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On Sunday mornings, Najari Smith leads cyclists through the neighborhoods of Richmond for a weekly bike ride.
A trailer attached to his bike pumps music through a speaker to keep the riders on pace — and dancing in their seats.
“We want to change the perception around neighborhood safety,” Smith, 39, said. “When we ride through and they hear the music, people come outside. They wave.”
Smith is the founder and executive director of Rich City Rides, a bike shop and community cycling organization in Richmond. He says the shop has given away more than 1,100 bikes to youth and community members since it opened six years ago. And there have been more than 300 Sunday-morning rides.
But on Aug. 3, as Smith rode through Oakland with other cyclists, he was arrested by Oakland police and his music bike was confiscated.
Police say he was playing music too loudly and resisted arrest. Smith believes he was racially profiled. In the end, the Alameda County district attorney dropped the resisting arrest charge against Smith, but he still faces a fine for the noise violation.
In a statement, the department said officers observed Smith impeding traffic at the intersection of West Grand and Telegraph avenues by continuously riding in circles as officers were trying to clear it. Police said Smith’s music was heard from more than 50 feet away and he refused to provide identification to officers.
This is what Smith said happened when he was approached by a police officer near 22nd Street and West Grand Avenue:
He had been on the Red, Bike & Green Ride, which starts at 6 p.m. every first Friday of the month at the Lake Merritt Columns. He rode his music bike with the trailer.
“It’s been a wonderful way of advertising the rides that we do,” Smith said.
More than a dozen black men and women were on the ride, and that evening the cyclists were honoring Nia Wilson, the 18-year-old woman who was slain on July 22 at MacArthur BART Station.
To conclude the ride, Smith and other riders performed a ritual circle at the intersection of West Grand and Telegraph avenues. After exiting the circle, Smith rode on Telegraph Avenue toward downtown. That’s when he said an officer grabbed his handlebars, a potentially dangerous act when a bike is in motion.
Smith said he squeezed his hand brakes before turning the music down. Then he put his hands in the air.
When the officer asked for identification, Smith said he asked why the officer needed it. Smith said he then got off his bike and followed the officer to a police car. Smith said the officer told him he was being detained for a noise violation — and that he was asking to be arrested because he didn’t immediately give up his identification.
“As soon as we got to the police car, he told me to turn around, grabbed my arms and put handcuffs on me and put me inside the car,” Smith said.
Smith spent two nights in jail for something as innocuous as riding his bike while playing music. Why didn’t the officer simply tell Smith to turn the music down?
Why weren’t all the other drivers of cars and motorcycles playing loud music with chest rattling bass that night arrested? I wanted to ask the police some questions, but Johnna Watson, a department spokeswoman, instead sent me a statement.
Supporters of Smith in the Easy Bay bike community, as well as elected officials in Richmond and Oakland, have told me they believe this is a case of biking while black. The ritual circle is something bike groups regularly do to mark the end of rides.
“It’s really policing black expression,” Duane Deterville, a member of Red Bike & Green who was on the ride, said of Smith’s arrest. “This isn’t just an isolated incident that happens with bikes. It shows me that black expression itself is being policed.”
Deterville, 58, has lived in Oakland for four decades. He referred to Smith as a treasure.
“It’s a rare thing for a black man to come of age and then dedicate his life to community in such a profound way that Najari has,” Deterville said. “He’s very much a connector and a unifier and somebody who is a goodwill ambassador.
“They really picked the wrong guy.”
Ginger Jui, executive director of Bike East Bay, a cycling advocacy nonprofit, said the organization wants to see more people of color on bikes “without the fear of being stopped by the police for celebrating, being loud and being ourselves.”
“When the police are harassing black people biking for minor things like playing music or wearing earbuds, that’s not safety,” Jui continued.
Smith said he realizes that his arrest — and his response — represents something bigger than himself.
“We need to see police policy change where this doesn’t happen to anybody else — where we can stop the number of disproportionate stops that happen to black people, people of color and poor people who are criminalized in the communities where they live,” he said.
Earlier this week, I went to Rich City Rides, the bike shop on Macdonald Avenue, a main artery in Richmond. Melvin Willis, a member of the Richmond City Council, said the shop was part of the downtown revitalization because it’s a place where community members gather.
“This is a community spot, and it’s actually promoting getting people out on a bike and out of cars and being a part of healthy living activities and reclaiming their community,” he said.
Smith missed work the Saturday after his arrest because he was in jail, but he made the Sunday morning ride that week.
Before it started, a young girl who rides regularly with the group, asked Smith where the music was.
He simply told her he didn’t have the speaker with him, shielding her from his experience.
“I just felt like I let everybody down,” he said.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr.
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