Unicyclist Kyle Peterson, who was ticketed two weeks ago for riding his unicycle on the sidewalk, is suing the NYPD for $3 million for a violation of his constitutional rights. "My plight," Peterson wrote in an email to us, "shows the extreme length the NYPD is going in their war against cyclists," evidently without regard for wheel number.
Peterson (AKA The Brooklyn Juggler) was originally handed a summons for riding on the sidewalk, but the violation was tossed out, because the NY law that bans sidewalk-biking states, "The term 'bicycle' shall mean a two or three wheeled device upon which a person or persons may ride," blatantly not applying to unicycles. When Peterson was stopped by cops on a sidewalk in Bed-Stuy to be ticketed a second time, he informed them of that bit of legal trivia that they should already have known.
Were they offended by his exposure of a gap in their legal knowledge? Did they just need one more ticket to meet their quota? We'll never know, but Peterson did not just ride away that day. He was slapped instead with a summons for "disrupting pedestrian traffic," even though, as Peterson said in an email to us, "there were no pedestrians in the vicinity."
In the suit, Peterson claims the cops also made fun of him for riding a unicycle, and "began singing circus music" at him. Yes, for the NYPD, High School never ends.
