Well, it does seem, from my experience, that those who cannot do the job well get promoted to a position where they don’t have to do that job anymore…
My wife and I ride with a “gopro” type cams on our separate bikes. Mine facing forward and hers facing the rear. It is hair raising to see the kind of stuff that PD / Highway Patrol does when they are passing us, it’s just fucking moronic prejudice from bad training and disregard for motorcyclists.
I will never understand the base hatred for motorcycles that Police in our country have, it makes zero sense, but it exists, I have seen it many times.
Little-known fact-- the motto on the side of Oregon police cars is “to rear-end and kick”.
If it was for the illegal passing why the hell didn’t he hit the lights and pull the guy over right away? How is following way down the road and rear ending the bike a better approach?
ETA Why is the officer so afraid he has his weapon out?
“already had the muscles 
ed in his leg” I can’t stop laughing about this defense, it’s so god damn ridiculous.
He had his weapon out because that is how you get people to bow in terror to your oversized ego.
Well, this is why everyone should carry a gun, then we’d all have equally oversized proof of ego.
Now let’s cut this guy some slack. Obviously he is handicapped and not able to control his leg muscles well. Otherwise he would have applied the brake to stop 2 feet sooner.
ETA - here he is just trying to get to work. OMG - what a nightmare. I will keep him in my prayers. Maybe do a fun walk to help stamp out “Uncontrollable Leg Muscle Firing Syndrome”.
The motorcycle cops in the surrounding Seattle area, Lake Forest Park, Bellevue, etc. have actually given me the wave. So I guess they all don’t hate anything on 2 wheels.
Shouldn’t the cop have been charged with assault?
Isn’t it just the typical motorist vs. motorcyclist hate? There is a lot of that. Plus a bit of authoritarianism sprinkled on top for flavor, since it’s cops.
In the full video, the rider blew past the unmarked car and then led the cop on a five-minute high speed chase. I couldn’t tell if the motorcycle even knew he was being followed. Nor could I tell if the officer had his lights on, given how some of the vehicles didn’t bother to pull all the way over. (These people out here will pull over for anything. I’ve seen them pull over for emergency vehicles on the opposite side of a divided highway.)
At a minimum.
I’d guess that’s unlikely since it occurred during a pursuit. But he was found to be negligent and that resulted in the $180K award.
Oh yeah the biker obviously passed illegally and getting a ticket for that I got no problem with. It was obvious the biker had no clue he was being followed what isn’t obvious is if the lights and sirens were on and even unmarked cars have those (and I am betting not if they paid out $180k). So I can’t see any reason for rear ending the bike, kicking the rider or pulling the weapon.
Adrenaline, authoritarianism, fear. This is why many jurisdictions have “do not engage in high speed chase” policies. Just leads to way too much dumb shit, innocents being killed and injured, etc.
Agreed that it was unwarranted. But you can’t tell from the sped up video here how fast the biker was going; he was really moving.
I’m not prepared to say the rider didn’t know he was there. He was trying to run or on a really fast ride. Which still doesn’t warrant a gun in the face.
Seems like adrenalectomy would be a good safety measure for all law enforcement
The cop is lucky that they weren’t taken out. Once the first “contact” they make with a citizen is to drive up on them, the biker would have easily been within their rights to restrain the cop, or worse.
