Finger Pointing

[XLFD]

I am getting used to the idea of getting accused of something I didn't do; it comes with the territory when you go against a public corporative entity with a history of not following the rules.  Still it comes as a shock when someone says he has ten witnesses (employees of that entity) saying they saw you do something that was in poor taste, something you know you never did.

This happened just after the 9-24-2012 Ludington City Council meeting adjourned.  Bob Hannah, who had spoken out against me and my practices earlier in the public comment portion, spoke to me reproachfully about flipping him and others off when I was on my bicycle.  I asked whether he had cut me off with his vehicle, because I do that when my life is endangered by a motorist.  I don't have a horn, and the finger, when noticed in a rear-view mirror, gets the point across.

He then elaborated that he was not driving a vehicle, he was at the (Ludington) fire station along with 8-10 other firemen (I had no idea he was a fireman before this) when I had rode past them, got up the street a ways and then flipped them the bird.  He belligerently insisted I had done this even when I claimed ignorance of any such act, perhaps the denial spurring his anger.

He left shortly thereafter, and I waited around for my other half to talk with the clerk for a couple of minutes.  As we were leaving, Fire Chief Jerry Funk-Clark came up to me and asked for an explanation of what Bob had just told me.  Again, my  "I never did that." response was incendiary, and he walked off mumbling he was through having anything to do with me.

Despite all the surreal action that happened at the meeting, this was the most puzzling and stressful, because I didn't know whether it was a ruse concocted by the other side's legal advisors, which I thought at first, or something else.  I thought about it shortly afterwards, and tried to look at what could be 'something else'.

The only time when I roll by the Fire Station is when I come back from going north, and come all the way up M-116.  I admit liking to cruise Stearn's Beach on hot summer's day, just like the next motorist.  Then I will usually shoot east on Loomis and pass the station, turning right on the next street (Rath) and going home.  His remark about me not stopping at the stop sign, made me think I was saw around this intersection.  It was then I figured out what he must have saw.  The next day I composed an E-Mail  letter to Chief Funk:

Chief,

I was perplexed when someone I didn't even know except for his remarks at a previous CC meeting (Bob Hannah) accosted me after the meeting and said that I flipped him off with a bunch of other witnesses who saw me. I had no idea what he was talking about, and figured he was driving a car which might have cut me off in traffic or seriously endangered my safety. I have no problem with flipping the bird at anyone who cuts me off; the only way I can bring their bad driving to their attention is the bird.

When he further elaborated, I got the impression he was with firemen from LPD who apparently thought I had rode past them (while they were at the fire station, I presumed) rode up the street and flipped them off. I know I hadn't done any such thing. I have never flipped off a pedestrian, and I would not flip off the LFD, no matter how improper I think the actions of the two elected officials among them has been.

A minute later, you approached me and accused me of some impropriety and to explain myself, of which I flatly denied, and then you walked away in disappointment. After what you allowed in July and September 2008, I shouldn't be surprised.

Still, I will explain the likely event which transpired, with the slim hope that you will actually go through the effort to actually believe something I say. I doubt your 8-10 firefighters are making the story up, but I am fairly certain they misinterpreted what they saw.

This is conjecture since I don't even know when this event happened, but I presume it was a meeting Wednesday or just after a fire call and your people were outside the LFD station. I would likely be driving east on Loomis coming up to Rath Street during the summer. I probably didn't even look over to the fire station.

Bob said I still don't stop at stop signs on my bike and I brashly claim I don't; I yield at stop signs. Coming to a stop on the road when there is no need to with your bicycle, welcomes accidents. But I do generally signal my turns when I suspect there may be traffic behind me (or if there is traffic approaching me), because that is safe and is part of the law.

I normally turn right at Rath or go straight, I presume I turned the day in question. If you recall how I signalled back in the days I was with the fire department, I do the standard turn signal and point in the direction I plan to go, with my index finger. This is for clarity, since most car drivers don't know the crooked up arm signals a right turn. So what I am presuming the firefighters saw was my left arm extended out with my forearm raised and my index finger pointing over my head while I was approaching the intersection.

With 8-10 witnesses, I would hope that there might be at least one or more who might give me the benefit of the doubt and say I was signalling a turn and used my index finger rather than my middle finger to point up Rath Avenue. But if not, please let the rest of the department know there was no ill intent involved, in whatever they saw, towards them."

       Do you really know what this bicyclist is going to do at this point?

Hopefully, this didn't sound as hard to believe as a Sean Phillips uncovered letter, but it is what I truthfully believe happened, if anything did.  Haven't heard anything back from the Chief even though their meeting would have been this Wednesday, so I am not holding my breath either way.  I have three or four politically-active LFD members glaring at me at each City Council meeting, so I expect little support from there anyway, even though I was a member for eight years and believe my efforts since then have been fruitful in making Ludington and our surrounding communities better.

[Willy]

Common sense would ask, why would you flip off the fire fighters? The only person giving you grief as far as you knew was the Chief and according to him he was not there to see the alleged action and this incident was before Hannah's diatribe at the Council meeting. Another thing that doesn't make sense is the implication that all of the fire fighters saw this happen. It would be pretty weird for all of them to be looking in the same direction at the same time and at a cyclist who was probably one of many who rode on that street on that particular evening. What probably happened is that someone recognized you and saw you signalling a turn as you indicated and misinterpreted your signal as the bird, then that person said to the others that he just saw you flipping the bird at them. So everyone assumed, without actually seeing it, that you sent them a signal of non approval. That person is causing a lot of problems. It wouldn't be a bad idea for you to explain this in person to the guys at the station. I'm sure they would see that it was just a misunderstanding.

[XLFD]

Going to the Fire Station to try and prove my innocence may sound good, but just the thought of it invokes the image of what happened in an officer's meeting back in September 2008 when I was called in to discuss a bicycle traffic stop that the Police Chief brought to their attention.  I had to try and prove my innocence regarding a lot of factually inaccurate points the Chief had related, in order to stop me from challenging the ticket in court. 

Something like that would be too hard to go through again, especially when two who have already approached me on it didn't believe my surprised ignorance of the action and reacted viscerally to it.