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Pedal Pub video still (Renae Cranston on YouTube)Video: 6 arrests as cyclists attack Pedal Pubs - one full of off-duty cops - with water guns
Six cyclists have been arrested in Minneapolis – with charges including making a terrorist threat – after firing water guns at revellers riding in ‘Pedal Pubs’ in Minneapolis, with one group targeted turning out to include half a dozen off-duty police officers, the aftermath of that incident caught on film.
The presence of the ‘beer bikes,’ which people can rent out for parties, has polarised opinion in the Minnesota city, where 11 of them take to the streets on a typical weekend.
A Facebook group, I Hate Pedal Pubs, calls for their removal but swiftly distanced itself from comments made there on Saturday which urged people to take action against them.
A post from the page owner on Saturday read: “I have received a few messages that some people have pursued pedal pubs today with squirt guns and water balloons. Wrong idea guys. Although getting wet is mostly harmless, it is still considered assault.”
Pedal Pub manager Lisa Staplin, quoted on the website of local CBS affiliate channel WCCO, said: “We got wind of it about 7, 7:30 in the morning,” on Sunday, after she saw the post which called for people to assemble at a city park with water guns and water balloons.
“The owners and I were conversing about what we wanted to do with what we saw on the hater Facebook page.
“We went there [the park] and scoped it out a little bit at one. We saw the park police were there and nobody came and it got to be mid-afternoon and we thought maybe the whole thing would just blow over.”
But two of the beer bikes were then targeted by protesters, she said, with the driver of the first squirted in the face.
“Just before 6:30 that one got hit and then two minutes later another got hit,” she said.
“They stopped her in the middle of the street they blasted her directly in the face and they got a couple of other people and this is all happening in the street.”
The third bike targeted, however, contained six off-duty officers from the Burnsville Police Department. They restrained some of the cyclists until local colleagues arrived, with one apparently heard of-camera threatening to break someone's arm, and threatening the person filming with arrest.
Here’s a video of the aftermath of that episode. There's a bit of swearing, so best not to have the sound on if you're at work.
Ms Staplin, however, said: “To my knowledge they were just another group of riders that were out for the afternoon.”
WCCO says that charges against the six people arrested range from assault to making a terrorist threat.
By coincidence, the I Hate Pedal Pubs page has only returned to Facebook in the past couple of weeks following an 18-month absence after it was suspended by the social network following a complaint by Pedal Pub, as detailed here.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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24 comments
A local news report gives more details here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=36&v=1vY_qOKJboA
No idea what a pedal pub or beer bike is so still none the wiser
My son and I rode Critical Mass three or four times in San Diego. Unsurprisingly, many participants were idiots: kicking cars, taunting elderly motorists, knocking over trashcans. I would look at the cops assigned to escort the ride and think, why would you ever want to protect this bunch of d-bags? Then I understood that they were not in fact protecting the riders: they were mocking them, shouting abuse, and at least a couple of times on each ride slamming riders to the ground and cuffing them for offenses which amounted to mouthing off. It was that special sort of situation in which everywhere you looked, everyone was their worst self.
Minus the slamming and cuffing, this was typical of the regard in which cyclists are held by our local fuzz...
I sense a lawsuit.
The guy screaming "SIT DOWN!, SIT!, DOWN!". He sounds like a total control freak.
Take him to the East End of Glasgow on a Saturday night, and squirt water in his face. Sit down? Aye rightio!
That video can join the 'Shouty ridiculous American' Top 10 along with such classics as "Get Back! We're here for your mutha f***king freedom!".
They have pedal pubs in London. They look like the perfect way to ruin a good ride, a good drink and mostly everyone else's day on the road. Picture something the size of an SUV being cycled through the streets by people trying to get pissed, with all the speed of a slugs fart.
'murica is so f*cked
I'm confused the person filming the event/incident gets arrested, for what exactly?
For annoying a cop by ensuring he follows the law... it's a US copper, they don't like that stuff as a rule.
If the police are to be believed, he was being arrested for failing to run away when they told him to. I'd like to be in court to see that one play out.
Imagine sharing one of those for the daily commute, taking it in turns to be the designated driver...
Brilliant! Could only happen in America. The second amendment and the right to bear arms obviously doesn't including discharging said weapon of water. "That's assault and infringing my civil liberties - I'm gonna sue your ass off."
Always wondered which career bullies from school went into.
yep, true for some - ever seen The Clockwork Orange?
No idea what a Pedal Pub is and therefore why you'd want to hate it but would question what it has to do with cycling? To me it just looks like a bunch of angry people doing what angry people do... with some (rubbish) bikes lying around in the background.
Definitely worth a laugh though. They sure don't do things by half in the states do they... If you're gonna get angry about some trivial bullshit, might as well do it properly.
What a bunch of dicks!!!
Really? I'd have thought it was self explanatory but here you go:
http://pedalpub.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/PedalPubChanged.jpg
I've read the article, watched the video and am still confused.
Some guys cycled past and "shot" some people with a super soaker on a hot day and they get arrested for amongst other things, Terrorism?
If that happened here, pretty sure people would just laugh. Especially if they were full of beer.
Maybe - but we've seen the stories of cyclists getting squirted from passengers in cars too. At best its impolite. At worst it's dangerous.
Keep it between consenting adults eh ?
Terrorism & assault for using a water pistol. Right.
Good job, America.
AMERICA, F*CK YEAH
So this was a water fight? And this is a terrorist action? I bet there'll be lawyers involved!
Good job they weren't Black as the good old USofA police tend to shoot first, without question, when that is the scenario!
That must rate as the funniest video you guys at road.cc have ever posted. I cannot stop laughing about the whole scenario!