Maxwell Street access question prompts police confrontation

APD Officer Muse arrests Reid Thompson on video. Image from Youtube

Reid Thompson, owner of two properties on Maxwell Street across from the Whole Foods loading dock, published a video of himself being handcuffed today while blocking the access of a delivery truck to the loading dock. He has racked up large fines for an unsanctioned short-term rental, and he has petitioned the city to allow him rights of commercial activity which he says are similar similar to those the grocery store already enjoys.

Asheville Police Department’s arrest report shows Thompson was arrested with one misdemeanor count of impeding traffic. It also says he was released with no bond. The statute requires “no person shall willfully stand, sit, or lie upon the highway or street in such a manner as to impede the regular flow of traffic. In the video, Thompson declares he is on the sidewalk.

Thompson sent the following email to Asheville City Management, City Council and State Representative Brian Turner, whose family owns the land on which the grocery is situated:

Ms Campbell, it was my Understanding from our meeting the other day, that you had directed to your police department to enforce enabled legislation.  I was arrested again this morning, this time standing on the city sidewalk because a tractor-trailer truck using Maxwell Street couldn’t access the loading dock without running over the sidewalk. The officer had no concerns, that the truck was impeding traffic and Over 10,000 he said, that that was permitted. Perhaps I need some clarification on what my street classification is, it’s residential if I want to do something, it’s commercial if the Turner’s want to do something.  Clearly the police were there to protect the grocery store and not to protect the residents of Maxwell Street.

If Council wants to give commercial truck traffic, access to our city sidewalks, On residential streets, they should write an ordinance doing so.

In the beginning of the video notice the car leaving my driveway that’s the commercial traffic your staff said would be commercializing be otherwise residential street… Liberty and justice for all!

I did not lie application [sic] and Council turned me down. Merrimon Avenue Investments and Greenlife lied on their application and Council gives police protection to the lie.

Councilwoman Mayfield, that loading dock didn’t get there by accident. You told me that you’re friends with all the Turner’s maybe they can explain how the loading dock got there to us.

Downtrodden

 

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About Able Allen
Able studied political science and history at Warren Wilson College. He enjoys travel, dance, games, theater, blacksmithing and the great outdoors. Follow me @AbleLAllen

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8 thoughts on “Maxwell Street access question prompts police confrontation

  1. Buncy

    Anybody with even the vaguest knowledge of Asheville vs. Reid Thompson understands the city has been running roughshod over him for decades. But like the Energizer Bunny he keeps plodding along. Greenlife and the Turners ought to be taken down to the Square and flogged. Everybody knows it’s the big dog trying to eat the little dog, like a pitbull tearing into a toy poodle. Keep it up, City and crooked city cops, and see where it gets you! Yes, and city manager [Have you fallen in with the crooks yet?], what do you do about cops that arrest a man because he objects to a 11,000 lb. Greenlife transfer truck driving down city sidewalks where people have their homes? Huh?

  2. Kelly Muse

    What a professional and kind officer. I wish the other gentleman would have taken the numerous opportunities to move so the truck could stop blocking the road, and more importantly, so his daughter didn’t have to be a witness.

    • OzarksRazor

      Wow. So, the officer allowing illegal activity is appropriate while a citizen doing nothing illegal is wrong? Strange days.

    • Buncy

      Kind officer? What was kind about abusing a criminal statute to arrest Thompson for blocking a street when he was standing on a sidewalk? It sounds to me like more of Asheville’s dirty politics where laws are interpreted, explained, and applied by those whose interests and abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them.

      What are we to infer after observing that both your last name is MUSE and the officer’s last name is MUSE? Would it not have been incumbent on you to acknowledge that you are related to Officer Muse by blood or marriage?

      • A concerned citizen

        He was standing in a crosswalk, not on a sidewalk. He is also very aggressive and damn near impossible to talk to. Not a single driver has ever done a thing to hurt him and have just been trying to do their jobs. The media really needs to stop portraying him as an innocent victim who has been bullied by police. I have dealt with him several times and I’m surprised he hasn’t been charged with disturbing the peace. He doesn’t try to talk to anyone he just whips his camera out shoves it in your face and starts yelling. Reid Thompson is a loser who inconveniences blue collar workers who are just trying to do their jobs. If his problem is with Whole Foods and the city he should take it out on them, not someone who’s job depends on making that delivery.

        • Buncy

          Another cop’s wife, incognito? Oh, wait, you’re from Greenlife/Whole Foods, aren’t you? Tell us about your pecuniary interest in prosecuting Reid Thompson, and abusing a residential street and its sidewalks for pedestrians only, dumped on and driven over by 18-wheelers to accommodate the scofflaws at Greenlife and the sociopath Turner family.

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