The Cop Cleanse Continues: Founder Lance Armstrong's Bike Shop Breaks Its Contract with the Austin PD

(AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski, File)
AP featured image
FILE- In this July 25, 2010, file photo, Lance Armstrong, of the United States, looks back on the podium after the 20th and last stage of the Tour de France cycling race in Paris. Armstrong’s $100 million civil fraud trial is months away, yet his fight with the government and former teammate-turned-rival Floyd Landis is heating up. The trial is scheduled for November in federal court in Washington D.C., and lawyers for both sides recently filed a series of motions asking U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper to exclude some key evidence. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski, File)
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Remember Sonny Crockett?

He was the man. 

 

But he sure wouldn’t be today.

Police aren’t exactly getting a lot of respect.

For decades, Hollywood served gritty cop dramas, compelling detectives shows, and buddy cop movies.

Now, not even Kindergarten Cop gets a pass

And remember those toy sets that allowed junior to wear a plastic badge like a law man? I wouldn’t count on seeing ’em any time soon.

Rioters in the street are chanting, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon” as Colin Kaepernick — made famous for, among other things, socks depicting officers as swine — is hailed a hero.

“F[orget] the Police” has infiltrated the nooks and crannies, including the whimsical world of bicycles.

Apropos, following the riots, a bike shop in Austin — founded by famed cyclist Lance Armstrong — has terminated its contract with the Austin Police Department roughly two years early.

The liberal town’s Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop made the call to cut ties with the Department — as stated on Facebook — in light of “the current evaluation” of law enforcement:

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“In the context of the current evaluation of community policing in Austin, we have decided to no longer purchase, re-sell and service police-issue Trek bikes and accessories under a City of Austin RFP [Request For Proposal] the shop was previously awarded.”

The shop’s trying to balance business with activism:

“It’s difficult in these times to balance the needs of a business and a community. Our entire employee group was engaged in this dialogue and we delved deep into our community to understand how we could best do our part to keep our customers safe and this city moving in the right direction. These are certainly trying times, and we understand people will object to any decision made along these lines.”

And the “A” word is a must:

“Businesses can no longer be non-participants in the communities they serve. We chose what we think will do the most to suture these divides and place our community on the right side of history.”

It wasn’t made clear how shunning the police would “suture” any division, but — as relayed by The Daily Wire — the 2019 contract obligating the shop to provide the APD with bikes and repairs was worth $314,000.

KXAN reports Mellow Johnny’s — of which Lance Armstrong is purportedly a co-owner — won’t be supporting a department that’s using its bikes to relegate BLM protestors:

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Austin police officers use bicycles to patrol the downtown area. They’ve been seen using bikes during events like South By Southwest. More recently, Austin police officers used their bicycles to keep protestors in one area at Black Lives Matter protests downtown.

NBC36 asserts a now-deleted post pinpointed BLM patrol as reason for the termination:

According to a now-deleted Facebook post, that’s why the bike shop wanted to stop doing business with police. The post was written by an account with the same name as an Austin police officer whose name is on the contract with Mellow Johnny’s. It said shop employees didn’t like that the bikes were being used as a crowd management tool during the protests.

Lest you think otherwise, the statement specified the shop is “not anti-police.”

Plus:

“We do believe our local police force will protect us from the very threats we are receiving right now.”

It’s not the Mellow folks’ first time to make business decisions based on politics.

From the Wire:

Back in 2018, [the shop] dropped cycling brands owned by Vista Outdoors, a gun manufacturer.

Mellow Johnny’s doesn’t seem all that…mellow.

Find the statement in its entirety below, and catch Miami Vice on the Starz app while you still can.

Crocket and Tubbs — as well as Ponch and John and Starsky and Hutch…I think y’all are all about to be #Canceled:

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https://twitter.com/mellowjohnnys/status/1291180992665997312

-ALEX

 

See more pieces from me:

John Lennon’s Son Rips the Current Far Left Craze: ‘Fight Racism With Racism,’ ‘Fight Fascism With Fascism’

Because Toddlers Demand It: Barbie Unveils Its New Politically Active Doll and Her All-Female Staff

Little Seizures: People Freak Out Over Domino’s ‘Karen’ Promotion, So It Caves to the Woke and Eats Humble Pie

Find all my RedState work here.

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