Halifax police love cyclists

I hate cops. yes it's true. just about every single interaction I've ever had with police has been negative -and no, I've never been arrested. as a teenager in Florida my friends and I were constantlyharassed by the police for skateboarding. it's one thing to tell a kid to stop skating at a spot, it's another to put them in the back of the police cruiser without reading them their rights only to drive them around for a scare. there was another incident where my friend Beau and I were picked up blocks away from my house for allegedly trespassing onto the church roof directly across the street from my house. my Dad was pissed. we hadn't been anywhere near that damned roof.

I gotta say that cops in Canada are whole lot nicer than in the US. at least here I don't feel like I'm the prey and the pigs are the hunters. but generally I think, people who choose to be cops (and those who get the jobs) are generally dumb (a necessary quality for the job) and like to bully.

yesterday I was slogging against a way-below-freezing head wind on my way home from work. the street is a one way and that part of town is known for hookers, drug dealers and several unsolved violent crimes and murders over the past couple of years. so I'm going the right way up the one way, blinking tail light on, and parka hood over my helmet to cut the wind. this cop cruiser pulls up next to me. there's three cops in the car -one in the back. driver cop rolls down his window and asks me to stop.

"are you knew around here?" he asks

"nope"

"you know we have a helmet law?"

"yup" I say and pull off the parka hood so he can see that I am dutifully wearing a helmet. before I have a chance to finish pulling off the parka hood he says,

"that helmet is not approved."

I can tell he's feeling a little dumb for his initial approach.

"whadaya mean" I say knowing good and well that my ProTec skate helmet fits the CPSC regulations just fine.

"that helmet is not approved. it' supposed to have a stamp or sticker on it" he says to me again as I start taking the helmet off to prove him wrong.

"I'm just letting you know" he says as he and his two silent partners pull away leaving me there standing in the middle of a one way, just a block away from the site of the most recent unsolved murder of a First Nations girl, steps from the home of a guy who's always slingin some kinda dope, and they drive off having performed their all important civic duty.

so you see, I hate cops. they have strange priorities.

more love for Halifax cycling and cops here