Actually saw it seconds after it happened. Was getting ready to go to bed last night when I heard tires screech and then grinding metal. Ran out to the balcony, looked across the street and saw a bike laying in the parking lot and a guy laying a few feet away. I didn't know I could run so fast, but I was the first one to him. He had screwed up, going too fast, missed his driveway, and hit the curb.(possibly had been drinking, but I didn't smell any alcohol on him) He was on his hands and knees trying to get up, groaning and I grabbed him and made him take it easy making sure nothing was broken or bleeding. He wasn't wearing a helmet so he was very lucky. I think the bike must have flipped because most of the damage was to the rear of the bike. It was minimal considering all the noise it made. He busted his gonads pretty hard 'cause he that was the only pain he complained about. He just wanted to get his bike to his apartment and lay down ( I picked it up for him). He didn't want an ambulance but someone had called 911 and by the time the cops got there he was already inside. A couple of us talked to them and they were going to let it slide since it was a single person crash and didn't seem too serious, but they wanted to check on him, so went and knocked on the door. Well his dumbass girlfriend wouldn't open the door and lied to them saying he wasn't there. That really pissed them off and they finally got in and found him hiding in a closet under some clothes. All they wanted to do was find out if he was ok, and they would have been on their way, but because of his and his girlfriends actions, he ended up being treated pretty rough, handcuffed and being hauled outside, his bike towed and almost went to jail. They checked him out and he was clean so they uncuffed him gave him a citation, and convinced him to get in the ambulance and go get checked out at the hospital. I felt bad for him because he's a Viet Nam vet, but he did pretty much everything wrong last night. I wasn't too crazy about the way the cops and ambulance personell handled him either considering he'd been in a wreck.

I feel bad for him that they roughed him up but it sounds like him and his GF were kinda hiding something you know what I mean. Why would you hide in a closet and not let the medics take a looksee...especially after you slammed your jewels!

Either way ya look at it, He acted like an ass and got treated like one.

Treat the cops well and they'll treat you well, usually.

I guess they figured he was well enough to hide so he was well enough to be manhandled.

Stupid people. His own fault.

I feel bad for him that they roughed him up but it sounds like him and his GF were kinda hiding something you know what I mean. Why would you hide in a closet and not let the medics take a looksee...especially after you slammed your jewels! That was the really stupid part, no drugs, guns, he had nothing to hide. Folks don't usually make much sense after a wreck. Everyone assumed he'd been drinking, but the cops didn't say for sure.

man , ya don't hid if ya been drinking in this situation , ya run (or hobble) into the house and take a big pull offa whatever ya got laying around and then tell the cop "hell ya I had a drink , when I got home , to kill the pain " what can they do then ? nothing , home free

its called "your get outta jail free card"

The crash has to be investigated... For the girlfriend to lie, and on top of that him hiding in the closet :frownthre All that does is raise red flags! He may have been a good guy, not drunk, had a license/insurance or whatever, and just made a mistake. His treatment was appropriate considering the story I heard.

Barry1967 is right, you treat the police with respect and you'll get it back. Attitude means alot :p

The crash has to be investigated... For the girlfriend to lie, and on top of that him hiding in the closet :frownthre All that does is raise red flags! He may have been a good guy, not drunk, had a license/insurance or whatever, and just made a mistake. His treatment was appropriate considering the story I heard.

Barry1967 is right, you treat the police with respect and you'll get it back. Attitude means alot :p Ya got that right. I've had run ins with a couple that were just plain jerks, but for the most part they're allright. These guys were pretty cool until they got jerked around. I've always had better luck admiting I screwed up than trying to lie my way out of a situation.

TO those who say work with the cops think again. First of all I wouldnt have said anything to the cops. The old saying treat the cops well and you will be treated well is all BS. If you live around LA you understand what I am talking about. I have had several run in with cops around here and no matter how nice I was they still treated me like a criminal. I was going to work one morning at 3:30 am and I was pulled over 1 block from my house. They wanted to search my truck and me. I ended up getting cuffed and searched. When it was all over I was let go cause they found nothing, there was nothing. I was new to the area so there was not reason to look out for me. After that I dont trust cop and I never will. Even though I have friends that are cops. Kinda Ironic.

Flathead's suggestion would have worked beautifully in this situation. No way to prove it didn't go down that way = no arrest.

Now for my obligatory defense of the po-leese :)

We have our share *ssholes, the power mad, etc. etc. just like every other group. Don't let a bad experience with one of these idiots lead you into the type of blanket condemnation of an entire group of people as done by the idiot who is the subject of the "Let's get those tempers flaring" thread. A bad experience such as the one endured by 82ndJumper should be handled by a written complaint on the officer involved. In 82ndJumper's situation, a complaint could have lead to a reason for the stop (if the officer didn't reveal it during the stop), as well as a review of the video-tape from the stop. Here's a little known bit of info....Most of the in-car video systems used by police automatically activate the camera and recorder when the officer activates his lights to pull you over. The tape is actually locked in a secure box in the trunk and only a supervisor can remove it. A timely complaint may have led to some consequences for an officer that may have just been bored at that time of the morning and decided to screw with someone. I know you won't believe it :) but that does happen.

