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May 28, 2005

NYTimes: Mass Bicycle Ride Leads to Few Arrests

From NYTimes

By THOMAS J. LUECK and KAREEM FAHIM

The monthly Critical Mass bicycle ride, which has often been met by a large police presence and many arrests, began more peacefully last night and ended with a brief show of force by the Police Department. The ride included fewer arrests and what appeared at first to be an accommodating tactic by the police, according to people who took part.

By 9:15 p.m., about an hour after riders left Union Square Park and other locations to pedal en masse on the streets and avenues of Lower Manhattan, fewer people had been detained by the police than in past rallies, said Critical Mass supporters who observed the rally.

"We are really excited, and we are hoping this is a good sign," said Bill DiPaola, the director of Time's Up!, an advocacy group that is closely allied with the monthly ride, before hearing news of riders' being detained. Participants in the Critical Mass rally, who maintain that it has no formal organization, say they participate in the monthly ritual to promote pollution-free transportation.

When the riders began gathering about 7 p.m. in Union Square Park, the police appeared to avoid tensions, in contrast with previous rides, like the most recent, on April 29, when there were 34 arrests. Fewer than a dozen officers were in the park, and they could be seen chatting and even joking with participants.

It was unclear how many people took part in the ride, but a group of about 50 cyclists rode away from Union Square shortly after 8 p.m., traveling west on 14th Street and stopping traffic at intersections.

The bikers, along with a group of supporters, gathered less than an hour later at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, at Second Avenue and 10th Street, where they carried their bikes on to the church grounds to avoid blocking the sidewalks and provoking a confrontation with the police.

But soon after the church gathering got under way, more riders approaching on Second Avenue faced off with a group of officers. It was unclear what provoked the confrontation, but three riders were taken into police custody.

Derek Klevitz, 22, one of the riders who was detained, said in a brief interview that he had been knocked off his bike by an officer on a motor scooter, but his account could not be corroborated. Riders said they had seen at least one other cyclist knocked of his bike by an officer.

A spokesman for the Police Department said that officers had "only used necessary force to effect and arrest."

The police said that 10 of the riders had been arrested.

After surrounding St. Mark's with police vehicles for 20 minutes, the police dispersed shortly after 9 p.m.

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May 25, 2005

Indypendent CM issue out

The Indypendent - the Indymedia newspaper - focuses on Critical Mass in their current issue; check it out here.

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May 15, 2005

Newsday: Critical Mass duel intensifies

From NY Newsday

BY GRAHAM RAYMAN AND DARYL KHAN

Assistant Chief Bruce Smolka arrested a middle school counselor on the north edge of Union Square Park.

Lisa Kozlowski, 30, of Manhattan, was at a rally point for Critical Mass, a decade-old monthly bicycle ride, which has been the target of a police crackdown since last summer. By the police account, Smolka ordered Kozlowski's arrest because she refused to get off her bike and move it off the sidewalk.

Kozlowski's lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, says the police overreacted.

"She was grabbed by her shirt collar, and three officers picked her off her bike," Schroff said.

The same evening, over on Fifth Avenue and 17th Street, police stopped four fashionably dressed women -- at least one visiting from London -- who had been pedaling their bikes down 17th Street.

A police supervisor asked one of the women for her ID, inquired about her destination and released her and her friends after a few minutes.

"There's a bicycle protest going on inside the park, but we're sure you're not involved," he told them, according to a videotape of the encounter.

In other words, just another evening in the escalating struggle over the monthly ride. The battle between cops -- who say the cyclists need a permit and are violating traffic rules -- and cyclists -- who say it's a spontaneous event that breaks no laws -- began when more than 200 cyclists were arrested during the Republican National Convention in August. In the four rides since Jan. 1, there have more been more than 80 arrests. And as summer approaches, it seems clear that the duel will continue.

The arrests have sparked civil rights lawsuits from lawyers representing the cyclists. The city has sued a group called Times Up to stop them from "promoting" the ride. A week rarely passes without some kind of activity in either criminal or civil court. And in a kind of brinksmanship, both sides accuse the other of making matters worse with increasingly aggressive tactics.

While the riders say they yearn for the days of largely uneventful rides that took place before the convention, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has pressed a campaign to force them to submit to formal restrictions.

"The Police Department stands ready to work with Critical Mass and Times Up to provide for a route that would allow mass rides and the orderly control of traffic at intersections," said Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, a police spokesman.

Kelly and Browne have said that around the time of the convention, the character of the rides changed, with cyclists running lights and riding on the FDR Drive.

