WHY WE FIGHT

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 02:41

As we have pointed out over and over, a driver's license in New York City is literally a license to kill. Meanwhile, police crack down on the solution. From Transportation Nation, Feb. 15:

NYPD Issued Almost 50,000 Bicycle Tickets in 2011
The NYPD doled out 48,556 summonses to bike riders in 2011. That figure was reported by Executive Officer of the Transportation Bureau, John Cassidy at a hearing held by the NY City Council Wednesday on NYPD policies for traffic investigations.

About 250,000 people ride a bike each day in New York city, and about 500,000 ride at least several times a month, according to the New York City Department of Transportation.

At the start of last year the New York Police Department cracked down on cyclists breaking traffic laws. Bike community protests erupted, compromise was gingerly reached, and outrage faded. The pace of ticketing, however, did not abate.

By the end of 2011, police handed cyclists 13,743 moving violations — those are for less serious infractions like riding on pedestrian-only paths in parks, or riding on a sidewalk. Most of the summonses last year — about 35,000 — were the more serious criminal court summonses for infractions like running red lights.

By comparison, Cassidy said the NYPD’s specialized truck enforcement units issued about 25,000 tickets to truck drivers.

Just great. Note that NYPD stop-and-frisks broke records last year, and low-level cannabis busts nearly made a record. Three youth were killed by the NYPD in a week around the start of the month—including an unarmed 18-year-old marijuana possession suspect in The Bronx, shot as he tried to flush his stash down the toilet after being chased into an apartment. The slaying of the youth, Ramarley Graham, brought angry protesters to the streets.

This comes as the NYPD is mired in a scandal concerning profiling of Muslims and CIA collaboration.

See our last posts on the domestic police state and global car culture, and more reasons WHY WE FIGHT.

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More reasons WHY WE FIGHT

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 01:14

From NY Metro, Feb. 15:

Slow down! City Council examines speeding deaths
The New York City Council wants to know why NYPD officers ticket drivers more often for tinted windows than speeding.

A Council hearing today will focus on dangerous driving, which advocates say contributes to the deaths of 317 New Yorkers each year in crashes.

The hearing will also examine the NYPD's response to accidents and traffic enforcement. Transit advocates say the NYPD should crack down on infractions like speeding, noting that in 2010, the NYPD issued 76,000 tickets for excessive speeding, compared to 82,000 for tinted windows, according to Transportation Alternatives.

New Yorkers are more likely to die in car crashes than from gun violence, according to Council documents prepared for the hearing.

And drivers who speed cause more accidents than distracted or drunk drivers, according to the data.

One incident that caught the Council’s attention was the death of Mathieu Lefevre, a Canadian artist living in Brooklyn, who was killed in October when a flatbed truck hit him.

Lefevre was reportedly dragged and killed, and his family sued the NYPD to get information about the investigation.

His mother, Erika Lefevre, will testify today. She has criticized the NYPD’s investigation, which she said yielded no pictures of the crash scene, because the investigator’s camera was broken. And charges have still not been filed against the driver, she said, who dragged Lefevre’s body down the street after he was hit.

Members of the NYPD will also testify today.

More reasons WHY WE FIGHT

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 21:12

From AM New York, Feb. 15:

Driver and passenger in East Village car crash arrested
Two men were arrested yesterday after their BMW slammed into a taxi in the East Village shortly before 4 a.m., seriously injuring the driver and his passenger, police said.

Gilberto Morales, 20, the driver of the BMW that witnesses ran a red light at 13th St. and Third Ave., fled the scene on foot with his passenger, Brandon Evans, 21, but the two eventually returned and turned themselves in, police said.

Morales was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and reckless endangerment. Evans was charged with leaving the scene of an accident.

The taxi driver and passenger, both males, were in serious but stable condition at Bellevue Hospital yesterday.