August 31, 2005

Villager: At anniversary of Critical Mass crackdown, 48 arrests

The astonishingly awesome Jefferson Siegel comes through again at The Villager where he has this to say about the August ride, the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the police crackdown:

In August 2004, the Critical Mass ride before the Republican Convention saw 5,000 cyclists pedal out of Union Square. Two hundred sixty-four would be arrested, including many who gathered in front of St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery in the East Village. Subsequent rides have seen arrests totaling from eight to 37 cyclists each month.

A year later, one might think the last place someone would ride a bike would be in the monthly Critical Mass. But bike messengers, recreational pedalers, bike commuters and cycling advocates have proven to be a dedicated and obstinate clan of unswerving believers in their cause. Every month they continue to meet and ride. Their mantra, reflected in their stubborn refusal to back down from ongoing arrests, is also the title of a new documentary, “Still We Ride.”

Over the course of that year, tactics have morphed on both sides. Where the rides once left from Union Square and continued as a group, they now depart from various locations and often splinter into smaller clusters. The police, who would often lie in wait along the route and corral riders, now pursue the smaller groups in vans, unmarked cars and on motor scooters, often overtaking a group and forcing them to stop.

In addition, many cyclists and legal observers note the presence of undercover officers joining the ride, either to monitor its progress or facilitate arrests by calling in uniformed officers with their walkie-talkies. Bill Di Paola, founder of Time’s Up!, the East Village bike advocacy group, saw many suspect riders last Friday night. Di Paola is one of four Time’s Up! members who is being sued by the city for organizing the monthly rides; Time’s Up! claims they do nothing more than promote the rides.

Preceding the ride was another in a series of monthly Still We Speak pep rallies. Most notable of all the speakers was Norman Siegel, a candidate for public advocate, who updated the crowd of several hundred on the status of the Time’s Up! lawsuit. “Our position is, you do not need a permit to ride in the streets of the city of New York on your bicycles,” he said to cheers.

Last Friday’s ride left from several locations. The largest, with 300 cyclists, rode out of Union Square and headed south on Broadway. Lower East Side resident Barbara Ross got as far as Astor Pl. when, she said, “A whole group of police and scooters came out of nowhere and grabbed us.” She was one of the fortunate ones. Leaning her bike against a wall, she melted into a crowd of pedestrians and walked away.

Seventeen others were not as lucky. When the tail end of the group stopped at Third Ave. for a red light, an unmarked police car blocked their eastbound progress. Behind them, police on scooters appeared and surrounded them, ordering the riders to dismount and line up against the wall of Cooper Union.

East Village resident Michael Infranco has been on at least 10 previous Mass rides. “Waiting at the red light, perhaps foolishly,” he reflected, he was arrested for parading without a permit. Wearing a Transportation Alternatives T-shirt, Infranco stood in handcuffs while his bike was tagged as evidence and loaded onto a rapidly filling police truck.

Nearby, Claire Savage, a 25-year-old Hunter College graduate student, was on her first Mass ride. She said police told her to dismount and walk over to the wall. “I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t even know I was being arrested,” she recalled. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong.” Like other arrestees interviewed over the past year, she decries the unnecessary squandering of taxpayer money. “I think it’s an absolutely ridiculous waste of resources. It’s really disappointing.”

In the chaos of arrests on Astor Pl., a touching scene played out before bystanders and police. Philip Nayef and Catherine Ornstein, both employed in public health research, got engaged last month during a 500-mile bike trip through Alaska on a tandem bike. “We were meeting friends for dinner, we weren’t planning to do the ride,” Nayef said. They attended the rally and decided they would ride along as far as the restaurant. Just blocks from the restaurant, though, without warning, “the police just came in, essentially by storm, and surrounded us.”