"They appeared to be hijacked by those determined to disrupt and block traffic, as opposed to the non-disruptive group rides that we previously experienced," Browne said.

Riders insist Critical Mass is spontaneous. Gideon Oliver, a lawyer who represents many of the riders arrested this year, says the police changed the tone themselves with their aggressive tactics -- chases, at times -- and an apparent policy of making arrests before misconduct occurs.

"You can't give a lawful dispersal order if no one has done anything to cause it," Oliver said. Beyond that, there are major philosophical differences.

"The roadways are designed primarily for the motor vehicles to travel in," Smolka testified in court in December. "Bicyclists are allowed to use the roadway also, but not to the exclusion of everybody else."

Bicycle advocate Steve Stollman says: "If you are following the traffic laws, then you are simply traffic. What they are saying is any spontaneous meeting of people requires a police permit and a flight plan. That's insane."

Some of the bikers have developed tactics of their own, such as starting rides at multiple locations and using cell phones and text messaging to coordinate the rides.

But the police operations each month are nothing if not extremely elaborate: a coordinated array of uniformed and plainclothes officers, undercover officers, orange netting, marked and undercover cars and vans, loudspeakers, helicopters, scooter squads and videotaping of civilians.

The officers are drawn from commands across the city. For example, while it was Smolka who ordered Kozlowski's arrest, the arresting officers of record were a captain from Patrol Borough Queens South and an officer from the Bronx South Task Force, records show.

Browne did not provide Newsday with the cost of these operations, but Smolka has testified that "hundreds" of officers are involved.

"We devote a large amount of resources, personnel and equipment to do this," Smolka testified, calling it necessary to preserve public safety.

This position has drawn skepticism from the other side.

"This is nothing more than a power struggle in which the police have decided that they must prevail," said Steven Hyman, a lawyer representing Times Up in the city's lawsuit. "Prior to last August, it is clear that there was no problem. The police were escorting the ride."

The deployment requires police supervisors to give lengthy arrest policy briefings to the officers. On the night of Kozlowski's arrest, a police captain told a group of about 35 officers that no officer should make more than three arrests. Officers, he said, should actually witness wrongdoing before making arrests.

"It's unfortunate we're all working Friday night," he told them. "But we're here to stop them from getting out of hand and talking over the roadways of the city."

Despite that admonition, some of those arrested maintain that they broke no laws -- or even comitted any traffic violations. Karen de George, 25, a fund-raising specialist from Corona, said she was arrested at the February ride before she even got onto her bike.

"I was with the group, and I started to walk out, when I saw the netting and someone tapped me on the shoulder and said 'You're under arrest,'" she said. "They left the plastic cuffs on for a couple of hours, and I didn't get out until 3:30 in the morning. No one told me what I was being charged with."

So far, de George has spent $750 on legal fees.

In January, Terri Carta left Union Square, stopped at the lights, but still was arrested within three minutes after leaving the park, her affidavit indicates.

In his court affidavit, Josh Cotton related how he and his friends decided not to ride but were corralled anyway in the orange netting soon after they left the park. He, too, was not told why he had been arrested. The Cotton arrest was later dismissed.

As the months have passed, arrestees seem to be more willing to go to trial. Kit Bland, who freelances in television and film production, has founded the Bicycle Defense Fund, which raises money for legal defense and loans bicycles to those who had theirs confiscated.

Bland has been arrested twice, both times fewer than two blocks from Union Square.

"Look, I believe in arresting people who break the law, and Critical Mass may be a pain in the ---- ass but it's not illegal," Bland said. "And it's not going to go away."

During his December testimony, Smolka was asked, "If 20 to 30 bike riders obey the traffic laws, do they have a right to ride where they want when they want?"

"You'd have to be more specific," he replied.

Smolka went on to say the legality of a group of cyclists using the city streets would depend on "location, time of day, traffic conditions, weather conditions, what else was going on."

Oliver, the lawyer for the cyclists, notes: "There is nothing in the law which regulates bike use in certain weather or traffic conditions."

As always, Gideon Oliver rocks. As does Newsday - great coverage, every time.

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May 06, 2005

Updates sloooow...

I'm travelling for several weeks; might be slow to get things posted here if there's any breaking news. Hope to see you all at the Bicycle Film Festival... and have you remembered to give to Freewheels lately?

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May 04, 2005

NYT: Flouting Arrest on 2 Wheels, for the Monthly Crime of Pedaling Without a Permit

From NYTimes

By DAN BARRY

BARBARA ROSS is 41 and lives on the Lower East Side. Several times a week, she straps on a blue helmet and rides her bicycle through the streets of this city. What a troublemaker.

