A couple of weeks ago, on one of the first nice Sunday afternoons this spring, I went for a quick 35 mile ride out to Hopkins on the Cedar-Lake trail, and back on the midtown . Somewhere behind Target Center, I'm waiting at a red light, and a Minneapolis Police car that I had seen a few blocks back, pulls up along side me, rolls down his window, and says something to me. I wonder if he didn't like the (legal) left turn I had made a couple of blocks back.
He's at least 6 feet away, we're out doors with some breeze, and he's sitting in his car, I have to bend down to try and get a better look at his face, even though there's almost no chance I'm going to be abel to get what he says.
"What?"
"Do you....something," he repeats, pointing at my bike.
Now, I'm guessing there's something broken on the back of my bike, so I take a quick look down, then look back up.
"What?"
He repeats himself, and holds his hands up in the shape of a card, so I start guessing he's asking if I have a license. Well, ever since that car hit me, I always carry ID and my insurance cards with me, so I start nodding my head, then he points at my bike again.
Now I'm just getting confused, thinking to myself that Minneapolis doesn't license bikes anymore, so I start shaking my head.
Finally , I point at my ear and say:
"I can't hear you."
He looks at me for a moment, then starts rolling the window back up, and speeds away.
I still haven't figured out the point of that interaction. I know he didn't see me make any illegal maneuvers on the bike. It does look like I was wrong, and Minneapolis does technically still have the licensing ordinance on the books, but it looks unenforceable, as the state law that allows it (and that set up the registration that Minneapolis "uses") was repealed in 2005. So even if I wanted to license my bike, there is no way to do that.
This kind of interaction with almost any cop always sets me on edge. The Minneapolis Police don't have a particularly good reputation when it comes to dealing with people with disabilities, so I'm just relieved that this didn't escalate to him jumping out of the car screaming, or worse.
1 comment:
Sounds annoying at the time, but now it could be fun trying to guess at what the cop was saying. It was probably something admiring about your bike, and he wanted a card or info about where you bought it.
Or...
"Do you... know if that color is called cerulean or celeste?"
"Do you... have any weed or guns on you?"
"Do you... mind if I take a photo of your bike?"
"Do you... carry a lock?"
Do you... know who the smiley faced killer is?"
See? It can be fun to guess.
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