It's hard to Recommend this Rodeo

The police have announced a bike rodeo for next weekend and a list of partnering groups, in particular Salem Bike Club, Scott's Cycle & Fitness, The Northwest Hub.

Bike rodeo - via FB

But the police don't actually have a very good sense for bicycling. Their basic frame and sensibility on it is pretty autoist. 

Above all, they model biking on the sidewalk downtown where it is not legal.

On Center Street at Cottage violating the law (2011)

If the cops don't feel safe biking in the street, and model illegal behavior, how are they going to advocate effectively for biking?

Biking on the sidewalk in 2020, via Salem Reporter

They also use bikes for crowd control and to intimidate campers on the sidewalk and in parks.

More on the sidewalk, via the Statesman Journal

So bicycling occupies this weird and ambiguous zone for police. Bikes are enmeshed in the ways they exercise power. They are for domination.

And yet police are not confident or feel powerful enough to bike in the street like they are supposed to.

There is a bad psychology in this contradiction of power/powerlessness.

So the frame, as we have noted before, is likely going to be a little too close to this, a joyless take on bicycling, with a focus on it as something to outgrow:

Bicycling is dangerous and a constant source of misbehavior and lawlessness. If you are going to undertake this dangerous enterprise, make sure you are blameless. It's a dumb thing to do, but if you're going to do it, here's some things to protect yourself.

Too much on helmet use, and not enough on speed by those in cars. 

It's the cars that are dangerous, not the people biking or the activity of biking itself. If police really want to advocate for safe bicycling, they should direct more criticism towards our autoism and road design. Say publicly why officers on patrol don't feel safe biking in the street!

The rodeo format itself, separate from who is organizing an event, also doesn't have enough repetition for creating new habits. That was the great strength of the two-week bike safety program in the schools. Over two weeks you can actually teach new skills to kids. A one-off event leaves a deposit much less enduring.

Maybe the rodeo will reach some new people who are interested in bicycling and would prefer a "law and order" focus, and it's not like the rodeo has zero value. Something on skills is better than nothing.

And maybe with the new Chief there will be new conversation and relationship building about bicycling. Bridges could be built. That's no trivial thing.

But in our current debates and analysis of the politics and practice of policing, events like this are also instances of copaganda.

So it's hard to recommend this event with any enthusiasm. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it might not be the thing for you or for families you know who might be interested in a skills workshop.

Previously and related see:

• "Why so much Acceptance for Traffic Cone Theory of Walking?" (2015)
• "City Video on Bike Safety Joyless, still has too much Autoism" (2016)
• "Police Publish Video on How to Speed Without a Ticket" (2019)
• "Police Surprised at Amount of Speeding" (2020)
• "Herding the Urban Deer: Autoism and Right of Way in Differential Policing at Protests" (2020)
• "City Video on Sidewalks and Bike Lanes Seems Agreeable, but Swerves from Heart of Matter" (2021)