A bicyclist tells an incredible story of police brutality after being stopped for riding his folding bicycle away from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport after a flight in September.
Stephan Orsak, writing at his Greencycle website, said he was “rudely accosted, assaulted with battery,” and tasered. He says he was complying with all the laws of the airport and Minnesota rules of the road at the time of the incident.
After he was hospitalized for observation, the 135-pound violinist was thrown in jail for 8 hours and eventually charged with six counts of obstructing officers, failure to comply, etc.; the usual charges you'll see in cases like this.
Orsak says a preliminary hearing on the charges is coming up later this month.
The bizarre chain of events started when an airport policeman started yelling out the window of his squard car at Orsak for riding his bicycle on Outbound Road at the terminal.
He stopped and the officer gave Orsak some contradictory orders about where he could and could not ride. Just for the record, there was no sign prohibiting bicycles on that road at the time. After some discussion, Orsak tried to leave, he was thrown to the ground, picked up, accosted with a taser and arrested.
On his website, Orsak says:
“It must be understood that from the onset that I was treated disrespectfully and as a second class citizen. My presence on the road, though absolutely legal, must have been an annoyance to Officer Wingate. I was clearly profiled simply for being a cyclist, a clear violation of civil rights.”
Orsak's blog has received dozens of comments in support, and the RoadGuy blog at the Star Tribune website has received many responses to the story. His story — with a warning — also was posted on the BikeAccess.net website.
Go check out his story. It's an amazing case of police brutality and coverup. Let's wish him luck.
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