The couple stood against the wall holding hands until police handcuffed them. As they waited to be processed, Ornstein occasionally leaned her head against Nayef’s shoulder. They would stay by each other’s side until reaching the Ninth Precinct. Shortly after midnight, they were reunited and greeted by members of Free Wheels, a group organized to provide aid to arrested cyclists. The pair was given fliers with legal information and loaner bikes for the ride home.

Nayef offered that police were patient and sympathetic. One said he was “just following orders,” he said. “We had conversations with them about how absurd the situation was.” Nayef noted one officer went so far as to criticize how manpower, time and resources were being wasted on the arrests.

Unfortunately, their ordeal wasn’t over. On their ride home to Brooklyn, Nayef was sideswiped by a speeding S.U.V. The auto sped off, but Nayef managed to have police catch the driver. Nayef was uninjured and the police were hesitant about filing a report but eventually did write up the driver. The couple were delayed another several hours by paperwork, finally arriving home at 3 a.m.

Another case of road rage was reported by Graeme McDonnell. Riding in the back of a group of cyclists approaching 43rd St. and Madison Ave., he was hit by a taxi. McDonnell was not injured but his rear wheel was crumpled. He walked to his nearby office and attached a replacement wheel. Later in the evening, he explained how he used his bike for work and commuting. Holding up his Bianci Eros, he proclaimed, “This is the company car.”

East Village musician Helen Stratford narrowly escaped the dragnet twice. She left Astor Pl. just before other cyclists were blocked in, and after continuing south on the ride, she pedaled away from another scene of arrests on E. Houston Street and Second Ave. “We’re out here endorsing a notion of transportation that’s environmentally and ecologically friendly,” she said after returning to Astor Pl. and watching the arrests with other bystanders.

Rachel Ekstrom, also of the East Village, was riding in a small group through Chelsea. They had been pedaling for only 15 minutes when, on 18th St. between Seventh and Eighth Aves., “I noticed a lot of cops on bicycles, but they weren’t dressed as cops,” she said. “They were standing by the other police cars. At the other end of the street the scooters blocked off the street and started arresting people.” Turning around, she saw that police had blocked off both ends of the street, effectively trapping the cyclists. “I hopped off my bike with a handful of other people. We went into a parking garage and hid behind some parked cars.” Her group avoided arrest but six others were arrested on the block.

At the ride after-party at St. Mark’s Church, East Villager Spike Appel screened a videotape for The Villager that was recorded as bicyclists continued down Avenue A. At Fifth St., an unmarked car pulled alongside the ride and a passenger pointed a video camera at the riders. When the ride reached Houston St. and Second Ave., police vans and unmarked cars were seen overtaking a group of riders. Police then jumped out of their vehicles and placed several cyclists under arrest.

In all, 48 cyclists were arrested Friday night, the largest number of arrests since last August’s Critical Mass arrests of 264. During last year’s convention week, a total of 410 bicycle riders were arrested.

The Police Department did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Last week’s ride came at the conclusion of two weeks of bike events. The Bike National Convention, organized by Time’s Up!, consisted of workshops, meetings and, of course, rides. One of many notable events was the Aug. 15 Ride of Silence. Participants stopped at several locations where cyclists have been killed the past year in auto accidents, including along Houston St. at Elizabeth St. and at Avenue A. So far this year, 12 riders have been killed in the city, more than all of last year.

On Aug. 23, cyclists dressed as clowns held Bike Lane Liberation Day, “ticketing” any vehicle blocking a bike lane.

On Aug. 25, Freewheels held a press conference by the courts to announce a letter-writing campaign to the mayor, asking him to address the rationale behind the ongoing monthly arrests of cyclists. Parked near the podium was a pedicab, which Free Wheels had arranged to be at Critical Mass for the mayor to ride in so he could observe the popularity and benefits of bicycling on city streets. An inscribed invitation and a DVD of the “Still We Ride” documentary were delivered to a city office in the Municipal Building. There was no response to the invitation.

