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Friday, January 15, 2010

Bikes / Cops Cyclist Kicked Out of Waterfront Park for Biking after Midnight

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 11:55 AM

Cleinmans exclusion for biking through Waterfront Park after midnight.
  • Cleinman's exclusion for biking through Waterfront Park after midnight.
Matt Cleinman was biking back home at 4:30 am last night after his shift at Whiffies pie cart in SE Portland when, like most nights when he commutes by bike, he crossed the Hawthorne Bridge and then cut north along the multi-use path through Waterfront Park.

When Cleinman got close to the Burnside Bridge, he saw a group of police officers talking to what looked like homeless people under the bridge. "I pulled off the trail and asked one of the officers very politely, ‘Sir, do you mind telling me what’s going on here?’" says Cleinman, who also snapped some photos of the police. "He said, ‘The park is closed so these people are trespassing.’ Before I could respond, he said, ‘And so are you. Do you have identification?'"

The officer wrote Cleinman an exclusion notice that says if he enters Waterfront Park over the next 30 days, he could be arrested for trespassing. Cleinman plans to fight the exclusion. If the path is closed from 12 am to 5 am like the rest of the park, there should be signs on the Hawthorne Bridge warning cyclists that riding through the park at night could get them in trouble with the law. If police plan on enforcing the nightly five hour closure, then it should also be noted on city bike maps, says Cleinman. Mostly, though, Cleinman believes that he was issued the exclusion notice for being nosy about the cops' interactions with the homeless.

Refreshingly, Cleinman keeps his exclusion from the bike path in perspective. "It sucks for me, but I’m more worried about people who got these exclusions who don’t have any other options for where to sleep at night," he says.

UPDATE 1:40 pm: The Parks Department's Beth Sorensen says that the rules for Waterfront Park path are not the same as those for the Eastbank Esplanade and Springwater Corridor. Those paths were federally-funded transportation projects, so they have to be open to the public at all times. The Waterfront path is part of a city park and can be closed at night. "Technically the park hours do apply, though they're not actively enforced on the path unless there is an incident involved," says Sorensen. "If he was just riding his bike and continuing through the park, I can't imagine he would get an exclusion."

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance's Michelle Poyourow chimes in that the city should change is policy to keep the path open like the Eastbank Esplanade. "This is a vital transportation link in our central city, it should not be closed to people at night any more than Naito Parkway should be closed," says Poyourow. "Having people on a path at all hours makes it safer."

 

Comments (28) RSS

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1
hey dumbass, don't talk to the police. nothing good ever comes of it.
Posted by bitchplease on January 15, 2010 at 12:01 PM · Report
2
Hey dumbass jr., the police are pretty awesome when you are trying to get a meth house shut down in your neighborhood.
Posted by johnny99 on January 15, 2010 at 12:09 PM · Report
3
I believe the mixed us path in Waterfront Park is part of the transportation network. It never closes for transportation purposes and can't be closed.

The police officer is incorrect. The citation and exclusion will be overturned.
Posted by encephalopath on January 15, 2010 at 12:20 PM · Report
4
@Everyone - Why are the questions focusing on the bike path? The quote clearly says he pulled off of it to ask his nosy questions. He would have been fine if he had stayed on the path and kept going.
Posted by Reymont on January 15, 2010 at 12:35 PM · Report
5
I tend to side with whoever isn't siding with the cops, but sounds like this guy was being nosy for the sake of being nosy. At a certain point you're asking for trouble.

Ticket sounds bogus tho.
Posted by CH on January 15, 2010 at 12:37 PM · Report
6
@Reymont - This is Matt. Thinking about that, I explicitly asked the officer if the path itself was also closed. He replied that the path is part of the park, and is also subject to closure from midnight to 5am. So no, I would not have been fine according to the officer.
Posted by MattC on January 15, 2010 at 12:40 PM · Report
7
I'm soooooo sure he said, "Sir, do you mind telling me what's going on here?"