It doesn't matter that she works in human resources for a large company, or that she votes and has a dog named Doc. Just check her name in the criminal justice database: two arrests within the last year, both while in possession of that insidious, two-wheeled invention, the bicycle - also known as a bike.

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Ms. Ross was nearly arrested a third time in March, but used her wiles to get out of a jam. Seeing the heat coming down the street, she chained her bicycle to a pole and ducked into a bar. All she could do was watch the sparks fly, as police officers cut the heavy chain with a special tool and confiscated her bicycle.

"I'm just an everyday person," she said yesterday. "But I like to ride my bike."

She even admits it. Typical bicyclist.

This city usually works like a trusty old bicycle, always able to shift gears for difficult hills on the horizon. But lately the wheels are not spinning smoothly. Something is broken.

For more than a decade now, cities around the world have accommodated a monthly event called Critical Mass, in which bicyclists ride en masse through the streets to enjoy themselves, promote transportation alternatives, and send the message that roadways are not just for cars. A supposed charm of these rallies is that no one is in charge. They are, like, organic.

The police here used to tolerate the rally, which takes place on the last Friday of every month. Officers sometimes held off traffic as a cycling cluster wheeled out of Union Square Park and looped through Manhattan streets. You would see parents cycling beside their children, and even a tandem or two.

All that changed last year. In late July, some cyclists caught the police unawares by disrupting traffic on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive. And in late August, on the eve of the Republican National Convention, a few of the thousands of rallying cyclists violated traffic laws and purposely blocked crosstown traffic in a practice called "corking." Scores were arrested, though very, very few of the charges stuck.

The police then tried to find a Critical Mass leader to establish an agreed-upon route and other ground rules. They were told that no one is in charge, although a direct-action group called Time's Up! promotes the monthly event on its Web site. Besides, a predetermined route would, like, violate the spontaneous spirit of the rally.

Uh-huh, said the police.

After years of allowing Critical Mass rallies to take place, the police began arguing that the event required a parade permit; without one, participants were subject to arrest. The department began using a helicopter above and orange netting below to play a crazed cat-and-mouse game playing out on pavement. Hundreds of otherwise law-abiding cyclists have now looked forlornly out the backs of police wagons.

THE cyclists bear some responsibility, of course. A few seem to enjoy taunting the police as much as they do running red lights. "And when you press them about observing the lights, they say you wouldn't arrest somebody driving a car," Paul J. Browne, the deputy police commissioner for public information, said. "It's sort of: We're breaking the law on one hand, but on the other, we're being treated more harshly than motorists."

But Ms. Ross, who is a volunteer with Time's Up!, spoke for many when she said that cyclists are essentially being arrested for minor traffic violations that would normally warrant only a summons. "If I went through a red light and got a ticket," she said, "what could I say?"

It's no longer about traffic flow, though. It's about control.

Once a month now, the police - who say they are willing to facilitate the rides if permits are obtained - surround Union Square. A chopper hovers above to track rogue packs of cyclists. Officers stand ready to snare bikers with netting, or to confiscate hurriedly abandoned bicycles. They arrested 34 people at Friday's ugly rally.

Meanwhile, city lawyers are seeking an injunction to prohibit Time's Up! from publicizing the monthly gatherings. Their astounding logic is that the cyclists gather in Union Square Park before each rally; large gatherings in city parks require special permits; no permits are being sought. Therefore, publicizing an unlawful event is - unlawful.

The wheels of this city are not spinning smoothly. Something is broken. The next rally is on May 27. It's a good thing that people on both sides wear helmets.

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Villager: Critical Mass tries new tactics, but not the police

From The Villager

By Lincoln Anderson

The monthly Critical Mass started out differently than usual last Friday night. There was a rally for cyclists’ civil rights, followed by a blessing of arrested cyclists. And instead of one big departure from Union Sq., the riders left from four different sites. But the city’s response didn’t change: Police showed no signs of backing down from their hard-line stance, making 34 arrests.

The night also saw what some called a “standoff” between East Villagers and riot-gear-clad police officers at E. Sixth St. and Avenue A, where police handcuffed and briefly arrested a New York Times reporter.

Before the ride, a “Still We Speak” rally was held in Union Sq. in response to the city’s recent court action to try to bar four members of the Time’s Up! group from publicizing Critical Mass.

“We submit bike riding without a permit is not unlawful,” said civil rights attorney Norman Siegel at the rally.

