2009-03-30 When Biking Is A Crime

2009-03-30 Mike Mather WTKR \Norfolk, VA\bicycling\poverty\US police state\bicycle confiscation http://www.wtkr.com/news/wtkr-bikingcrime-mather-mar30,0,3780539.story When Biking Is A Crime When Biking Is A Crime  Police are targeting low-income neighborhoods to enforce a little-known bicycle law that's left dozens of people - even the homeless - without a way to get around. Bicycle seizures in the city have jumped 300 percent in the past three years, according to a NewsChannel 3 analysis of police records. City law allows police to impound bicycles that do not have a city registration sticker. Officers can take the bikes from where they are parked, or from the bike riders. Police records show dozens of bike seizures in the past three years from the city's lowest-income neighborhoods, including Park Place, Huntersville, Barraud Park and public housing. Those same records show police steer clear of the city's more affluent areas like Ghent, Larchmont/Edgewater and Lambert's Point. No bikes were seized anywhere around Old Dominion University. How in the world do they justify mandatory bicycle registration?? "They told me that since I didn't have a license for the bike, they had to take it," Davidson said. "I haven't had a bike since."   