Vendetta Off.

I'm sitting there in the barber's chair; mop of shaggy hair freshly shampooed and conditioned. Sal the barber takes up position- shears at the ready, just about to begin the arduous task of taming this unruly mess before him when... my phone rings. I hate being one of those douches who whips out their cellphone at the worst possible moment, but I did have to take this call. It's building security.

According to the head of security for my office, the building had nothing to do with my bike getting towed, and the cops took another bike just down the block. Now, I'm speaking to him on the phone, so I can't look for the nonverbal pantomimes that give away a lie (Thank you Quentin Tarantino via Dennis Hopper), and I'm not good enough to tell from vocal inflection, so I guess I'll have to take his word on this one.

OK, so maybe the cops decided to get on out there, and grab every bike on this one street yesterday, but why now? Late October, on a rainy day? Why not the middle of July, in the height of bike season, when there's tons of bikes around? I guess I'm gonna hafta just let this one go. My coworkers are telling me that $185 for a few years of parking is a good deal. That's a good way to make some lemonade out of it.

Life is tough here in the Big Apple, and you got to be tough to get by. I'm not hurting anybody, and I never do anything that would endanger anyone besides myself. My chosen form of transportation does not contribute to traffic or parking congestion, gets vastly superior gas mileage, & wears out the roads at a minimum of 1/7 the rate of a typical car. Yet I have never taken so much heat as I have since I switched from a car to a bike. And I used to drive around like a maniac in a black '97 Trans-Am!

Having to take lumps from The Man all the time for no reason is bullshit. Any conjecture that bikers bring it on themselves is naive, simple and narrow-minded. The cops are specifically ordered to target motorcyclists. That's a fact I've had confirmed by every police officer I've asked (half a dozen). They can be remarkably candid here in NY.