i saw him out of the corner of my eye, he was talking on his phone and looking to the left, to see if any cars were coming. then he slammed into me.

obviously i was pissed off, he immediately said “i’m sorry, are you ok?” i was so pissed i kicked his fender as he drove by.

i was waiting for muni, as people so often do in san francisco, when he showed up and started screaming at me. apparently, i’d dented his fender. he said he was going to call the police and have me charged and that he was a lawyer and all that.

a single officer showed up immediately.

he interviewed me first. i told him the truth, about him hitting me and everything. then i watched as he interviewed the lawyer. he denied everything.

he totally got me. he played the law and did it well.

i’m not proud of kicking in his fender, and if i could do it over again, i probably would have just spit on his car.

the thing is, this asshole inadvertently taught me one of the most valuable lessons one can learn in this country – NEVER TALK TO THE POLICE!

had i kept my mouth shut, and with the fact that there were no witnesses around, it would have been extremely difficult to prove that i was the cause of the dent. but, i didn’t. and i lost. i knew i didn’t have a case against this buy, but now there was a case against me, because i opened my mouth.

police aren’t rocket scientists, they are urban rednecks and they are given the power to decide who is at fault on the spot. giving them information is bad. i mean why would you give them information, when they’re gonna arrest you anyway? get it?

wait until you have spoken to a lawyer, before opening your mouth, period. they are paper tigers without any real power, other than to arrest you. you can sue them later, if you have a case against them.

let the courts decide who is guilty, not the police!

Seems to me like the cabbie has to hear two things: why that was a dick move, and suggesting the passengers tip him less.

Definitely take off before he can reply. You don’t want a confrontation, not least because it can only distract from your justice.

re Bergen the lesson I’m taking away from this is that you don’t want the cops showing up at your accident. Pity we have to fear them as we do a street gang.

That said, after an incident last Friday night I can even further identify with Mr. Bengen. I was riding home from work in the bike lane up Dean Street, which was packed solid with cars barely moving from Hoyt all the way up to 3rd Avenue. Obviously, I am moving much faster than the cars. Dean Street has only one car lane and the bike lane is on the left, but just as I approach this taxi, the taxi swerves directly into my path into the bike lane, merely to see the status of the traffic in front of him – he can’t pass, there isn’t room for two cars. I had to brake hard and swerve and I ended up having to brace myself with my right arm against the taxi’s window, which I must say startled the driver. Boy was the adrenalin jumping and I yelled something idiotically at him to watch out its a bike lane and then something about him being 2 tons and me with the bike around 200 pounds. Instead of being contrite, he started to mock my being upset at which point, I just rode away – it wasn’t worth it. But wow, so close to a pointless confrontation that never had to happen if the taxi either honored the bike lane or even bothered to just look. He had a passenger, I wonder how that went???

My question is why is someone even allowed to file such an obviously inapplicable charge?