Siegel said they plan to file a counterclaim in state court next month against the city’s lawsuit against the bicyclists. The city is arguing that Critical Mass needs to get a permit to ride and a permit to gather in the park. Siegel said they’ll continue to hold rallies before the monthly rides.

“We have to say, ‘No way. We have a right to be here. We have the right to speak,’ ” he said. “Critical Mass will not stop.”

Councilmember Margarita Lopez, who represents Union Sq., the riders’ usual departure point, and other areas of Downtown that the unscripted Critical Mass events often travel through, announced she is introducing four pieces of legislation to close administrative code loopholes police are using to arrest the bikers.

“We know that in this country selective use of the law is not acceptable,” Lopez said. “All of these pieces of legislation I’m looking into have one thing in common — it’s protecting the Constitution, the right to ride bikes, the right to stand in here [Union Sq., a city park]. The right to private property — you can’t even lock your bike [without police cutting the lock].” Lopez vowed not to allow “a single loophole” to remain.

In blessing the cyclists, Reverend Billy preached, “You’re pedaling your bodies out into a city that has forgotten the First Amendment.” He prayed to “the goddess that knows how to fix bicycles” for their safety.

Police presence around Union Sq. was heavy. But the cyclists had already planned to split up and also depart from three other points — Tompkins Sq., Washington Sq. and Madison Sq. Word got out that police were waiting out of sight around Union Sq. and planned to “arrest everyone with a bicycle” in the square. A line of police mopeds were parked in front of Barnes and Noble on 17th St. as a loudspeaker truck warned riders they would be arrested for “riding in a procession without a permit.”

The group of cyclists that left from Madison Sq. cruised east then down through the East Village and across to the West Village. Moods were high as police were nowhere in sight. There was some opportunity to enjoy spinning through the city and comment on the scenery, though not all of it inspired positive reactions.

Zack Winestine, a Greenwich Village community activist, could be heard fuming about a “monstrosity” as the group passed the new, mirrored-glass Gwathmey-Siegel tower on Astor Pl., angrily muttering that a version of it was now being slated for the Greenwich Village waterfront.

“This is where Edgar Allan Poe got his morphine and laudanum fix — the Northern Dispensary,” announced Matt Levy, as they whizzed along Waverly Pl. “It’s my job to know this stuff. I’m a tour guide,” said Levy, sporting a kaiserlike moustache and a Tyrolean hat.

Joel Pomerantz, a mural organizer from San Francisco, said he delayed his flight to Europe for an extra day so he could ride in the New York City Critical Mass. He’s been riding in the San Francisco Critical Mass since its start in 1992, he said. About five years ago, police there gave up trying to rein in the ride and realized it was easier to just let it happen, he said.

“They just have a few police ride along at the end — to show they have some control,” he said.

The group spread out across avenues, forcing cars to slow down for several blocks, then peeled off onto sidestreets. But as a bus came up behind them, there were yells of “Bus! Left! Left!” and they opened a way for mass transit to get through. The rides block traffic to send a message that bikes have a right to safety on the road, and to feel powerful, too. There was a report of one cyclist being rammed by an angry motorist during the event, but the biker was uninjured.

On Hudson St., the Madison Sq. group merged with the Washington Sq. group to cheers — the bikers communicate by cell phone and text messaging to keep track of their own and the police’s whereabouts. Then they headed Uptown, all the way to Columbus Circle, which they rounded twice, while shouting “Stop Shopping! Start Biking!” as they flew past the Shops at Columbus Center in the AOL Time Warner Building. “Stop Eating! Start Biking!” they called out while speeding by restaurants.

But things began to be less fun in East Midtown after three undercover officers on bikes tailing the ride radioed for police mopeds to cut off and trap the Critical Mass at 46th St. and Madison Ave. The pack was broken up and smaller groups of riders headed back Downtown, with arrests being made as police picked off riders at various locations.

Obert Wood, a banker who lives in the East Village, said when they fled the police at 46th St., the officers yelled at them, “What are you doing, girls?” Not very professional, he and a few other riders with him who had managed to elude arrest, thought.

Earlier, Colin Moynihan, a Times reporter, was arrested after he had been standing at E. Sixth St. and Avenue A interviewing someone while covering the story. According to John Penley, an East Village activist who witnessed the event, an officer shoved Moynihan as police were clearing the corner and Moynihan asked for the officers’ badge number three times, after which a group of officers threw him on top of a police car trunk and handcuffed him.

Moynihan, who was released without any charges, declined comment.

