Storm The Bastille To Voice Ire Over Hummer Incident

For those of you who were outraged over the Hummer incident, in which a motorist and cyclist collided and the driver plowed through a group of the cyclist's friends who had attempted to keep everyone at the scene until police arrived, and in the process smashed bikes fleeing the scene, but was caught by the LAPD only to be let go with no charges or citations, now is your chance to do something about it. Storm the Bastille is going to amass cyclists and collectively voice their grievances over this incident, and the general lack of concern the LAPD continues to show in defending cyclists from homicidal motorists. For another update on this story, including a bizarre quote of the offending police officer comparing gun threats to lightsabers, check out Westside Bikeside's follow up.


This is not a unique problem to Los Angeles, police departments across the country routinely show bias in favor or motorists and against cyclists, often regardless of circumstance. This gets exacerbated in public perception of cycling by media reports that often slant even further bias on top of already biased police reports. Reading the book Bicycling And the Law, and following the blogs of various lawyers who have represented both cyclists and motorists revealed to me just how wide spread this problem is.

So if you can get off work, have flexible hours, are a student, or are part of the states growing unemployment numbers, get out there and make some noise tomorrow morning. If you can't make it, write your council person and let them know we won't stand for this, but do try to keep it civil.

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Storm the Bastille

Red Line Station
Santa Monica Blvd & Vermont Ave
8:20am
Take the train to NoHo Red Line Station and then ride to

Van Nuys City Hall (L.A. City Council meets here tommorow)
14410 Sylvan St.