‘It’s a real problem,’ Toronto cyclists file complaint after police charged riders in crash, raising concerns about anti-cyclist bias

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Members of the Neon Riders cycling group are filing a complaint against Toronto police after two cyclists were charged following an incident in which a driver allegedly hit their group.

Their lawyer says video evidence contradicting the driver’s account was ignored by police and prosecutors, and that the case reflects a wider pattern of bias against cyclists.

Although charges were eventually dropped, the incident has shaken the group’s trust in police, with some riders now questioning whether to call 911 in future crashes.

A group of Toronto cyclists are filing a complaint against Toronto police officers who charged two  cyclists after a group was hit by a car, and their lawyer says the issue goes way beyond a single accident. 

Neon Riders are a group of cyclists based downtown Toronto who are known for leading weekly rides in the summer, accompanied by LED lights and music. The group is highly popular, gathering about 30 to 80 Torontonians per ride. 

“I’m the one who comes up with the route, and I’m very careful…We stay well away from heavy traffic. We usually use side roads or bike paths, and we don’t go very fast at all…So, we also do not get into a lot of altercations with cars,” Neon Riders’ leader Steve D’Silva told Now Toronto. 

However, on Aug. 29, 2024, the group was stopped at a spotlight north of Davenport road, when a blue car allegedly pulled up behind them, and suddenly accelerated, hitting a few cyclists. 

D’Silva, who was upfront leading the group, said he didn’t see the initial impact, but heard the commotion as the driver allegedly tried to drive off. 

“So, this is where a number of the cyclists then just surrounded the car and made sure she couldn’t get away. So, as you can imagine, it was pretty chaotic,” he said. “I called 911, and we waited a good hour and a half before the police came.” 

According to the group’s leader, officers then appeared at the scene, and went straight to the driver, without asking the cyclists for their version of the story. They later detained and charged two of the cyclists with Uttering Threats, before releasing them on a Promise to Appear. 

“This police officer never asked us for our side of the story, and just seemed to decide what to do, from simply talking to the driver and deciding just to let her go, and based on that, just to handcuff and detain two of our cyclists,” D’Silva said. 

LAWYER SAYS PROSECUTORS IGNORED EVIDENCE

Biking lawyer David Shellnutt, who represents the cyclists, said that the driver allegedly omitted from police that she had hit the group, claiming they “out of nowhere swarmed her car and threatened her.” 

The bikers were later able to present a video of the incident to the prosecutor on the case. However, Shellnutt says the evidence was simply ignored, as the prosecutor insisted on pushing the case. 

“Despite that video evidence contradicting what the driver said to police and the prosecutor, he decided to continue with the charges. There’s no evidence whatsoever from anybody on scene, and even in the video evidence, that my clients threatened her at all, you’ll see that, in the various video angles,” he said to Now Toronto. 

“You see one of the cyclists get back up and take pictures of her car, but he doesn’t go to the window, and he doesn’t threaten her. And then the other cyclist gets up and heads back to his marshaling duties to keep people safe and make sure that other cars don’t come in and hit people.”

According to Shellnutt, the prosecutor later said he would be proceeding to trial, unless the cyclists would plead guilty to the charges, which they refused. After over one year of court appearances and back-and-forth, the prosecutor eventually dropped the charges months before the scheduled trial date. 

CYCLISTS FILE COMPLAINT AGAINST POLICE

The group is now in the process of filing a complaint against the police officers involved in the case, which Shellnutt says will be on the grounds of officer misconduct and negligent investigation, as well as anti-cyclist bias and bringing the group’s reputation into disrepute. 

“[The cyclists] had, thankfully, minor physical injuries, but the act of being run over by a motor vehicle and then blamed for by police and prosecutors has an incredible emotional toll that has sort of been perpetrated against these two folks that they’re experiencing to this day,” he said. 

Meanwhile, D’Silva says the incident has also affected Neon Riders’ trust towards police. 

“We had a discussion within our group after that if this happens again, we shouldn’t call the police, because now a lot of our riders just don’t trust the police, so we’re thinking maybe just get a license plate letter, and then call it in later on,” he said.

A Toronto Police Services (TPS) spokesperson told Now Toronto officers “lay charges when there are reasonable grounds to do so,” but said they won’t comment further. 

“In addition to the complainant, officers also spoke to a witness at the scene. Two people were charged with Uttering Threats. There were no reports of injuries to either the complainant or the cyclists,” the spokesperson said.

“If a complaint has been made, that process will need to take its course and we won’t comment further.”

LAWYER SAYS INCIDENT SIGNALS POLICE BIAS

Shellnutt says this is not the first time bikers have been allegedly treated negligently by police. 

According to him, recent public debates involving cyclists have translated into the streets, leading to several other cases of police bias against cyclists. 

“Summer after summer, multiple officers and cruisers hang out all day, all weekend in High Park and hand out speeding tickets to cyclists. Meanwhile, pedestrians are getting mowed down in the dozens at intersections across Toronto, and you never see an officer camped out there stopping motorists from running reds or pushing cyclists on walk signs. It’s a real problem that TPS has yet to address,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the lawyer hopes his clients can receive an apology from police and prosecutor on the case, and perhaps spark change. 

“I would like to see an apology to these two individual cyclists and the Neon Riders. They provide such a wonderful piece of joy to the community in Toronto, and for them to be targeted in this fashion and ignored when they’ve called for justice is a real shame, and it should be dealt with,” he said.

“We want the Ombudsman in the city to really look into what’s happening at the prosecutor’s office in the City of Toronto.” 

D’Silva says that while he hopes for an apology, he doesn’t believe that much will change anytime soon. 

“A change of behaviour would be much better, but we need something to happen in order for cyclist groups like the Neon Riders to basically trust the police,” he said.