Critical Mass Cyclist Charged After Challenging Cop

FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - A cyclist taking part in a Critical Mass bike ride in Ft. Lauderdale last week was arrested for challenging a police officer's actions.

It happened Friday night when Raymond Strack, 55, and pack of approximately 800 bicyclists, who were heading west on Oakland Park Boulevard, reached a drawbridge, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

Strack's friend Stuart Nelson told the paper as they began to go up the bridge a police sergeant on a motorcycle set the speed at 3 mph which made it very difficult for the cyclists to maintain their balance.

When Strack, who was in the lead, rode up alongside the officer and complained that she was going to slowly, Nelson said the sergeant turned her motorcycle into Strack, pinning him against a curb which almost caused him to crash, according to the paper.

Strack slowed and tried again, this time coming up on the officer's other side.

"He was saying, 'What the hell are you doing? … You almost killed me'," Nelson told the paper.

That's when things went from bad to worse.

According to Nelson, as Strack was confronting the sergeant another officer on a bicycle rode up behind him, grabbed him by his shirt, dragged him off his bike and forced him to the ground.

Other bicyclists watched in frustration as Strack, who was yelling that he was not resisting, was cuffed and arrested. They shouted at the officers to be careful because Strack had an injured back.

Strack, who was charged with disobeying an officer and resisting arrest, sustained his back injury on the the same bridge six months ago when he was struck by a car.

Fort Lauderdale police did not respond to a request for comment, according to the paper.

RELATED CONTENT: