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06/14/2007: "Police State Focus on Cyclists...."
As if the clearly illegal and authoritarian tactics employed by New York's police department lately [Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, and many more....] against cyclists weren't enough, even the supposedly mellow realms of Minnesota aren't safe from petro-fascism. I just read about the case of Stephan Orsak (a classical violinist; we all know how violent they are), who was verbally harassed, manhandled, Taser'd, and finally arrested for simply riding a bicycle out of the Minneapolis airport in full accordance with the state's vehicle code provisions.His case goes to court on July 16th; you can read about it on the Greencycles blog--which includes links to the police "evidence" against Mr. Orsak.
Interestingly, video surveillance tapes of the interaction appear to have been erased....
Mr. Orsak needs all our support, moral or tangible. This is one more incident in a pattern of police harassment of cyclists exercising their legal rights on the roads of the American states.