I absolutely believe that.
Posted by Santos on January 15, 2010 at 12:57 PM · Report
8
The council should clarify the law by passing an ordinance: "observing how the police treat poor people is explicitly forbidden between the hours of 12am and 5am."
Posted by aspiring lawyer on January 15, 2010 at 1:03 PM · Report
9
Sarah, why are you relying on an employee of Whiffies pie cart to be your police watchdog? I'm sure the pies are delicious, but really?
Posted by ben on January 15, 2010 at 1:06 PM · Report
10
well, it turns out that the path through Waterfront Park was not funded with federal transportation grant dollars and therefore it is not technically a transportation corridor and it is subject to closure.

overturning this exclusion won't be as easy as i first thought.
Posted by Jonathan Maus - BikePortland.org on January 15, 2010 at 1:26 PM · Report
11
I don't care if the cops are all Mother Teresa. If they do something stupid, they should be called out on it. And if they get all huffy about getting called out, then that's another stupid thing. Nobody's above the law, yo.
Posted by peejay on January 15, 2010 at 1:27 PM · Report
12
You know, there's a nice bike lane that runs parallel to Waterfront Park... It's this street called Naito Parkway (you may know of it), and unlike the waterfront path, you can go as fast as you want on it, and unlike the waterfront path, it is open at all hours!
The police were probably just trying to get you to go away that night and could care less about those other 29 days.
Purpose of action = managed! You left didn't you?
Posted by polly45 on January 15, 2010 at 1:28 PM · Report
13
of course no one is above the law but what exactly were the cops doing? we're they committing a crime ?


Posted by internet hooligan on January 15, 2010 at 1:30 PM · Report
14
One sometimes gets the feeling that smirk would have pardoned Charles Manson if he would have ridden a fixie to the site of the LaBianca murders.
Posted by CH on January 15, 2010 at 1:32 PM · Report
15
There ARE signs at the bottom of the Hawthorne offramp warning that the park is closed from 12 til 5 or something. Stopping his bike in a closed park and aking photos of police makes it sound like he was just trying to provoke a reaction from them, which he got. I doubt the hearings officer will overturn his 30 day exclusion from Waterfront Park...he'll just have to use Naito for a month.

Also, the Merc should have blurred done of his personal info on that exclusion. All someone needs is his social security number to combine with that Connecticut driver's license and his identity is theirs.
Posted by Pete Taylor on January 15, 2010 at 2:10 PM · Report
16
@Everyone - I love the Mercury. This comment thread is funny, and has new and better information. It totally improves the original article! Go to any other paper, and the comments are just "DAMN HOMO REPUBLICAN FOREIGNERS WHARRBRGGLE."
Posted by Reymont on January 15, 2010 at 2:50 PM · Report
17
The real question is, since when is it a crime to ask a police officer what he's doing? We, as the public, have a right to audit our public employees. Now I wasn't there, so I have no idea what this person's tone was like, or whether he looked threatening, or whether what is printed in the story is actually what was said. There is, however, a disturbing trend to harass, intimidate, detain, arrest, and prosecute those who want to know what the police/TSA/FBI/etc are doing, why they're doing it, and what's going on. While I appreciate the difficult circumstances under which the police operate, and the need to maintain an officer's individual and personal safety, the rights of the general public continue to be slowly eroded away, and little is being done to correct the issue.
Posted by Matt Picio on January 15, 2010 at 4:07 PM · Report
18
"It sucks for me, but I’m more worried about people who got these exclusions who don’t have any other options for where to sleep at night," he says.

Why don't you invite them to stay with you?
Posted by DeportMattDavis on January 15, 2010 at 6:48 PM · Report
19
Assuming that the park is closed legally in the first place, the selective enforcement bugs me. Homeless people: Guilty. People questioning the Police: Guilty. People just passing though: Fine. White people talking on the phone: Fine*. It seems like those should all be equal. This is exactly the same problem that exists with racial profiling by the police; African Americans get stopped by the police more per capita than white people do. The police point out that that may be true, but per stop, the African Americans tend to be just as guilty as everyone else. That is because everyone is guilty of something and they pick on the African Americans, not because the African Americans are more guilty. Don't get me wrong, most of us couldn't get through the day if we got punished for every crime we committed**, but that is exactly my point: it seems like we could do better than this as a society. We don't need to all be guilty of something just waiting for the police to catch us, we either need equal enforcement of the laws, or more intelligent laws, (probably both.)

