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Dad says cops are wrong in Duck Creek case

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By Barb Ickes | Tuesday, July 8, 2008 12:00 AM CDT | () comments

They were caught red-handed.

For the past several weeks, the bike path bullies have eluded police. Not this time.

Two Davenport 15-year-olds have been ticketed for reckless driving, driving motorized vehicles on the bike path, running stop signs and other violations. Police suspect they are the same teens that bicyclists, walkers and residents along the Duck Creek bike path have been complaining about for their “rude, threatening, belligerent” and highly dangerous conduct.

Some of those who were using Duck Creek legally said the boys “were forcing people off the bike path” by their reckless driving.

When they were spotted Thursday by police, one boy was on a four-wheeler and the other on a dirt bike. Police Capt. Dave Struckman said that officers were able to track the teens, largely because of help from regular citizens.

“When they (the teens) saw an approaching police car they fled at a high rate of speed southbound,” Struckman said. “During the next few minutes they ran numerous stop signs and disobeyed many traffic regulations and even drove across private property while failing to yield to the emergency vehicles and attempting to ditch the police.”

The fleeing teens, who were not wearing helmets, even blew the stop sign at the busy Central Park crossing, Struckman said.

Reading the police report, I figured the parents must be furious with the boys.

I was wrong.

One father, Don Shumaker, is angry, all right, but not with his son.

“The police, in my opinion, are being ridiculous,” he said Monday. “I think it was blown way out of proportion.”

He said that his son (whom I’m not naming because he’s a juvenile, charged with misdemeanors) had “consequences” to face at home, but only for his immediate crimes. Shumaker does not think his son is one of the bike path bullies of weeks gone by.

Besides, he said, police have more important things to do than “worry about little kids on the bike path.” He said police should instead be focused on drug dealers and murder suspects.

But one of the bike path users the boys encountered, Cheryl Benson, said the police should be applauded for responding the way they did to complaints about the boys. The teens were, in her experience, big trouble.

“They behaved with utter disregard and disrespect,” she said. “At one point, I tailed them on foot for about a mile. They mooned me and threatened me.

“They showed complete and utter disregard for other human beings, including a woman who had two little children with her. I’m tickled pink they caught them.”

The four-wheeler and dirt bike were impounded by police, and witnesses identified the teens as the bike path bullies.

Curious about the second boy, I called his parents’ house, and he answered the phone. I identified myself and told him why I was calling his folks.

“They probably wouldn’t want to talk to you about that,” he said.

For a moment, I allowed myself to hope it was because they were too embarrassed.

Barb Ickes can be contacted at (563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com.