The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

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August 29, 2005

Village Voice: Riding to the Rescue

From Village Voice

By Dara Colwell

With gasoline prices soaring toward $3 a gallon, New Yorkers might see cycling as a viable alternative if cyclists weren't repeatedly thrown in jail by the New York Police Department. Since last year's Republican National Convention, when the NYPD made headlines for conducting arrests at a pre-convention Critical Mass ride, the police have continued to pick up hundreds of cyclists, seizing their bikes and prompting ongoing protest. But now the debate has expanded overseas. Last Saturday, the World Carfree Network, an international organization promoting sustainable transportation, kicked off its "Free NYC Cyclists" campaign to draw global attention to the city's actions.

"We've been watching the situation for a year now, and it's obvious there hasn't been a local solution," says Arianna Farnam, a WCN staff member in its Prague headquarters. "We think this will have more impact than local campaigns because people in Europe see cycling as something worth supporting rather than suppressing."

WCN, which has member groups in 29 countries, initiated the campaign on August 27 to mark the anniversary of last year's preemptive roundup. Last August, Critical Mass was held two days before the start of the convention, which had already drawn thousands of protesters, and the NYPD reacted by seizing 264 cyclists in one of the city's greatest mass arrests to date. Of course, the RNC produced its own cache of arrestees—1,821 in total, the majority of whose cases were dismissed—but bicycle-related arrests have persisted. According to WCN, 518 cyclists have been arrested for participating in community rides since last August. Their bikes were also confiscated.

"For those of us experiencing this firsthand, it seemed appropriate seeking outside help. We want to draw attention to the outrageous policy here," says Sara Stout, steering-committee member in WCN's New York City office. "The city sees cyclists as a threat—it's effectively criminalizing us and not seeing the situation clearly—and we feel this campaign is an opportunity for them to learn something. We want resolution, not conflict."

For people whose radar has failed to pick up on Critical Mass, the loosely organized bike ride takes place on the last Friday of each month in 400 cities across the world and is usually held during rush hour to demonstrate cyclists' legitimate right to the streets. In 1993, New York City experienced its first Critical Mass, which continued to attract thousands of cyclists monthly without hitch—until last year's mass arrests. Since then, not a single ride has taken place in Manhattan without arrests or bike seizures, spawning multiple battles in state and federal court.

The city's reaction escalated in March, when it filed a lawsuit to try to prevent an advocacy group from publicizing the event—a move many cyclists saw as a means to silence discussion. The lawsuit also contended that the public could not participate in Critical Mass bike rides, claiming the event required a permit. But the legality of that claim remains unclear. Under New York law, bikes are considered vehicles subject to the same traffic laws as motorized vehicles. However, Assistant Chief Bruce H. Smolka, head of NYPD's South Manhattan Borough Command, has declared in court that he regards seven cyclists or more as a "procession," requiring a special permit.

"This problem is a human rights issue that concerns the world community," WCN's Farnam says from Prague. "From an international perspective, it's unlawful and unjust to arrest anyone for any reason if they're not breaking the law." Stout wholeheartedly agrees, saying, "It's already dangerous and nearly impossible to use a bike here, but to more or less criminalize it is just absurd."
Oxfam America

In Europe, cycling is seen in a wholly different, if not holier, light. While CN monitors and explores global car-free alternatives from Prague, the Dutch, for whom cycling is almost genetic, are experts. With 20,000 kilometers of designated bike paths, the Netherlands has made cycling a significant part of the national infrastructure. "We used to fight against the authorities, but now they ask us for our opinion," says Miriam van Bree, national lobbyist for Fietsersbond, or the Dutch Cyclists Union, an outgrowth of the Critical Mass movement in the 1970s and early '80s. "Everyone thinks the Netherlands is a cycling paradise, but if we didn't put bikes on the agenda they'd be forgotten. It's natural to cycle, but it's not natural to make policy."

