Milwaukee bike polo Arrested!
Above: A mug shot from the arrest.
During a Sunday pick-up game, ten members and one spectator of the Milwaukee Bike Polo Club were arrested and charged with “trespassing a dwelling” at the O’Donnell parking structure in downtown Milwaukee. Below is a first hand account:
An unmarked Buick Century approached with three undercover sheriff’s deputies. The officers sprung out of the car and instantly shouted “every one come here and against the wall”. They count us out eleven then proceeded to note, “I thought there were 12” (Lodi had snuck out 5 mins before the bust). The officer then told us that we were under arrest and would be receiving trespassing tickets for $263 each. We tried to talk our way out of the situation but that lasted about 30 seconds. One by one we gave our information and received a ticket. We were then told by one of the officers that we were being detained but no is under arrest, specifically he said “if you are asked by a cop or employer have you ever been arrested say no”. We were then zipped tied and the officers explained that we would be going downtown to be processed and released and that it should not take too long, that essentially “it’s just like a speeding ticket”. This led to confusion for us since when you get a speeding ticket, you don’t usually go to jail, right?
We asked about our bikes and the female officer who was calling the shots told us that they will be taken to the Wauwatosa sub-station and could be picked up the next day. For all of us, bikes are our main source of transportation and Wauwatosa is a suburb of Milwaukee, miles out from the core of the city where we all live. We pleaded with them to let us lock our bikes to a rack, no dice.
The officers then proceeded to take us over to our bags while we are handcuffed and tell us to pack up. We can’t do much with our hands behind our backs so they had to pack everything for us mixing our belongings amongst the many bags. Repeatedly the officers noted “Damn, I thought this would be much easier!” and complained that they would not be able to listen to the Packer game in their warm car. We finally get our bags together and they start grabbing our bikes. Since our bikes are rather important to us, we protested with “hey we haven’t told you whose is whose yet”. The woman in charge declares “it’s freezing cold and you’re worried about bikes? Fine have it your way?”. So they gave us all a nice sticker or new spoke card identifying our bikes. The officers then threw all of our bikes in a big bus.
Next, we followed our bikes into the back of the bus, which is as cold as freezer since the temperatures outside were around negative ten degrees with the wind chill (I believe the Allen Bradley tower was showing a temperature of about ten degrees without the wind chill). We sat in the bus for about fifteen minutes before moving and then we were off to the county court house. Upon arriving the female officer noted how cold the back of the bus was despite the fact that apparently she was “dying” of the heat in the front. The officers then rolled their eyes and helped us out of the bus. We are then handcuffed to a bench and are individually given a quick run through of our bags, throwing out any food and looking for weapons. Then off to the next room, where we found another bench with cuffs.
We sat in this room amongst true criminals. Shoulder to shoulder with thieves, drug addicts, and prostitutes. Some of us sat waiting, chained to a bench for up to 8 hours, without knowing what the next step was going to be. I was the lucky one who got called first. They took me into a room searched, my bag, had me sign a form detailing the contents of my bag, then gave me a personal pat down search. This took about a half hour. Then off to the next room where you sit on another bench to wait and wait.
Next, they call you up for a few questions, including what the highest grade in school you achieved, missing any teeth, job, tattoos, you name it. Next it’s picture time, then on to prints. Then back to the bench. Finally Brian made it through, I thought to myself, I finally have someone to talk to. At around ten in the evening (mind you we had been arrested just after five), there was a shift change, leading to an hour of officers standing around chatting and trying to figure out the situation. Then one player at time, we watched everyone get searched and make it into our room. Since our bags were so big, it took some people up to 40 minutes to be fully searched.
We asked numerous people what the next for us was going to be, with some saying simply “that’s not my job” and others responding with “you’re going up stairs to a cell”. Once the officers figured out that we were there for bike polo, they laughed and said things along the lines of “I can’t believe that the sheriffs would waste everyone’s time with a book and release for a simple citation”. After a few hours they stopped laughing and were legitimately angry that we were still coming through while the line was being backed up with real criminals.
Hours and hours go by and at 2:30am, I was released. I had been arrested at 5:30pm. I was lucky to be the first released, some did not make it out until 4am. In the end, four college students, four college graduates, an Artist, two bicycle mechanics and new player were arrested for the police to find absolutely nothing. No drugs were found, no warrants were issued, not a damn thing. They wasted our time and the city’s over a simple game that we are passionate about, bike polo.
- Eric Kremin-kremin@mkebikepolo.com
complete bull****, kremin. i can’t believe this happened to you guys. something tells me that even though what you guys went through totally sucked, some good will come out of this, whether it be a sanctioned place for you guys to play or at the very least the shaming of the mke sheriff dept for being complete ass hats.
Lookin’ good, Zach!
This sucks man. What a shifty way to spend your day!
wow….b.s.
pure b.s.
one more thing
was talking with my brother who is law school and he suggested this site
ulc-uwm.com
and to present this written bit from kremin to them
did they ever read you your rights?
FYI: mainstream media is linking to this post and there are A LOT of typos. you may want to clean it up to maintain credibility! (i can help if you want). sorry to be snotty, you guys rock!
