I was riding my bike east on the right side of 17th street, as we approached the intersection three police man and a small electric police cart pulled into the intersection directly in front of me, I veered to the left to avoid hitting them and was promptly pulled over and told I was being written a ticket for "failure to stay right." When I asked what the law was regarding "staying right" when a person wanted to turn left from a one way street to another one way street he just shrugged. While I was waiting I ate an apple and his commanding offficer walked over and "reminded" me it was rude to eat an apple while being ticketed. I went to court in Brooklyn yesterday (oct 26)- the police officer showed up in street clothes, the dialogue went something like this judge: miss durkee do you plead guilty or not guilty? me: not guilty judge: offcier did you write this ticket? officer: yes I did judge: can you explain it to me? officer: no sir, I cannot judge: pause........ well okay , thats not guilty, not guilty, you can get a receipt from miss gonzalez.

We were walking our bikes down the sidewalk, looking for a way to get through the police barricades, then I stopped and was just looking around (standing up next to bike). A Lieutenant points his finger at me and yells for my driver's license. He said I didn't have a REAR light, which was true, but I was not riding at the time. Just standing there. Then he passes me off to a subordinate officer who never saw a thing and she writes me the ticket for the FRONT light (which didn't exist either) not being on at all times. I went to four different precincts the next day (with new lights on the bike) and none of them had any clue what my violation number even meant. Never heard of it before. I'm convinced the lieutenant made up the phantom violation, knowing I couldn't get it dropped with a replacement light (it's not an 'equipment violation') and passed it off to the other officer so he wouldn't have to face me in court and tell the truth about how it happened.

I was all the way to the right, northbound on 3rd Ave., between 40th and 41st St. Traffic was blocked ahead of me at 41st St. by police stopping people, and I saw a lot of people walking away southward on the sidewalk on my right. I was within easy touching distance of an SUV, parked at the curb, and dismounted my bike so I could similarly walk my bike on the sidewalk, which I immediately did. I was at the back of that crowd, and suddenly heard some shoes trotting behind me, and then somebody grabbed my bike. I turned around and saw it was Lt. Albano. I insisted that I had not broken any laws, and Lt. Albano said that was for the judge to decide and that he thought I did break a law. I asked him why I was being stopped, and he said, "I think you know why." It was kind of strange that it seemed like it was all white shirts there and only one blue shirt there.

When he finally gave me the ticket he conveyed that it was going to surprise me. He asked me whether I had a light on my bike. I said that I did, before he wrote the ticket for something else. He signed the ticket himself. He said, "You've got to get off your bike ... [long pause] ... when you're not in the street." The ticket Lt. Albano gave me was a new, white, NY State DMV "Uniform Traffic Ticket" that said that to plead Not Guilty I had to respond within 48 hours, by mailing, "to the court specified on the reverse by Registered or Certified Mail ..., or by First Class Mail ...."

One problem was that there was no address or specific court listed anywhere on ticket. 48 hours from the time of the ticket was Sunday evening. Fortunately, a lawyer told me I could go to the local court clerk on Monday and would be fine. The ticket also said that I am "entitled to receive a supporting deposition further explaining the charges provided you request such supporting deposition within thirty (30) days from the date you are directed to respond to the court noted on the other side of this appearance ticket.
Do you request a supporting deposition? O YES O NO."
I did, but the clerk did not know what to do about that.

UPDATE:
The judge, Robert V. Re, at the downtown Manhattan TVB, was a horrible pig and seemed hostile to CM. He gave Albano an amused look after having me repeat that the people ahead of me were fleeing from the police. Albano testified that I walked against traffic for a few feet and caused other riders to swerve around me. The latter is certainly false, and I'm quite sure that the former is too. I thought lawyers aren't supposed to lie in court. Albano also testified that nobody at CM is given a ticket unless they break a law. It turns out Albano charged me with violating 4-07(b), without saying whether I was charged with part (1) or (2). I wonder where I can complain about the judge convicting me without that specified and without allowing me the opportunity to know my charge before trial, implying that I was not entitled to know before trial any more detail than Improper Operation of Bike which is how the TVB lists most bike charges. More details later, probably.

My friend (who hasn't had a hearing yet, so I will keep her anonymous) and I were stopped on 3rd Avenue just past 23rd St. We were on the far right of the Avenue toward the back of a pack of about 100 riders. I can't remember if we were walking our bikes at that point. We may have dismounted, having seen the cops coming in for the kill.

The officer, Jacelon, was primarily engaged with my riding companion, who didn't want to give her ID until she was told why we'd been stopped. Jacelon first said it was because we weren't in the bike lane. We pointed at that on that stretch of 3rd Avenue there is no bike lane. We had been riding where the bike lane would have been had there been one.

He then said we were riding the wrong way on 21st St. between 2nd and 3rd. We pointed out that 21st goes west, the direction we had been riding. He said he meant 22nd St. We were not riding on 22nd St. We were with a pack of 100 cyclists that had ridden noisily past the police precinct on 21st. (I knew the ride would pay for that unplanned moment of exuberance!)

My friend continued to refuse to give up her ID until she got a satisfactory response, as did I, in solidarity. They even called a paddy wagon in for us. The NLG recommended we give our IDs, and the legal observer tried her best to keep things cool. For her trouble, the officer told her to move away. My friend Pete, a videographer, was also asked to move away. He got most of the exchange on tape.

To prepare for the case I went through video provided by Pete and Times-Up that showed the cop changing his story. I also submitted a FOIL request for police video of the ride going by the precinct. My request was rejected.

My hearing was on 11/16/06 in South Brooklyn (one stop from Coney Island!). Officer Jacelon showed up, but was unprepared to make his case, so all I had to say was "Not guilty," and the judge dismissed the case.

UPDATE
My companion's ticket was dismissed on March 22.

I asked a scooter officer to please move out of the crosswalk as he was blocking pedestrian traffic. He moved and I thanked him for moving. Unfortunately he pulled up alongside, inspected my bike and found that I did not have my front headlight on my bicycle at that moment. The light mount was on the handlebars and I do own a light but it was not on at the time. Unsympathetically he instructed a second officer to write me a ticket. The second officer however incorrectly wrote his badge number on the ticket and admitted to writing it down incorrectly.

Update:
I went to court today and the second officer, that wrote the ticket, showed up. here is the two second rundown.
-We both approached the bench
-Introduced ourselves to the judge
-Judge asked the cop the describe the situation
-The officer said (not a direct quote but close enough
I was working the critical mass demonstration when I was asked by a supervisor to write a ticket to the cyclist
-The judge immediately stopped the officer and stated that because he did not witness the action the ticket was not legal and was dismissed. The officer said OK and that was it.
My case was dismissed in about 45 seconds. I arrived at the courthouse at 12:55 and left about 1:05, quick and easy.

I was riding northbound behind the CM group on 3rd. At 38th I noticied the group had turned around and that the police had detained a few cyclists including a videographer. With my camera in hand and my bike on my shoulder I ran forward, on the sidewalk, in order to videotape and document the events that took place. As a result I was detained and charged with obstruction of vehicular traffic. I,however, was on the sidewalk with my bicycle on my shoulder.

Update: I and Bobby (a person that witnessed the entire ordeal) showed up to court to defend the ticket and the ticketing officer didn't even fight it. He simply stated that he didn't have a copy of the summons and the judge dismissed the ticket.