ZERO - Stop Means Stop

Thursday, June 21, 2007 - A ZERO award goes out to a bicyclist in Minnesota for not leaving things alone.

Seems Stephan Orsak chose to ride a bicycle from the airport to home. While that is a noble effort, he found himself on the wrong side of the law when a police officer stopped him for riding in a restricted area.

Now Stephen just couldn't leave well enough alone. After he made a compelling case for why he should have not been stopped (it was safe, it was legal, etc. although there were signs posted and it appears he was riding the wrong way on a road), the officer let him go. No harm, No foul.

But no, Stephen decided to challenge the officer, asking for his supervisor, telling him he was rude, and asking about how in the future he could ride on the same road after being told he couldn't.

So, of course, he was tasered and jailed. Ya think?

Some observations:

• Cops may have been wrong on all points and had no "legal" right to tell him to get off the road, but...
  
• When people with guns and tasers and the full weight of the judicial system tell you to do something (even if it's to get down on your knees) then you better do it or be prepared for the entire weight of that system to come down on you
• Know when to back down. Cops usually win these contests.
• Cops usually win these things unless you have the sex or race card to play later in court in front of a mixed jury. White male suspect...you're hosed.
• Cops usually win in court unless you have really good angles and spend a lot of time and money and make no mistakes or get a cynical judge or jury that has been thru the ringer with cops before
• Cops spend no time and money on the aftermath like you do as this is their job not yours.

So, this poor biker could have gone on his way safely and researched his rights to ride from a safe spot (oh, like the local law library). But instead, he fought the law and the law won.

Now he's trying to win in the court of public opinion by blogging about his case and enlisting the help of community-based news sites.

What's most interesting is that this story has made it high into digg.com's ranking.

You be the judge and read the full article here:

http://digg.com/politics/Man_Arrested_for_Riding_His_Bike_Home_From_an_Airport