Answer to Police Activity on Belle Isle Memorial Day
I read several Tweets and received a couple questions about a bunch (as many as 10 from one report) police cars heading to Belle Isle. Since it happened on the River I knew Phil of James River News Hub would eventually find out the details. The abbreviated version of Phil’s post, is that during or after a river rescue a Belle Isle yahoo decided to take an EMS bicycle for a spin. Eventually he came back and when police tried to arrest him for stealing the bike the crowd on Belle Isle decided to get involved. The arresting officer called for back up and that explains all the cars you may have seen on Monday.Thanks Phil for getting the info.
From the RPD;
At approximately 4:30 p.m., Monday, May 30, a member of the Richmond Fire Department was on patrol with a Police Department officer when a bicycle assigned to the Fire official was stolen and then recovered.
The police officer attempted to arrest a suspect. While attempting to arrest the suspect a large group gathered. The suspect resisted arrest and due to the large crowd the officer called for additional units. The units arrived and the suspect was arrested.
Arrested was Jordan J. Wiles, 29, of the 2700 block of West Main Street. Wiles has been charged with grand larceny and assault and battery.
Can anybody add more details?
We heard the sirens and immediately grabbed our dogs for a stroll to see what the commotion was about. No exaggeration, we counted TWENTY police cruisers pass us on Riverside. All traveling at high rates of speed, borderline reckless driving. They sectioned off each other in groups of three and four cars, canvasing the streets, obviously in an urgent search for someone.
Upon hearing that this police activity was primarily over a single stolen bicycle, it causes one to ponder whether that was a good use of our police resources (and tax dollars).
Greg – I am really sorry that you feel your tax dollars where being wasted – go give yourself a hug and ponder the fact that you obviously should not leave your house ever again for fear of a leaf falling – please feel free to leave your bike in your front yard so someone can steal it
Is this the same cop who stole the bikes from the girls who parked their bikes in Randolph neigborhood. These city cops are starting to go overboard. I understand they’re under a lot of pressure, but it’s a profession they chose. Maybe they should laugh at themselves now and again.
In Ireland, the police drive drunkards a ride home instead of waiting for them to get in a car when they’re drunk. The have community policing and give calls the respect they deserve no matter how minor. Is it any wonder when the U.S. cops act the way they do towards people that people treat them with disrespect. BTW, the police in the Republic Ireland don’t carry guns, only the “SWAT” teams.
And what’s with this Noah guy? You can disagree without acting like a jerk.
Noah, my issue is not with the river rescue. If you read the article from the James River site, you would know the rescue was over with by the time of the bike theft. I commend any and all service people who help assist folks in the need on the river. What I have concerns about is the deployment of 10-20 patrol cars, driving at high speeds through the neighborhood, feverishly looking for a single stolen bicycle. We personally were almost struck by a cruiser as it careened around a corner as we were walking on the grass along Riverside Drive. The RPD were clearly on a mission to find the stolen bike, and sacrificed both public safety and tax dollars in their quest. I am a tremendous supporter of the local police. What I observed on Memorial Day was a complete mis-utilization of RPD resources for a single bicycle ridden away by a drunk.
It seems evident to me that back up was called not because a bike was stolen, but rather because an ugly crowd situation arose during as a result of the theft/arrest, as was stated in the police report of the incident.
Go RPD!!! Look forward to seeing more and more police in and around Belle Isle as some in the crowd are routinely intoxicated and thus often times rowdy….
The primary issue at hand is HOW the RPD deploys its resources. 8+ patrol cars, on a holiday weekend, to catch someone who stole a single bike. Good use of resources? Considering the likely number of drunks on the road at that time, was tracking down the bike thief worth it? Those officers could have been serving our community in a number of different ways to make it safer and better. It comes down to resource utilization. And in this specific case, the RPD over-committed to tracking down an idiot drunk loser who was stupid enough to steal an EMS bike. Think of the number of other crimes that happened and were not attended to while the RPD were attending to this issue. I continue to support the police presence in Woodland Heights. The more the better. 8 cop cars for a single stolen bike is simply too much.
Not to catch someone who stole a single bike, but to control a crowd:
“The police officer attempted to arrest a suspect. While attempting to arrest the suspect a large group gathered. The suspect resisted arrest and due to the large crowd the officer called for additional units. The units arrived and the suspect was arrested.”
Re-read as often as necessary.
I know from my time as police officer that when a fellow officer called for help I was going to get there – in addition if it was an EMS bike that was stolen that is a valuable resource paid for with taxpayer money – in additon to the typical EMS gear those bikes are designed to carry often they carry an AED – that’s an expensive piece of equipment that if taken needs to be located
Hey, Anonymous- In Ireland, people generally understand and appreciate the police and EMS mission. In Ireland, if some stole an EMS bike, the police would be needed to keep the crowd from beating up the thief. In Ireland, the police do not usually have to worry about someone in the crowd having gun.