*I was standing in the middle of Pioneer Courthouse Square in the middle of the night talking on my cell phone. I was in the middle because it was loud over near the edge because they were doing construction on the MAX, (they were putting the X's in where 6th Ave crosses Morrison and Yamhill.) And the rent a cop came over and told me that the park was closed, and I asked him, (I wasn't trying to be smart or anything, I actually wasn't thinking anything at all about it, I was talking on the phone) "ohh, do you want me to leave?" and he said, "No." So I continued my conversation, in the middle of the square, in the middle of the night.

**For instance, on the average day most people (cars, bicycles, etc,) roll though a few stop signs, and if we got caught every time, most of us don't make enough to afford that many tickets. (One would think that we'd stop doing it after a while if we got caught every time.) Of course, the real problem is too many stop signs, do we really need a stop sign every other block in a residential neighborhood? How about we just pass a law that said "Slow down and look both ways at the intersections" and then remove all the stop signs. Likewise I jaywalk more days than I don't and when I dated a woman once who didn't jaywalk, I thought SHE was strange. Part of the problem is that between my office and the MAX station is a road without a crosswalk for a quarter mile in either direction: I'm not going to walk an extra half a mile when it isn't even a particularly busy street and I can just cross it. Don't get me wrong, if you jaywalk unsafely, that should be illegal, but just crossing the street when nobody is around shouldn't be...
More...
Posted by Matthew D on January 15, 2010 at 6:56 PM · Report
20
It is a crime to question the police. They have tickets, guns and batons and are not afraid to use them. Lesson learned.
Posted by guest on January 15, 2010 at 7:03 PM · Report
21
Bon Soir Mr. Dumbass,
I'm pretty sure that we are not under Martial Law and it is not a crime to talk to a police officer, let alone ask him/her what the situation is. We should not have to fear the people who supposedly protect us.
Posted by sha-na-na on January 15, 2010 at 8:14 PM · Report
22
The park IS CLOSED from 12am to 5am ... so why does Mr. Cyclist have the right to ride his bicycle IN THE PARK WHEN IT IS CLOSED to talk to the police? You can talk to the police ... IF you don't have to enter a CLOSED park to do so. Case closed.

Next time Mr. Cyclist should just pedal home ... via Naito.
Posted by meerkat on January 16, 2010 at 12:07 AM · Report
23
Oh my god! He went crying to the mercury! Hahahahahaha!
Don't we only refer to this paper for concert dates and funny I saw yous??
Posted by AppleMagnet on January 16, 2010 at 3:21 PM · Report
24
When you come across a gang flaunting their colors, you don't stop to ask them about it. Points for standing up for the homeless, but hang back and do that when the blue bloods are gone, unless you're ready to rumble.
Posted by Zarathustra on January 18, 2010 at 4:50 PM · Report
25
It is a crime to question the police. They have tickets, guns and batons and are not afraid to use them. Lesson learned.

And a license to kill if they "feel threatened". Fucking pigs...
Posted by Zarathustra on January 18, 2010 at 4:52 PM · Report
26
Can we just all talk about how good Whiffies are and get along? Cuz they're damn good.
Posted by brewtal on January 18, 2010 at 10:06 PM · Report
27
Can we just talk about how good Whiffies are and get along? Cuz they're damn good.
Posted by brewtal on January 18, 2010 at 10:07 PM · Report
28
mmmm such a decision, to side with stupid bicyclist that doesn't think laws apply to him or the thug pigs???
Posted by luckybulldog13 on February 7, 2010 at 11:50 AM · Report

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