was waiting for the light to turn red. "He said he was scared of all the cars and so he stopped at the green light until it changed. He said he was from Brazil, and that what he did was legal there." The officer, who Gudkov said had the name Simunovic on his badge, exited his vehicle and he and the cyclist began arguing.
"The cop wasn't even trying to get him for riding in the crosswalk, he kept saying, 'You ran a red light.' Then he said, 'I'm not trying to pick on you, this is for safety. You shouldn't even be riding a bike in New York.' "
Asked what he thinks that meant, Gudkov said, "Well, he started talking about how crazy cabbies are, and then he brings up the incident that happened this morning to this guy. He said something like, 'It's not just the bikes.' I thought that was amazing because I would use that incident to make the opposite point: that maybe they shouldn't be going after cyclists."
Gudkov, who shoots portraits of cyclists for Streetsblog, continued: "We only have limited resources in this city in terms of police and traffic enforcement. So when a car plows into eight people and jumps a curb, we should be deploying those resources not on targeting cyclists but going after the real danger. This whole thing took 25 minutes—how many cars were speeding by or ran red lights in that 25 minutes?"
Only 11 speeding tickets were issued in the Ninth Precinct last year. Nine have been handed out this year so far.
Tagged
bike lanes
cycling
east village
the real enemy
traffic enforcement
original
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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