Regardless of Ireland, we live in a reality where actions have consequences. We live in a society where there is a right and wrong. This was not a cop’s hat, it was an EMS bike with life-saving equipment. There’s no excuse for stealing it and there’s definitely no excuse for mob behavior in a public park.
Let’s see some jail time for the wrong doers.
Noah Rogers, you were kind of a dick in your first comments to Greg’s posting. Your tone was condescending. Greg comments seemed reasonable, and your’s weren’t.
The problem is that officers ALWAYS feel threatened by the public. They’re trained to regard the slightest provocation as a life endangering scenario, and they respond accordingly. It’s the “officer safety” doctrine that says no amount of force is unwarranted if it gets them home at the end of the shift. But this means that officers often end putting their own interest and own safety ahead of the public’s.
There’s also the issue of discretion. Why is it so important to make an arrest in such a minor case? I guarantee you if this were a private citizen’s bike, you would not have seen this escalation. But setting aside the suspicion of favoritism, if a mechanistic, robotic enforcement of the law, regardless of the circumstances, is all we want, we could find better ways to achieve it than paying human beings tons of money to patrol. I don’t want officers to just “enforce the law” – I want them to keep the peace, and too often cops are the disturbance, the element that escalates situations instead of calming them.
They used to be proud of being peace officers. Now it’s all about quotas and technocratic compstat numbers and making revenue for the city.
Just your friendly reminder that we are all talking with our neighbors here in the comments. Please stay away from personal attacks and insults. A couple comments are walking a fine line so far but I’m keeping an eye on the comments and will delete/edit posts that cross the line. As a matter of course anytime I delete/edit a post I send an email to the poster explaining my actions and welcome discussion.
Albert911emt – great screen name – please feel free to post your actual name as I did – imagine if you where the officer on Belle Isle fighting with a subject while taking him into custody – then add to the mix folks trying to interfere – i ran the buttermilk trail on Memorial Day and crossed over Belle Isle – if RPD wanted to make dozens of arrests for drunk in public or write tickets for no life jacket they could have – that did not occur – an arrest was made when someone stole an EMS bike and then resisted arrest – check out the mug shot of the subject who was arrested
Speaking of the mug shot, what the heck happened to cause that shoulder wound? Looks like the subject got a little roughed up.
This will be the last time I attempt to make my point clear – I have no problems with the police calling for back up down on Belle Isle. From everything shared, it seemed warranted.
My issue was that starting around 4:45pm, police cruisers were driving at high speeds up and down Riverside Drive and ALL the surrounded streets. Clearly this was in response to an aggressive attempt to find the person who stole the bike. At that point, there was not an escalation of events around the actual arrest.
When an officer is in distress, by all means send as much man power as possible to diffuse the situation. However, when the call comes in about a single stolen bicycle on the loose, there is not a need to send 8+ officers to track it down, regardless of how expensive the bike is.
The fact is, during the “chase” portion of this incident, the RPD over-committed resources during a holiday weekend, and also put neighbors in harms way by driving recklessly up and down each street in search of the perpetrator. We were almost hit by a cruiser, and we also met a bicyclist who said the same. The need for that much force was appropriate for the ensuing escalation of events, once the subject resisted arrest – but it was completely unnecessary during the period of time that a single bicycle was missing. 8+ cop cars to track down a stolen bike is a waste of tax pay dollars in my opinion. Especially during a holiday weekend where many other crimes were probably happening at the same time.
As I’ve stated, I am a tremendous supporter of increased police presence in the neighborhood. But I also believe we need to hold the RPD accountable for deploying their resources in an efficient and effective manner.
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(p.s. No offense taken by any of the comments. Like Richard said, we’re all neighbors and simply engaging in some healthy dialog about neighborhood issues.)
Greg your hypothesis “Clearly this was in response to an aggressive attempt to find the person who stole the bike. At that point, there was not an escalation of events around the actual arrest” is and was incorrect. The person that stole the bike was located right away and the arrest was made right away. The reason so many police officers were called and coming as fast as they did was becasue the crowd was closing in on the officers. There were threats made to police and fire personal’s lives. Without giving out specific details of what will be a criminal trial a LARGE group of police was needed and needed QUICKLY to maintain peace and to protect lives on Belle Isle. Police are charged with driving safely and being in control of their cars at all times, they are allowed to disregard certain laws such as speed limits, stop signs and red lights as long as the use due regard. I understand that as a resident or even a park user on that day it might have been scary or even annoying to have police show up the way they did but I’m asking you to trust me that it was needed in this case.
Thank you Stacy.