Wow!
 

I just got back from the most amazing critical mass ride ever! There were upwards of 300 of us filling the New York streets. We started at Union Square, then rode south on Broadway, took Canal St. over to the West Side highway and converged upon Pier 40 on the Hudson River. From there we waited until everyone was in a big group, then rode up the West Side Highway for 20 blocks or so closing every lane, then cut into the side streets. From there we went north on 8th Ave up to Columbus Circle. We closed down 1/4 mile stretches of the road including all side streets at a time to let our huge mass ride north. We rode around Columbus circle a few times closing it (we filled the whole thing), then went down towards Times Square. We pulled into Times Square making as much noise as possible (as is normally the case with Critical Mass), and the throngs of pedestrians all went nuts. We again proceeded to close every side street so that we could ride through as one big mass without having to worry about things as trivial as red lights, and then went over to Lexington Ave, went down and took the Lex. tunnel to Grand Central Station. We circled Grand Central, then went into the village where we proceeded to make as much noise as possible as we rode through. We eventually stopped at a park on Avenue A and all decided that it was time to call it a night. We started biking at around 7pm, and went straight through until 10:30 pm.

The cops lately have been making it very clear that they do not like things such as people assembling (it's not like it's protected by the first amendment or anything ::rollseyes::). At last month's Critical Mass, they arrested a number of people on bull**** charges, and it got alot of negative media coverage. This time, they decided to show their force. About two dozen of them showed up at Union Square. They locked the entrances and tried to intimidate us. Luckily, we had alot of media there this time because of last month's fiasco. The cops initially arrested one person for "disorderly conduct" (ie, sitting on the sidewalk with a mohawk), and it was at this point that I witnessed something that I have never seen before and will probably never see again. We all surrounded the cops and started chanting the first amendment. That isn't really that significant, but is standard practice. What was unique about this demonstration is that after a few minutes, the cops did not call for backup or start cracking skulls. Instead, they let the kid go.

They tried to follow us, but the group started out so fragmented that we lost our 'escort' pretty quickly. For some reason, only one cop tried to stop us after we left Pier 40. We were riding up 8th Ave. when a cop turns on his lights and comes up behind us. Eventually he gets into the middle of us and we weren't stopping. We just kept on riding and making an ungodly amount of noise. Around 35th St., he pulled off, and we didn't have another cop bother us throughout the entire night of traffic congestion and noise.

It was the single most exhilarating experience that I have ever had during a demonstration. I am going to have many very fond memories of this night. I doubt that I'll ever see a sight more beautiful or empowering than turning around near the front right as we were leaving Times Square and seeing this huge mass of bikes just filling the road. It was beautiful, it was fun, and I hope that in the future I will be able to go to another Critical Mass as good as this one was.

hey man welcome back. pardon my ignorace but were you fighting coal like usual or was it outher stuff? did you have posters or anything to let pople know what was going on. im just tring to picture what it looked like and what it represented

This is Critical Mass. It's an anarchistic bicycle awareness event that we do every so often (in different cities it's at different times). In NYC, it's the last Friday of every month. Basically, we take out bikes out, and reclaim the streets. We ride around and make alot of noise to let drivers know that we have the right of way too on the roads. In larger Critical Mass rides (like the one I was in tonight), we will literally reclaim the streets. We took wherever we were riding away from the cars as a statement. They were our streets. The cops couldn't stop us, and we turned major roads into our roads keeping these gas sucking machine drivers stuck and aggravated.

Earlier today I went to an anti coal "demonstration" but was utterly appalled by the state of New York's activism scene. The "demonstration" that I thought was going to be an office takeover because of the way the pamphlet was worded ended up being a few people handing out info sheets. I was ashamed to be anywhere near it. Luckily, Critical Mass was there to rejuvenate my faith in the NYC activist scene.

lol well that sounds pretty sweet how the cops cant do anything. the coal thing is pretty sad but its awsome that people are fighting it some how.