The FUCK? That’s some crazy shit. Hopefully you take this to court and get some true justice. SMH…
please do help i wrote this when i woke up this morning i didn’t get a lot of sleep haha
We had a similar run in here in Atlanta when Austin, savannah, and Athens were intown. Luckly we weren’t ticketed but it was a huge ordeal dealing with the crooked red dog squad (basically a narc unit branch of the swat team). You should talk to your local legal aid office or talk to a law student. In general tickets for trespassing have to first have a warning for each individual if it was on private property, so it’s possible to possibly have the ticket dropped. If you do take the tickets to court I would look into having the case tried together then your shared experiences should weigh heavier.
Good luck from the south
Eric, I am behind you 100% on this. After reading the paper and seeing page after page of shooting and drug busts this is just stupid. What a waste of tax money and police time. I will be contacting the mayor and we will fight this. The good thing is maybe it will bring bike polo some much needed backing. I will be writing to the paper and we need to find out who is the alderman for that district. I am sorry you guys had to go through such an awful experience.
murdered out crystlers? undercover sherifs? a fellow who just happened to sneak out 5 minutes before the bust?????
sounds like a set up, sounds like you’ve got a mole in your midst!
Please keep the public at large up to date on any proceedings. This is quite the waste of effort by the Sheriff’s Department, though I expect little from Clarke anyway. My best wishes for you guys.
Another example of the state of the police in our country. Terribly wasteful. Inefficient. Misguided and totally mismanaged. I hope you guys sue the heck out of them.
hey,
wow, what a story,
I am documenting, all the crazy news and the spread of Bike Polo for part of my masters degree,
am doing cultural anthropology, based in China here, but dudes….. trying to start it here is tough!!!
for what is worth, Beijing as a small scene
anyways
check this video out, that is real street justice,
http://www.chinasmack.com/videos/wenzhou-chinese-man-throws-bicycle-stop-thieves/
cant do much with your case from Canada or China, except document it,
自行车球 Bicycle Ball thats what our sport translates as
WERE with you 110% baby
That sucks much sir. I found out about this on a bike blog. Were they trying to find drugs or something? I was reading it and the entire time I was wondering if you were one of the unlucky bastards who were arrested. Turns out you’re the one who wrote the damn thing.
wow sitting among prostitutes; some real criminals fo sure!
11 arrests and they didn’t drop the tickets? wow. that’s harsh! in the future, i wouldn’t gamble on any private or public parking lots; they’ll come and get ya. have you tried calling up any recreation centers like beulah brinton… maybe the students or alum can arrange something at their universities? nice hair, btw.
I hope that You have finded the most stupid cops in U.S.A.
now i understan why all people in the world says….ACAB!
from Italy with love…
Just another example of the repression u guys have to deal with. Looks like a bust to get some data of yours, maybe because they are afraid of u because they put u in that ’subversive elements’ categorie?
Nevermind but i can’t imagine something like this in germany, unfortunatedly that doesn’t mean they cant because things are getting worse over here to it only takes little longer.
Anyways all of u guys good luck!
Greetz from Hamburg | Germany
Harassment!
How were you guys “causing damage to the parking structure” like the Sentinel says?
Good job for not getting screwed on other charges.
I thought O’Donell Park was part of the Milwaukee County Parks shouldn’t all citizens of MKE have access to this park? Shouldn’t there have been a warning or a posted policy in the parking lot? I agree with the comment above regarding the media attention, there is now such thing as bad press, I think it will draw some attention to the sport and that can’t be a bad thing. Perhaps there can be a location carved out in the city to play year round.
I am smirking that the ticket was trespassing in a dwelling. Who lives in the parking garage?
Keep us posted. Let us know if you need NA-wide fundraisers!
It’s good to know American citizens’ tax money is going toward a battle worth fighting. You bike polo hoodlums better stop causing all that trouble. Just kidding, of course. I wish you guys the best of luck while pursuing some sort of retribution for what you went through. I have a feeling that there are going to be plenty of wonderful stories of similar acts of stupidity from local state and city police departments all across the U.S. Hope everything works out well for all of you.
They probably put you through all of that so you would finally arrive at this: “I think the true next step after we settle the tickets is getting a city sanctioned polo court.” Clearly warning didn’t work, so they put you through an ordeal to make it less likely that you’d show up again. Is it really so surprising? Both sides have compelling arguments, but it boils down to this: They wanted you out of the garage, you didn’t listen, so they dealt you a card they knew would get your attention.
What a great blog. If someones disagrees with your your view points their comments are deleted. Very very nice!!
You guys should be getting some help from the cycling community for this. Jake — can’t you roust the Bike Fed to do something here? Damn this pisses me off.
i wonder what got up that sheriff’s ass. Did one of you sleep with his daughter… or son?
stay tight, fight it as a team, everyone gets off!
hoping for less annoying times for you in the future,
reverend phil
bike pornographer
http://www.BikeSmut.com
No damage has resulted from us playing there in past 5 years we’ve been going there. We’ve never had an issue with a single vehicle!
Thanks, and we’ll see you in Berlin this summer!
There was a crazy one in there sucking her own thumb! haha
Thanks Wendy! The future looks promising for us!
sorry to here man…..i play l.a. bike polo and we play in parking lots hockey rink you name it and have had cops bother us,but thats the worst ive heard of.better luck next time
Things are looking better for us!
I wish good hearts and good intentions were all that mattered. Sorry guys – that’s quite a lame situation. I’m hoping at least a bit of awareness comes out of this for the milwaukee area. I can’t imagine them justifying the persistence to arrest and detain entire bike polo teams again and again. Either way, keep awn playing guys
You dudes are fuckin core now!!! Bunch a bad ass mother fuckers!!!!