As it stands, the Netherlands has one of the highest bike densities in the world. Its population of 16.4 million owns 17 million bicycles, and an estimated 3.4 million hop on for the daily commute. But it wasn't always so good for cyclists. "In Amsterdam, it has been a long and hard struggle. Every bike path has been fought for," says Natascha van Dennekom, policy maker at Fietsersbond's Amsterdam branch. Van Dennekom explains that cars dominated the city's roads until cyclists banded together, increasing their numbers and, gradually, their influence. "Now our views are considered."

For Pascal J.W. van den Noort, co-founder of the Anglo-Dutch foundation Vélo Mondial, which focuses on promoting bicycle infrastructure and planning, the advantage of cycling in this day and age is a no-brainer. "In Europe, we already pay $8 a gallon, and I promise you it will go up. That's also America's future," he says. "I know Americans can calculate very well, especially when it's their own money. It would be like stealing from their own wallets if they didn't consider where they were spending it."

Of the situation in New York City, van den Noort regards it as serious, but prefers to take a more philosophical approach. "I think Bloomberg and Pataki should sit down together with Bush and share their experiences," he says, referring to how the president has become an avid biker since a bum knee forced him to stop running. Bush recently rode on his ranch with Lance Armstrong. "They should start planning a cycling infrastructure and ask those being arrested to help sort things out."

Back at home, the cat and mouse game continues. But as the cyclists' plight gains greater attention outside New York City, that could change. For one, Still We Ride, a documentary covering the August 27 arrests, which has been shown locally by Rooftop Films, will begin touring Europe in mid September.

"Whenever we show the film outside New York, we're met with a 30-minute discussion, even though it gives an in-depth analysis of the situation," says Andrew Lynn, one of the film's producers, who was also arrested on August 27. "People are shocked—wait, why is this still going on?—but we say we don't know. I'd say this falls into a pattern of curtailing civil rights that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with biking—it's community organization."

As World Carfree Network launches its campaign, which includes a global letter-writing campaign targeting New York officials, one thing remains certain, says WCN's Farnam: "August 27 is when this begins, but that's definitely not when it ends."

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August 27, 2005

NYT: Monthly Mass Bicycle Ride Leads to 49 Arrests in Manhattan

From NY Times

By Jennifer 8. Lee and Matthew Sweeney

Forty-nine bicyclists were arrested last night in Manhattan at the monthly Critical Mass ride, the police department reported.

The rides are described by their organizers, the environmental advocacy group Time's Up!, as a demonstration to promote the use of transportation other than cars. The ride at Republican National Convention a year ago swelled to more than 5,000 riders, several hundred of whom were arrested. Since then, the rides have become a point of contention with the police.

Last night's arrests took place in at least four locations: Astor Place; Houston Street and Second Avenue; West 18th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues; and along West 34th Street. The captain who was overseeing arrests at Astor Place said the bicyclists were being charged with parading without a permit, disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic.

The Bloomberg administration says that the rides are large and not spontaneous, and thus require a permit. Lawyers for the city have requested an injunction against the rides. No ruling has been issued, but Time's Up! is in discussions with city lawyers.

The bicyclists, who have split into different starting points since the police confrontations began, began riding last night around 7:30. About 250 cyclists started in Union Square with 15 officers on scooters behind them. As that group moved through the city, officers from different directions converged on the group and bisected it, arresting bicyclists.

Time's Up! says that because the rides are demonstrations, they are subject to free-speech protections.

"People have a right to ride their bicycles on the street of New York," said Norman Siegel, a lawyer who represents the group. He is also a candidate for the city's public advocate.

"I'm calling on Mayor Bloomberg to intervene," Mr. Siegel said. "He has to tell the police department to chill."

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June 01, 2005

The Villager: Mass goes to church, senses grace period from police

From The Villager

By Lincoln Anderson

Closing in on the one-year mark in the city’s crackdown against Critical Mass, last Friday night’s monthly bicycle ride was one of the most lightly policed since the one before the Republican National Convention, when the arrests began.