That being said, citizens should not be shy about exercising the full range of their Constitutional rights when confronted in a negative way by law enforcement.

Flathead's suggestion would have worked beautifully in this situation. No way to prove it didn't go down that way = no arrest.

Now for my obligatory defense of the po-leese :)

We have our share *ssholes, the power mad, etc. etc. just like every other group. Don't let a bad experience with one of these idiots lead you into the type of blanket condemnation of an entire group of people as done by the idiot who is the subject of the "Let's get those tempers flaring" thread. A bad experience such as the one endured by 82ndJumper should be handled by a written complaint on the officer involved. In 82ndJumper's situation, a complaint could have lead to a reason for the stop (if the officer didn't reveal it during the stop), as well as a review of the video-tape from the stop. Here's a little known bit of info....Most of the in-car video systems used by police automatically activate the camera and recorder when the officer activates his lights to pull you over. The tape is actually locked in a secure box in the trunk and only a supervisor can remove it. A timely complaint may have led to some consequences for an officer that may have just been bored at that time of the morning and decided to screw with someone. I know you won't believe it :) but that does happen.

That being said, citizens should not be shy about exercising the full range of their Constitutional rights when confronted in a negative way by law enforcement.

None of the cops or thier recruits really gives a flying f-ck. I do agree that you catch more flies with honey (make your pull over experience less of a hassle) than you do with vinegar. I ride in the beach cities of California and if you look a certain way and ride in a certain area, the RUB cops will pull ya period. I have been pulled over twice (Newport Beach, CA) and the cops were fishing me. Gave me a lame excuse to pull me and check for an M1 endorsement, insurance and run a warrant check.

Each time I was polite and in return I got a coy cop instead of an asshole one (better for both parties even though the cop was in the wrong). Now to go ahead and call the station and complain (give them a badge number) and they will either (A) laugh at you or (B) be rude yet thorough at the same time, take the information and then file it under T after you hang up.

Cops and Bikers have been at odds since the dawn when man first throguh a leg over some steel.

Sounds like you have some real problems with the police in California.

Reading about how the guy and his gf acted, 6 will get you 12, meth was involved...............cops just didn't look as close as they should have.........this is a daily story in Henderson County, Texas.

sounds like some states are worse than others.We have alot of runs here in md and the cops escort us alot.There is more of a problem with the rice burners here than harleys.I really cant say bad things about the cops because they flew me to a shock trauma in 95 after a bike accident which i would have died if i wasnt air lifted.guess I should be glad I dont live in Cal anymore

Ray
05 883L
stage 1 and more goodies

One can use the "honey" approach during the stop to prevent escalation, but.....

Constitutional law is one of my interests, but I'll refrain from an in-depth discussion for the moment :) A traffic stop is still a seizure under the 4th Amendment and an officer must have probable cause for the stop. Pretextual stops are allowed per the Supreme Court, but any officer that that can't articulate and prove a violation of a law which led to the stop opens himself and the dept. up to legal action. "I just wanted to check for your motorcycle endorsement" is NOT probable cause for a traffic stop.

Sure, the path of least resistance is to grumble a bit and do nothing after the BS stop, and adopt the "that's the way it is and always has been" attitude. Unfortunately, when too many citizens adopt that attitude the government's representatives notice and will continue to push a little here, push a little there. This is how the courts and the government have whittled away at the Constitution over the last century.

I've been stopped a few times, before and after becoming a cop. In every instance I happened to be in the wrong and ate the ticket. OTOH, heaven help the officer that decides to stop me and doesn't have a valid reason.

Do MC members, rough looking "bikers" and other "fringe of society" type citizens get stopped for BS reasons by cops? Yep!!! But I don't care who you are.....if you continue to accept that behaviour and don't fight back through complaints and legal means, you only perpetuate the problem. If you sit back and wait for someone else to take up the battle, what's left of your rights will be gone before you know it.

Constitutionally yours :geek

I've only been pulled over once that was a bogus stop, and that moron searched both me and the truck and accused me of being a junkie even though I was clean( never touched that crap in my life!!). He just felt like screwing with someone. Two weeks later he beat someone to death with a flashlight. Everybodys got their bad apples. The cops around here tend to be cool as long as they're not jerked around ( me too for that matter) and if I messed up, I'll admit it. That's usually resulted in sitting around bsing for awhile and a friendly warning. The most hassle comes from newbies that feel they have to prove themselves.

It sounds like this guy knew that someone had called an ambulance. He was probably afraid that the knock at the door was the paramedics, wanting to "make sure he is ok", only to then bill him close to a grand for their time. Police and paramedics generally air on the side of caution, so that they don't get sued if something later happens. This means unnecessary rides in the ambulance, and unnecessary hospital charges can sometimes occur. It's a tough situation, because on the other hand, the guy may feel fine but could could have some internal damage. This, my friends, is perhaps a perfect example of what is wrong with our health care/insurance industry in this country.

He didn't handle it correctly, but he was probably in shock- not to mention hanging with a set of aching balls. Definitely not a good combo for thinking clearly.