The Quickshift

• A motorcyclist was in the HOV lane in California
• You did not notice a police officer with blue lights and siren on
• The police officer then threatened to kill her

Look, there have been many situations where I’ve been so focused on what was in front of me that I probably would have missed an asteroid hitting the Earth. When my music is playing, the breeze is nice and cool, and I’m just swaying along with the bike. It’s probably not the safest thing to do, but we’re all only human and it happens from time to time.

However, that doesn’t give someone the right to threaten to kill me if I don’t pull over fast enough, not to mention that that person is a police officer.

But that’s also what happens in this video from California, where a police officer is caught threatening to run over a motorcyclist if he doesn’t get out of his way. Yeah, that’s not exactly what I would call “protect and serve.”

The video appears to be from an Insta360 action camera and shows a California Highway Patrol officer in the highway’s HOV lane with his lights and siren on. Now it’s your job as a motorcyclist to pay attention to what’s going on around you, but the officer doesn’t even give the motorcyclist a chance to react before yelling at him into his bullhorn and threatening to kill him.

Right at the beginning, when the police officer reaches the motorcyclist on the road, he screams: “Get the fuck out of my way or I’ll run you over.” But when the motorcyclist is about to do just that, he goes a step further and screams: “I’ll fucking run you over!” That is absolutely not okay.

And yes, again: It’s your job to be aware of your surroundings. It’s also especially important to be aware of first responders like police, fire, and emergency services like ambulances. But the officer didn’t give them time to react. He simply went from 0 to 1,000, threatening the motorcyclist’s life while supposedly driving somewhere else to “protect and serve.”

I don’t care what you’re up to, if you’re a police officer and you put someone’s life in danger during the course of your day or on your way to another location, you’re not a good police officer. That’s criminal and the officer should be on desk duty because he’s clearly not capable of acting appropriately.

I agree with many of the commenters on the post that the driver should have assessed the situation better. But honestly, this police officer shouldn’t be threatening anyone.