The Nazis were out in force today. As I was returning from the grocery store, which is a few blocks away, I watched in horror how a cop was writing this woman a ticket for not having a light on her bike. His partner was loitering in wait for another victim. Thankfully I was on foot, but I halfway expected to be pulled over myself, even though there didn’t seem to be any reason for it. The horror, I come to the end of the block and there too there’s cops. I glance across the street in one of those “what would I have done” moments and I see more cops. It’s a trap.

It’s obvious they’re trying to catch as many people as possible. Dressed in black, you don’t seem them from far away and it’s just after dark, so they’re stopping a lot of people who probably thought they would be home before dark. And for what? I could understand this rule about lights after dark. If you live on a farm. Or cycling cross country through a forest. Then it would be impossible to see you. But this is a city, the streets are relatively well lit, and there are no high speed roads, no big intersections, and no speeding by motorists.

Fining bikers for not having lights is akin to fining soldiers for having dirty uniforms after battle. In fact, maybe if bike theft wasn’t so rampant, people would actually have nicer bikes, with lights, brakes and the works. How about doing something that? Then you’d actually be helping us.