Spotting a man riding a bicycle on a sidewalk, Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies sprung into action and stopped their car, ordering the man off his bicycle.
They then handcuffed Ricky Munday and frisked him, telling him he was breaking the law.
But two of Munday’s friends – also riding on the sidewalk – came riding up on the scene with their cameras recording, telling the deputies they had no grounds to detain him because they were out of their jurisdiction.
“Fuck you, you can’t ride a bike on the sidewalk,” shouted Daniel Saulmon aka Tom Zebra.
“What city are we in ? Tell me the ordinance. Why are you handcuffing him?”
Turns out, the deputies were wrong to detain him because it is not illegal to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk within Los Angeles city limits.
But it is illegal to do so in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.
And it apparently is such a serious offense that people need to be handcuffed and frisked.
The incident took place earlier this month on Vermont Avenue, which serves as a border between city and county. The east side, where the detainment took place, is within the city. The west side is county.
But when Saulmon and his friend, Katman, began berating the cops for unlawfully detaining their friend, several more sheriff patrol cars sped up.
Eventually, at least five patrol cars had pulled up to the scene with at least ten deputies – all for three men riding their bikes on the sidewalk.
But the deputies eventually became aware that they were detaining a man who had broken no law and released him.
The first video below is Katman’s, and it is the best quality. The second video is Munday’s, and shows the initial detainment just before the 4:30 mark.
And the last video is Zebra’s.
