This sickens my soul....

[WindingRoad]

I really need to vent!So I did the NiteRide through downtown Indianapolis with my boyfriend last night. We had a really great ride till the end when we went to go back to our car and nearly got beat down by the cop at the last turn. I watched this 'officer' raise his flashlight to hit my boyfriend in the head. I started screaming at the officer and my boyfriend finally got his bike turned around to get away from this crazy bastard. Mr officer grabbed my boyfriend by the arm while he was still clipped to his bike and proceeded to scream at him face to face! I find it oddly curious that 99.9% of the people on the NiteRide are white and this officer could have easily got to me first but proceeds to take off after my boyfriend who is black. This was one of those times it would have been nice to have been in a pack of riders so they too could have seen this. I know a few riders were behind us but don't know if they saw anything? I reported the incident to the director of the NiteRide but he seemed more concerned about how well the signs were marked than the fact that some jackass IPD officer just about went Rodney King on my boyfriend. I know not all IPD officers are bad ones but this guy was the scum at the bottom of the sewer reservoir. Yes I do believe this was a racially motivated act! I watched this cop escalate an absolutely peaceful person into an enraged frenzy, I'm talking more so about me and I wasn't even the one who was attacked!!! We were having such a nice ride only to spoiled by the some power hungry *** dressed in a uniform. We PAID this guy BTW to protect us on the NiteRide!!!!!!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!

[OakLeaf]

Oh Winding, I'm so sorry that happened to your boyfriend and you.

Please report it. If you're not comfortable going directly to a police supervisor, report it to a local civil rights organization and let them handle it.

[Zen]

file a report with the PD
get your witnesses in line
let the local NAACP know about it.

If you don't know who to contact there PM me, I may be able to get you started

Cameras are the new millennium's Power to the People. Did anyone get to shoot anything?

[WindingRoad]

The crappy part is that me and my boyfriend we riding in a bit of a gap at the very front of the ride and I don't know if there were any witnesses? I was so engulfed by what was going on I don't know what was around me but I definitely witnessed the whole thing!

Thanks Zen, I may be hitting you up for more info on this subject soon. I appreciate that more than you know.

[Bike Chick]

How awful, Winding! That's terrible! What was his reason for even stopping or approaching you? What was he screaming at you? Yes, be sure to report this immediately.

[WindingRoad]

How awful, Winding! That's terrible! What was his reason for even stopping or approaching you? What was he screaming at you? Yes, be sure to report this immediately.

He was screaming that "we couldn't go that way and we would have to go the same way everyone else went god$#@^&* why the f*(^ are you going that way! You think the rules are different for you ***&*)^!" BF was trying to tell him what we were doing and he would just scream and curse at us. BF tried to tell him we had done the NiteRide many times before and the cop just yelled at BF something along the lines of "well you still haven't got it right then have ya' buddy!" For the record, they actually DID change the route for the first time in a long time which was also how we ended up at the front. They ran the route out backwards from what they did in previous years due to road construction. The cop just kept putting himself in BF's path and he was trying to turn a circle while still clipped in, the cop almost made him fall over.

[Trek420]

I'm so sorry this happened to your partner and glad that he's ok. I don't understand. Even if you were off the route of the ride whatever happened to "bikes are traffic"? Day, night, whatever you have a right to be on the road. How else would you get to or from an event? What's wrong with this guy? (cop).

What everyone else said: gather witnesses, cell phone video or pictures, lawyer, local community police ombudsmen, cycling advocacy group ....

[Bike Chick]

He was screaming that "we couldn't go that way and we would have to go the same way everyone else went god$#@^&* why the f*(^ are you going that way! You think the rules are different for you ***&*)^!" BF was trying to tell him what we were doing and he would just scream and curse at us. BF tried to tell him we had done the NiteRide many times before and the cop just yelled at BF something along the lines of "well you still haven't got it right then have ya' buddy!" For the record, they actually DID change the route for the first time in a long time which was also how we ended up at the front. They ran the route out backwards from what they did in previous years due to road construction. The cop just kept putting himself in BF's path and he was trying to turn a circle while still clipped in, the cop almost made him fall over.

What an a**hole! It seems there's always one that gives the rest a bad name. I'd be willing to bet his coworkers all think he's an a**hole too!!

[Catrin]

I am sorry to hear this happened. Was there any chance to get the officers name or badge number? Knowing he was paid by CIBA to be there to protect you just makes it worse.

[indysteel]

I'm sorry WR. I wish I could say that I'm surprised, but I'm not. While I'm sure there are some fine officers at Indy Metro, the fact is that they've been in the news an awful lot lately for some exceedingly unflattering (and illegal) things.

You might take a look at this: http://www.indy.gov/eGov/City/DPS/CPCO/Pages/home.aspx

It's a link to the Citizen's Complaint procedure. I'm not sure what kind of reception you or your BF will get, but it's probably worth pursuing.

[Mr. Bloom]

Winding, Wow!

May I suggest:
- involve the Indiana Cycling Coalition - notwithstanding the organized event, you still had rights to the road...and as long as you had lights, I'm sure you were operating within the law.

- involve local media - while I agree with Zen, if you don't have 'footage', it's time to get some airtime

I also encourage you to sit down and write every detail...may be helpful later, OR it may be the catharsis to helping you resolve this issue in your mind.

[ScaldedCat]

That is really terrible! How awful for you and your boyfriend.
I'd like to think that that kind of thing wouldn't happen here but I suspect it might. It's pretty unusual to see black cyclists and we have some pretty bigoted police officers.

I would make a complaint through the official channels, even without the officers badge number the police dept, should know where their officers were at any given time on that night.
I would then go to my local newspaper and/or tv station and tell them the story.