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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.
Posted by at May 15, 2005 11:38 PM
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