Tag Archives: Benicia Police

Benicia Police, Benicia Schools, Children & Teens, E-bikes, E-motos, Parents

Is Benicia Next? Prosecutors charge parents with child abuse following e-moto crash

“I find myself deeply concerned about the children I’ve seen riding e-motos and electric bicycles around Benicia.”

By Ethan Dale, former Benician, April 2, 2026

I saw this headline this morning: “California prosecutors charge parents with child abuse following e-moto crash” – and it caused me great concern.

As a person who rides bicycle, drives a car and also rides a internal-combustion powered motorcycle, I find myself deeply concerned about the children I’ve seen riding e-motos and electric bicycles around Benicia.

I don’t know how it is that the parents in Benicia who buy e-motos for their children justify this to themselves, but it worries me that the combination of older drivers (with increased reaction times and attention deficits) and teens/younger kids on electric motorcycles and electric bicycles that are heavier and faster than pushbikes is a potentially deadly one.

These young riders of e-motos and electric bikes engage in risky and dangerous behaviors, and aren’t always wearing helmets (state law requires a helmet of any bicycle or moto rider under the age of 16). I’ve had them pass me on the right at stop signs without stopping while I was driving my car, swarm me on my bicycle doing wheelies, and ride on the sidewalk at high speeds. IN BENICIA. I have to assume they’re seeing this behavior modeled on Youtube, and think they live in a safe enough place that nothing bad can happen to them. The parents that allow these behaviors and enable them by purchasing the vehicles clearly think this way.

I don’t know if Benicia’s police department is doing much on the enforcement side, but it would probably be well past time they started to pull over and cite the kids and hold the parents responsible. The e-motos are not legal for street use to start with in many cases, and there are learner’s permits that are required for the rider to have in some cases.

I no longer live in Benicia, but I have family who do and every time I’ve been back there since I moved to Berkeley earlier this year I’ve seen a kid on one of these machines. I wish people were more aware of the dangers. I don’t think anyone wants their kid to die, or for the parents to end up destitute after being sued because of a preventable accident.

I am including a link below to the website hosted by the Danville Bicycle Advocacy organization – they have done a fantastic job of pulling together information about this topic and clarifying the differences between the various types of e-motos and e-bikes. They also have a number of articles about accidents that have happened in Danville, enforcement efforts by the Danville PD, and others.

I suggest that anyone concerned about these machines and their potentially deadly impact on other cyclists, pedestrians and vehicles educate themselves. I would really like to see Benicia PD take a stance on these issues, and begin enforcing the law by pulling over, citing and potentially impounding the vehicles that are being used illegally.

Ethan Dale
Former Benician

Clarification: “E-Motos” vs E-Bikes” and Why it Matters. – DANVILLE SAFETY ADVOCATES
#BlackLivesMatter, Benicia Black Lives Matter, Benicia CA, Benicia Police, Hate crimes, Raley's Benicia

Benician arrested for hate crime against 3 black kids outside Raley’s

Male suspect in Benicia arrested for alleged hate crime, DUI

Vallejo Times Herald, By KATY ST. CLAIR, April 15, 2021
Source: facebook.com/StandUpBenicia/

A 20-year-old man was arrested in Benicia on Saturday for an alleged felony “hate crime.”

Patric Knoblich is accused of making racial slurs against a group of minors at the Southampton Shopping Center as he drove past them, police said. He was also booked for allegedly brandishing a replica of a gun and driving under the influence.

According to a post on the Facebook group Stand-Up Benicia, the victims — ages 13, 14 and 15 — were walking their bikes next to the shopping complex when a man yelled from his car, “Hey you nasty (N-words)!” Two passengers reportedly looked on and laughed.

The children say they have a recording of the incident. The Times-Herald listened to the audio and a male can be heard yelling the slur, and also saying “You (expletive) nasty!”

According to the Benicia Police Department, “a short time later, the teens asked the driver why he made the comments and at this point, the driver brandished a realistic-looking airsoft gun” and drove away.

The juveniles claim that when the car came back, the driver also yelled, “You don’t know who you’re (expletive) with, (expletive)!”

The boys told a source familiar to the Times-Herald that they were fearful and went into Raley’s Supermarket to report what had happened. According to the boys, the manager of Raley’s told them to “go home,” though a spokesperson for Raley’s said that is inaccurate and that the store manager called 911.

The Benicia Police confirm that Raley’s did indeed call 911, but after the victim’s mother had already done so.

According to a post on Stand Up Benicia, the boys were frightened and went to the back of the store, where the mother of one of their schoolmates recognized them and took them home. The mother of one of the boys then called 911 and the police arrived at their home.

According to BPD, officers located the alleged driver of the vehicle, Knoblich, whom they say is out on bail for a previous, unrelated crime. Police say the incident is still under investigation.

Knoblich was booked into Solano County Jail on April 11 for misdemeanor brandishing of a firearm replica, driving under the influence and driving under the influence as a minor, and a felony “violation of civil rights.”

Knoblich has been released from jail. The Times-Herald has reached out to the district attorney about the case, but had not heard back by press time.

Benicia Police, Community policing, Police culture

Video: author Rosa Brooks takes us inside police officer training and culture

By Roger Straw, March 17, 2021

I was taken by yesterday’s Lawrence O’Donnell MSNBC interview of Rosa Brooks, author of Tangled Up in Blue, a “radical inside examination of policing in modern America.”

Brooks is a Georgetown University law professor who mid-career decided to train and serve as a reserve police officer in Washington D.C.   Her inside perspective gives a close-up look at policing, good and bad.

The interview is posted on Youtube, (and here below) with the following introduction:  “Brooks says throughout academy training, police officers are ‘primed to think that a threat could come from anywhere at any time,’ but they must remember their ‘top priority is protecting the communities they serve.’

In light of recent news stories of extremist anti-government views among officers in nearby Vacaville, one begins to wonder about police training and “culture” in the Solano County sheriff department.  Benicia’s former Chief Erik Upson is serious about “community policing” and a “positive police culture.”  Let’s hope his perspective has taken root and continues deep in the culture of our local cops.