This morning, I was amazed and horrified to see a Parkway Police officer arrest a 
bicyclist basically for trying to explain why he put his bike against the railing.
This happened on a lovely, quiet Wednesday morning just outside the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, an old stone building that shares facilities with the Parkway Police in Alpine, N.J. I happened to be there, waiting for friends to go hiking. Just as I headed inside to use the bathroom, I heard an officer yell “Whose yellow bike is this”? You could just hear it in his tone… this wasn’t going to end well for the biker. A young man jumped up to claim his bike from where he had left it leaning against a railing.
Unfortunately for him, it was also close to a sign that said “Please use bike rack”. I didn’t hear what words were exchanged as I headed into the bathroom but when I emerged a few minutes later I was shocked to see this same young man getting arrested. I grabbed my iPhone in time to record the guy being handcuffed and led away as the same police officer said, “Now you can walk inside. All you had to do was stop inside, give an ID and receive a ticket for violating my sign”.
I get it – the young man didn’t listen to the police officer. The point is, it never should have gotten this far. “Sir, please move your bike.” “No problem, officer.” Problem solved. What’s going on here? If it weren’t for that video of Eric Garner , I would never have thought to tape the incident. But I did and you can hear the tone of the arresting officer. You can see the non-violent, non-verbal biker being arrested.
It’s hard to imagine a more central meeting place for bikers and hikers in Bergen County – below is a picture I downloaded from the njpalisades.org website with bikes and bikers everywhere. In fact, the bikes are exactly where this young man left his bike. This is a shared use facility – shared between the Police and the public. There were three bikers there that day and seven female hikers – hardly enough action to cause any stress to an armed police force.
Lori Spechler 