Penley claimed he had started things by yelling at police after he saw them walking an arrested biker up Sixth St. Penley said right before that he’d seen three vans full of police roar up Avenue A and almost hit people, and he became indignant at the idea of hundreds of police chasing around the cyclists. Soon a crowd of East Villagers were shouting at the police, he said.

“Actually, it was me that started the whole thing going over there,” Penley said. “I started yelling at the cops about what a waste it was of our tax dollars to have vanloads of cops and helicopters following people around the neighborhood — and that people like the bikers in the neighborhood. It was just yuppies and old ladies yelling about it. People clearly see it as a big waste of time and money and don’t support it.” Apparently some police might agree: “A white shirt [supervising officer] came over and told me, ‘I’d rather not be doing this,’ ” Penley said.

Penley said three or four vanloads of police came in quickly and cleared the corners, during which Moynihan was “shoved pretty hard.”

Meanwhile, Alina de Laforcade, an artist whose boyfriend runs Holyland grocery store on St. Mark’s Pl., said that in Paris — as in San Francisco — the city is taking a more cooperative approach to a mass, human-powered event. Every Saturday in Paris, she said, “20,000 people” rollerblade around the city, up and down the Rue St. Germain and Champs Elysees, in a giant pack and that police facilitate it.

“The police, like, stop traffic so this group can go and rollerblade,” she said, as she showed some of her psychedelic, black-light murals to Noah Rider, a member of the St. Mark’s Pl. Art Commune. “So you have a car, you have to wait five or 10 minutes. But it’s fun to see — 20,000 rollerbladers. C’mon, hello!,” she said, as if to say this was obvious.

But New York isn’t Paris, it’s not even San Francisco, and under the Bloomberg administration the police are still chasing Critical Mass.

Speaking of Bloomberg, Bill DePaolo, a Time’s Up! member, was giving out stickers at the start of the ride: “I Bike and I Vote,” they said.

I still haven't found a cantidate for mayor I can support this go-round... but how about we start working on Councilmember Margarita Lopez for 2009? Kudos to her - if you're her constituent, be sure you let her know you appreciate her efforts!

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May 02, 2005

Bicycle Film Festival tickets!

Just got the email... tickets are now available!

Go buy them now!

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NYTimes: MANHATTAN: 34 ARRESTED IN BIKE PROTEST

From NYTimes

By Michael Brick

The police arrested 34 people at the monthly Critical Mass bicycle ride on Friday night, a police official said. Gideon Oliver, a lawyer who represents many of the bicyclists, said that all of those arrested were released with desk appearance tickets, which would allow them to appear before a judge at a later time. The ride is ostensibly a demonstration to promote using a means of transportation other than cars, but it has led to an increasingly tense series of standoffs with the police. Since Critical Mass organized a rally that swelled to 5,000 riders during the Republican National Convention last August, the rides have become a point of contention with the police. Arrests have become common, and the bicyclists have sought to evade police officers. On Friday night, more than 400 people gathered in Union Square Park and fanned out to locations in Lower Manhattan, including Tompkins Square Park, in the East Village, and Madison Square Park, in the Flatiron district. The arrests on Friday will not affect future rides, Mr. Oliver said, because "there aren't organizers such that you can in any consistent way change plans."

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May 01, 2005

April CM photos at UntitledName

William of UntitledName.com has got a handful for pre-departure photos from Washington Square on his site

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Newsday: 34 arrested in Critical Mass bike ride

From NY Newsday

BY LINDSAY FABER

A total of 34 people were arrested at Friday night's Critical Mass ride, the 12th anniversary of the movement, police said.

The 20 men and 14 women arrested were issued desk appearance tickets, police said.

The first warm-weather ride of the season, which happened to fall on the event's birthday, may have attracted twice as many riders, about 400, than the other monthly rides this year.

Though Critical Mass has been without incident since its inception , the publicity surrounding it has surged since last August's Republican National Convention, when a highly-publicized ride drew several thousand people and resulted in more than 100 arrests.

Since then, organizers of the event have wrangled with the Police Department, whose position is that the riders regularly violate traffic laws and parade without permit.

The continuing duel between the two sides has even made its way to a federal courtroom. In December, a federal judge dismissed the city's effort to force cyclists to obtain permits before the ride.

On Friday night, communicating via cell phone, the riders kicked off the event from various spots in Manhattan, including Union Square, Madison Square and Tompkins Square Park, possibly in an attempt to evade police. In the past, the riders set out together from Union Square.

The monthly promotion of pollution-free transportation occurs the last Friday of every month.

Geez - that last sentence is awfully risky! Doesn't Newsday know it's a crime to promote this thing?

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