The cops wanted to stop us, they just couldn't. There were hundreds of us. I'm still just amazed at the night. It was phenomenal.

not to sound mean or anyhting do what you want but if its your job to preotect the city and general public, wouldnt you get a bit anxious/nervous when a bunch of bycycalist clog the streets chanting extremely loud as you say? especially when your not sure if one or a small group is goign to do somehting dangerous you personally might know that its a peaceful stating a point type of thign but the cops dont know that and thier gonna be on high alert....or when a mob surrounds them? just the other side of the view... you made it sound like cops are our enemys that thier some kind of super human race...its cool that you stand up for what you belive in dont get me wrong (i would but i just dont feel too strongly about much of anything, well besids bush being a &^%*^% dumb "donkey")so dont take this as me tryign to make you look bad i guess you could say. i was just throwing the cops point of view out there...

I don't think that it's the pig's place to assume that a peaceful crowd of bicyclists are out to start trashing things. The one time we are safe on the road is when we are doing Critical Mass because most drivers try to run us off the road but can't when there are 300 of us. The cops have been arresting people at Critical Mass in New York recently for things like "disorderly conduct" which is a charge so vague that it means whatever the cop doesn't feel like approving of. The cops are supposed to be civil servants upholding the laws of the people, not controlling the people. They should not have a say or get a point of view. Instead, they are running the country through force and use of fear. There are so many laws that are designed specifically to promote fear of the pigs. Disrespecting an officer, assaulting an officer, and so many other cop-only charges are just ridiculous and designed so that they are classified by the law as these elite people who deserve much more than the people they are supposed to respect and protect. The pigs now refer to citizens as 'civilians.' They are trying to put themselves into another class above us and that should never be tolerated. Basically, in the eyes of the 'law,' it's illegal to defend yourself when being wrongly attacked by the pigs. A great example is that elderly man who was attacked by a number of cops in New Orleans for stopping to ask them a simple question. The cops got off because the man was struggling. This is a man who was just going to the store to buy cigarettes, was assaulted, and was struggling to get free. I'm sorry, but this blind devotion to whatever a cop says is completely wrong. These dickfaces have pretty much unlimited power, and no judge is willing to drop the hammer on one.

When I am in a crowd demonstrating, and the cops start attacking us even though we are peaceful, I don't consider it patriotic or right to listen to them. When the cops start launching teargas into the crowd, I consider it the right thing to put on a black mask, throw it back and start throwing anything else solid back at them.

I'm glad we have those laws, to protect the police from people like you. I mean, people like you are the very reason those laws exist. You and your kind made your bed. Now you get to lie in it.

For someone your age to have so much fear, and so much hate, is just astonishing to me.

To protect them from people like me? They have a gun, I don't. Is my belief in freedom that dangerous to their power? A cop should never be able to arrest someone for questioning their constitutional authority. I have never attacked a cop. I have been attacked for holding signed at demonstrations. I have been threatened with arrest for going to demonstrations. I have had rubber bullets and teargas shot at me simply for voicing my opinion. I'm sorry, but throwing the teargas back at them is the right thing to do when being faced with repression.

ok you and everyone else might have known it was a peaceful gathering, cops cant read your mind or anyone elses. a peaceful thing can turn into an ugly mob in seconds. all it takes is a few bad eggs. its not liek only a certian few can become a police officer. anyone can.


yes they have guns, they have them to protect people liek you and me without guns. lets say some wacko would be in the middle of one of your demonstrations and started shooting an uzi or tec9 off. i bet you would want cops to have guns then! or would you want them to have somehting totally useless and then there would be lots of innocent people dead because noone was there to kill the wacko.

and you say youve never attacked a cop yet you said twice now that you would or have thrown teargas and anythign soild back at the cops. whats that really gonna do? all thier thinking is well thier throwing stuff at us so were going to use more force. its liek throwing a rock at a bees nest...

