In a video recently posted to YouTube, a California man confronted by a Long Beach police officer attempting a bit of impromptu legislating illustrates the importance of being an informed citizen when dealing with government officials.
The incident occurred at the Rainbow Harbor Esplanade boardwalk in Long Beach.
The video begins with the officer, identified as Lt. Mark Steven Coble, telling a group of BMX riders to “walk your bikes” because he doesn’t want them riding in the area due to complaints.
“If you’re doing tricks up here I don’t care,” Coble said. “But once you get off of this, you can’t ride your bikes down here. You can pass that word along. That will keep people from complaining to me and I won’t come talk to you.”
But rather than blindly comply with the officer’s order, 33-year-old competitive BMXer Sean Fontenot asked for the legal foundation upon which Coble was making his demand.
“Is there a law change?” he asked.
“Yeah, you can’t ride your bikes on the boardwalk,” Coble said.
“When did that law change?” Fontenot pressed.
“Uh, it’s been a law for quite a while,” the officer replied.
While most people would likely have left it at that and complied with Coble’s order, Fontenot did not. That’s because he knew something Coble didn’t: That the officer was attempting to bully a resident who is well aware of his rights.
“16.16.502 is the civic sectional code that states you can ride your bicycles around out here,” Fontenot said. “So I don’t know what law you are referring to.”
To that, Coble replied like too many officers do when their authority is questioned.
“Ok, you want to go that way?” he asked. “We can go that way.”
Unintimidated by the vague threat, Fontenot pressed on.
“You want to pull out your civic code and you want to look up the code?” he asked. “16.16.502 states that you can ride your bicycle out here.”
“Exactly where?” Coble asked, looking for a legal loophole to back his unlawful order.
“The Rainbow Harbor Esplanade which is this entire area…” Fontenot informed. “All the way at the end down there… to all the way this around here.”
His authority defeated, Coble resorted to condescension.
“So did you get your law degree on Facebook or where did you actually obtain that?” Coble asked.
And then Fontenot unloaded, with a beautiful speech about the importance of informed citizenship.
“So do I have to have a law degree to be an informed citizen?” he asked, continuing, “Is that what you’re saying? … Is it wrong to know your rights as a citizen? … Last time I checked, when officers come and try to invalidate your rights by telling you bullshit laws and enforcing their opinions, that’s not what you are supposed to do.”
“You’re supposed to support the law and what the law says is that you can ride your bikes out here,” Fontenot continued. “You have no business coming up and harassing anyone telling them they shouldn’t ride their bikes.”
Cobles then questioned how what he was doing could possibly be construed as harassment.
“When you tell someone not to ride their bike when they’re legally able to ride their bike, yes that is harassment,” the well-informed BMXer said. “Your opinion is irrelevant. The law states we can ride our bikes. Now do you have anything else to say or are you going to leave us alone?”
The officer then walked away, telling the rider to “have a nice day” and to “dream big, dude.”
The post Watch: BMX dude asserts rights, cop’s ego dies appeared first on Personal Liberty®.
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