A Black Woman Was Arrested For Using Her Use of the Bike Lane

Pictured: A screenshot from the video of Genesis Hansen with the police officer that arrested her

In late 2019, when the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement was starting to form, more cases of incidents between people of color and police officers began to arise. Some of these cases were covered by the news and others weren’t. It is important for everyone to know their basic rights for their legal safety, even doing things that might not seem illegal or abnormal. 

Riding a bike is an enjoyable pastime or mode of transportation for kids and adults alike. When riding a bike outside of your neighborhood it’s important to know where to ride your bike on a public street and the rights that you have while riding.

A 21-year-old Black woman, Genesis Hansen, was arrested in Oregon after being pulled over by a police officer for a possible misuse of the bike lane. The police officer and the woman disagreed on the action that caused her to be pulled over.

During the argument the police officer asked the woman for her ID so that he could look her up in his system and possibly give her a ticket. She refused to provide her ID to the officer because she wanted more information on the order he was giving her and why her identification was necessary while riding a bike.

In Oregon it is legal to deny identifying yourself if you don’t feel it is necessary. This woman was acting in her legal right. She politely asked for more physical information from the officer who continued to refuse to show her documents of the law. He then threatened to arrest her if she did not comply.

She asked for more information about her legal rights one more time and then was put under arrest and tackled to the ground by the police officer and another cop that was called to the scene. The officer was sitting on her back and she said she was not moving and he was acting forcefully. 

Later, when the case went to court, the charges were dropped because the woman was acting in her legal right to not show her ID. The video that was filmed using the cops dashboard camera showed no evidence that she was resisting arrest.

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Questions: 

1. Do you think this woman should have been arrested? Why or why not?

2. Do you think there was anything beyond the misuse of the bike lane that influenced her being pulled over or arrested? Why or why not?

3. If you were in a similar situation, walking along the street or riding your bike in the designated areas and were stopped by a police officer and asked for your ID would comply and hand it over or would you question the request? Why or why not?

4. If in that situation how would you react?

Be sure to provide full explanations for your answers.  For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:

https://www.dailydot.com/irl/oregon-woman-arrested-id/ 

Contributed by Saralynn Lindsay