Saturday, July 02, 2005

I fought the law and the law is STUPID!


BikenBeer
Originally uploaded by dlew022.
Last night I went down to my favorite local brew pub to watch the Giants game and have some beers. We took the kids at my work to the County fair ALL day yesterday so my feet were hurting. I decided to ride my bike which I rarely do. Dempseys is maybe 3 blocks away so I usually walk.

I go down and hang out for a while and probably drink 5-7 beers. I head out around 11:00 and remember thinking to myself, "if I was really hammered, I couldn't be riding this bike so I must be O.K." I'm about a block from my house when I see some cop pull up behind me and turn on his lights.

Baffled, I "pull over" and look back. This cop steps out and goes, "sir, can't you please get off the bike and show me some ID." Are you fucking kidding me?? I know I wasn't driving erratically so I was thouroughly confused. John Q. Law comes up and takes my ID and says "have you been drinking?" I felt like saying, "Well, duh. why the hell else would I be on a bike at 11:00 at night?" But instead I told him yes in a very sheepish way.

So I stand on the corner for a good 10 minutes with this cop running my ID...his lights going, police scanner blaring and start to actually get really worried. I got a DUI when I was 22 and I NEVER drink and drive. EVER. How ironic would it be if I got another fricking DUI on a BIKE?? It was taking him forever to run my info and the longer it took, the more I started sweating it.

Eventually the cop came back and told me he was citing me for not having a light. He said there have been alot of people getting hit by cars so they're out citing bicyclists who don't have lights and whatnot. I was relieved to say the least. He even seemed a little embarrassed and thanked me for being so polite. I still can't believe I didn't mouth off but the thought of going to jail for being drunk on a bike didn't appeal to me at all.

It's nice to know that at 11:00 on a Friday, 4th of July weekend even, that our local police are running a bike sting 2 blocks from where there are 6 bars and nightclubs in a row. Brilliant work fellas.

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