• LAPD conduct investigation after cop gives cyclist ticket 'for arguing with me'

    View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.

    By Melissa Palmer, NBCLosAngeles.com

    An LAPD officer's conduct is being investigated after a YouTube video of him ticketing a bicyclist who told him he was blocking the bike path went viral. The cyclist's ticket has since been canceled.

    In the 10-minute clip, a cyclist turns on his helmet camera and records the interaction on the Venice Beach bike path, which drew a handful of onlookers who protested that the cyclist had done nothing wrong and that the officer needed to address serious crime in Venice.

    The bicyclist, who identifies himself at 34-year-old Chris Jackson of Venice, posted the video after Thanksgiving weekend, when he was ticketed for speeding after telling a motorcycle officer he was blocking the popular bike-only path.

    On Friday, Detective Gus Villanueva of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Section said that the "ticket had been canceled in the interest of justice." The department is conducing a personnel investigation into the conduct of the officer involved and would not comment further, Villanueva said.

    In the video, Jackson states that he had passed the officer's motorcycle and complained that the vehicle was blocking traffic. The officer, identified only by his surname, Gracey, pulled him over shortly after, according to the description of the video, which was posted by user AnarchisticGringo.

    Several minutes of back-and-forth with Gracey follow, during which Jackson argues with the officer that he hasn't broken a law by crossing the path's dotted yellow line, and points out other cyclists riding on the wrong side, and pedestrians illegally walking on the bike path.

    He tilts his camera down to show the red-and-white beach cruiser he is riding -- a bicycle designed for stability and a slow, easy ride.

    The officer finally settles on giving Jackson a ticket under California Vehicle Code 22350, the Basic Speed Law.

    "Listen to me, sir. The reason why I'm going to write you for unsafe speed is because you are arguing with me," Gracey says. "This is a catch-all, 22350. Because you're riding on the wrong side of the back path, you're looking at me, and you're complaining because my emergency vehicle is on the bike path. And that's unsafe speed. Looking in the wrong direction, traveling in the wrong way, that's unsafe."

    During the interaction, a small group of onlookers gathers around Gracey and Jackson.

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    "This isn't the kind of police work that we need help with here," states another cyclist who stops to opine. "People are getting robbed. I got robbed about a month ago … We'd love to have you out here protecting us, not harassing us."

    Jackson states that he will contest the ticket.

    The code under which it was issued appears to apply vehicles traveling on a highway, so it's not clear if it applies to bicycles on a Class I bike path such as the beachside one in Venice.

    The video was highlighted by the community blog Yo! Venice! on Thursday and reposted and analyzed by the popular bike blog Biking in LA on Friday.

    Jackson was due in court Friday, according to the video.

    The LAPD's Villanueva said earlier Friday that he was not yet familiar with the video and had no comment at that time. A phone message left for the LAPD West Traffic Division's bicycle liaison sergeant was not returned.

  • Cyclist accused of vehicular manslaughter over pedestrian's death pleads not guilty

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    SAN FRANCISCO -- A cyclist charged with vehicular manslaughter in the death of an elderly pedestrian at a busy San Francisco intersection pleaded not guilty Wednesday.

    Software developer Chris Bucchere, 36, is accused of recklessly speeding downhill through a red light and into an intersection crowded with pedestrians in the city's Castro District on March 29. He struck Sutchi Hui, 71, who was crossing the street with his wife and died of his injuries four days later.

    The case, a rare felony prosecution of a bicycle rider for a fatal accident, comes amid a 71 percent increase in bike traffic in San Francisco in the past five years. It also marks the third instance in which a pedestrian has been killed by a cyclist during the past year in the Bay Area.

    Evidence against Bucchere, who is free on $150,000 bond, includes several eyewitnesses and a surveillance video that have helped investigators put his estimated speed at up to 35 miles per hour.

    A spokeswoman for District Attorney George Gascon's office, Stephanie Ong Stillman, said investigators had evidence Bucchere also ran a number of stop signs on his way downhill to the intersection where the crash occurred.

    'Plowed through'
    Authorities also suspect Bucchere was the author of an online blog post about the accident in which the cyclist recalled being "too committed" to stop at the traffic light before going through it.

    "I couldn't see a line through the crowd and I couldn't stop, so I laid it down and just plowed through the crowded crosswalk in the least-populated place I could find," the post said, going on to describe a "river of blood on the asphalt" in the aftermath of the collision.

    The post drew criticism from other people in the forum when Bucchere wrote that the moral of the story was that it was important for cyclists to wear helmets, local station KTVU Channel 2 News reported. The post was later removed. 


    The San Francisco Chronicle said Bucchere had been trying to set a speed record for a popular bike route through that neighborhood, and an electronic monitoring device on his bike provided investigators with some of their evidence against him.

    In a written statement issued to reporters at the courthouse on Wednesday, Bucchere's lawyer, Julie Salamon, said her client "anticipates the day when he may express his deepest condolences to the Hui family for their tragic loss. But for now, while the case is ongoing, he will continue to cooperate with the authorities and to respond responsibly to the charges in court."

    Bucchere, who left the courthouse without speaking to reporters following his 10-minute arraignment, is due back in court on July 27, when the judge will set a date for a preliminary hearing.

    Stillman said Bucchere was the first bicyclist charged by Gascon with felony vehicular manslaughter, an offense for which prosecutors must show gross negligence and is punishable by up to six years in prison.

    In March, cyclist Randolph Ang, 23, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for running down a 67-year-old woman who died a month later. He was sentenced to three years' probation and 500 hours of community service.

    In a more recent accident, a 92-year-old woman was struck and killed by a cyclist in a crosswalk near El Cerrito, east of San Francisco.

    Msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Cyclist spots stolen bike on Craigslist, steals it back

    After finding his stolen bicycle for sale in a Craiglist ad, a Washington, D.C.-area man executed a plan to steal the bike back. WRC-TV's Richard Jordan reports.

    By Richard Jordan, NBCWashington.com

    Danny Lesh is an avid cyclist -- and now he's also something of a vigilante, after he found his stolen bike online and managed to get it back.


    Lesh's Cannondale hybrid was stolen after he loaned it to a friend who'd secured it with a cable lock, which is easy to cut if you're a thief with a pair of bolt cutters handy.

    Lesh located the bike on Craiglist shortly after last weekend's theft. His bike had a prominent sticker on it, so he was certain it was his.

    Read the original report at NBCWashington.com

    The ad asked for $100. Lesh called the police, who told him they wouldn't be able to respond right away. But Lesh, who'd paid $600 for the bike back in 1998, wasn't about to let someone else end up with it.

    "I knew I had to do it that day, or else I'd never see the bike again," he said.

    He arranged to buy his bike back. A man came out of an alley at 5th and Longfellow streets NW with the bike, and Lesh took it for a "test ride."

    Lesh simply rode off without paying.

    "This guy finally started calling me and left a message saying he was going to call the police," Lesh said, laughing.

    When Lesh got home, he put up his own post on Craigslist, warning other site users about the thief, saying high-end bikes listed for low prices could be stolen.

    "Honestly ... I couldn't help feeling bad for all the other people he'd stolen bikes from," Lesh said.

    D.C. Police advise citizens against trying to recover stolen property on their own, but Lesh was glad to rip off the crook he says got him first.

    "I'm glad that, hopefully, his business is interrupted a little bit," he said.

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