Lance Armstrong’s bike shop in Austin, Texas, has
discontinued a three-year contract it had to supply and service Trek police bikes
to the local police force due to the Black Lives Matter protests and police of
the protests.
The Mellow Johnny’s Bike Show had completed the first
year of a three-year contract worth about €300,000.
However, there has been considerable controversy at the
way police in many parts of the US have been using bikes like riot shields, in
an offensive and defensive manner.
Some bike brands moved to either discontinue their
contracts to supply bikes to the police forces or to make it clear they had no
contracts with the police.
However, while Trek bikes were used by the police in a number of high profile contentious clashes with protestors – through no fault of the US bike company – it has not discontinued its supply of bikes.
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Now Mellow Johnny’s has decided to end its Trek-based contract
with the local police force which involved purchasing, re-selling and servicing
the special police bike produced by Trek.
“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 the shop was
previously awarded,” the shop said.
It added it regretted it had not made its announcement
before news of the contract termination was leaked on social media and covered
in news reports in the US.
It said all its employees were involved in the
conversation that resulted in the contract being terminated after a year,
adding it believed its decision would be on the “right side of history” in
time.
“We are not anti-police. We do believe our local police
force will protect us from the very threats we are receiving right now,” it
added.
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