I have never once been protected by a cop. In fact, the one time I did call a cop was after I was attacked and robbed of my cell phone. The only reason I called was because I figured that the cops could catch the guys who attacked me since it was in an area surrounded by water with only one exit and they were on foot. Instead, the cops gave me ****, were extremely racist (the first thing that the pig said when he got out of the car was "They are all black, right?" and was visibly disappointed when I let him know that they were four white kids), and started questioning me as if I had done something wrong. I have never been in a demonstration that has gone awry because of the 'bad eggs' as you call us. I have seen cops attack us. I have seen cops arrest people 'for their safety.' I have never seen just cause for a cop to arrest someone during legal demonstrations, but they do it anyway. I have never seen any reason for them to attack us with clubs, rubber bullets and teargas, but they attack us anyway. Your "guilty until proven innocent" approach to the cops "not knowing" if it's a good demonstration is bull****. They always take your approach and that is what incites this hatred of their authority. It is not the cop's job to assume that we are all guilty, but they do it anyway. There is never a guy in the crowd with an uzi, and if there was, they would probably fire into the crowd like at Kent State. I have never seen an 'ugly mob.' Maybe on the news you have, but in reality, they are extremely rare. The cops can't arrest everyone in a town because there is one murder, why are they allowed to suppress free speech in the name of 'protection?' I'm going to put a little bit of text down for you to read. It's something that has been a law for over 200 years, and that has been systematically destroyed by the pigs who attack us and suppress our forms of expression.

Ever read it before? I doubt many cops have, or if they have they certainly don't care. It seems like these days we have more free speech demonstrations than other causes because of this systematic repression. Watch the documentary "The Miami Model." It's about the FTAA demonstrations in Miami in 2003 and the reality of the situation there. Everything in it is true. I was there and witnessed it firsthand. The world we live in is alot scarier than the corporate media allows you to know.

the cops aren't congress nor do police make laws. i didn't call you bad eggs, every gathering has a few extremists that might go off. and what do you mean theres never a guy in the crowd with an uzi? lol I'm not saying the guy with the uzi is on your side, he could be some wacko for whatever your against and decide to shoot a bunch of protesters by running in the middle of the crowd (cuz i doubt you know every body there protesting)and open firing at anyone and anything.

some cops are d*** but what can you do? some people hate their jobs and have bad days. but not all cops are bad all the time. most are pretty relaxed. it depends on the area too, if you live in a huge suburbia or college town where they constantly get calls about the same thing over and over I'm sure it gets tiresome filling out a report and such for something thats never going to be found. When my truck got broken into and my faceplate stolen off my radio, the cops came and took a report and asked me if anything else was stolen, model number of it, brand, etc. then he said, I'm going to be honest with you, its nearly impossible to find your specific faceplate again, its probably already been pawned off for drug money and we have no way to prove it was stolen since there were thousands of these radios made, which is the truth if you think about it. no one got hurt no damage was done to the truck (slim jimed the door, not hard to do) so they just kinda put it in th pile along with all the other stolen article reports. When you got attacked, the cops weren't there and you can just say 4 white kids stole my phone and ran off that way and expect them to take off in that direction...they ask you all sorts of questions maybe like what they looked like, describe everything that happened, etc. and if your not cooperating and not acting like your willing to help why should they help you? lol i sure wouldn't.

Why do you keep coming back to this imaginary guy with an uzi? Have you ever even been in a demonstration before? There are alot of misconceptions about demonstrations because of the media. This myth about a few agitators (usually anarchists according to the media) is false. The myth about people bringing weapons to demonstrations is false. If you want to start making assumptions about demonstrations, check one out. I base my opinions on what I know, and what I see. I see cops kicking the **** out of people all of the time. I see them arresting people for 'disorderly conduct' more than anything because it is a vague charge that encompasses anything that the cop doesn't like, legal or not. I've seen undercover cops exposed while trying to stir up trouble in order to try to build a case. Cops are no good.

C'mon Bill -

Doesn't this qualify as one of your "threads to pile on" categories? :

How about this :

-People exercising their freedom of speech (1st Amendment freedom of assembly) rights

CarloSW2