At last month’s ride, the police presence around Union Sq. at the ride’s start was very high. Last Friday it was almost nil. A small knot of officers stood near the Washington statue casually chatting, as speakers, including Stanley Aronowitz, Norman Siegel, Councilmember Gale Brewer and Reverend Billy, trumpeted bikers’ rights. A few people in the crowd angrily objected, though, to an officer posted on the roof of Zeckendorf Towers who was surveilling the scene.

“Those streets are ours!” said Aronowitz, a CUNY professor who ran for governor as a Green three years ago. Aronowitz called for a total ban on cars in Manhattan, then modified this to a 6 a.m.- 6 p.m. ban allowing only bicycles, buses and taxis. “Mexico City, which is a Third World city, has restrictions on automobiles — and look at our city,” he said. It won’t be easy, he said: people will have to stand up to “the trucking companies, Wall St. and the tour buses” to get autos off the streets.

“I love bikes and I don’t love cars,” Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side, told the crowd. “I look forward to working with you to make sure there are fewer cars and more bicycles.

“The struggle continues,” said civil rights attorney Siegel, noting more than 500 people have been arrested for bicycle riding since last August, mostly in Critical Mass. A candidate for public advocate, Siegel is representing the bicyclists in their ongoing court case with the city, in which the city contends they need permits both to ride in Critical Mass and gather in Union Sq. and that it’s illegal for members of the environmental group Time’s Up! to publicize the unpermitted event.

“If I have a right legally to ride my bike on the street, I don’t need any government permission to do that,” Siegel said. “And we can’t allow the government to say we need permission to gather [in a park].” And if the city’s proposed ban to keep Critical Mass from being publicized existed in Colonial times, he added, the Boston Tea Party never would have happened, because, “No one could publicize that they were going to throw the tea in the harbor…. History tells us, you lose your fundamental freedoms, gradually, quietly,” Siegel warned.

About 7:30 p.m., the group of bicyclists in Union Sq. rode off west on 14th St. They joined up with others who left from up to eight other points, creating a nucleus about 300 strong and heading up to Midtown.

At St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, where an after-party was planned, valet bike parking was set up inside the church’s gates, so the sidewalks in front wouldn’t be crowded and so police would not saw bike locks to confiscate bikes as they have done at past Critical Mass rides. Red ribbon strung around a bust of “Petrus Stuyvesant,” who is buried in a vault below, stretched across the yard, marking the temporary parking lot, and numbered coat check-style tickets were given out.

“Part of the idea of us coming here is we’re under different protection here — it’s church property,” explained Bill DiPaolo, founder of Time’s Up!, as he taped up arrow signs directing cyclists to the parking.

Police hang back

At the April Critical Mass, police made 34 arrests, some right at Union Sq. as the ride was beginning. This time, police — at least at first — played it more low key. In an unusual step, apparently not wanting to tip their hand, they kept radio silence at the beginning of the ride.

“For the first time in months we saw less police presence or harassment,” DiPaolo said, speaking before the riders had arrived. “They just didn’t show up today. We know that there are police undercovers and agitators, scooters — but this is a half million dollar difference from what we saw last time.”

But eventually police did make some arrests as the riders passed through Times Sq. Later, right before the end of the ride, on Second Ave. near St. Mark’s, three more bikers were arrested, for a total of about 10.

As riders trickled in by Abe Lebewohl Park in front of St. Mark’s, Judy Ross, an organizer, shouted out “valet parking!” and waved them toward the church entrance. More than 150 bicycles were parked.

“A brilliant idea,” said a smiling Michael Rosen, a leader of the East Village Community Coalition, of the parking, as he munched a sandwich after finishing his second Critical Mass ride in a row.

The police arrived, too, briefly surrounding the historic, historically liberal church, with vans on 10th St. and a double row of scooters on Second Ave., while overhead a police helicopter beat the air.

Riders’ reports

Pulling in on her bike, Gabriel Silverman, 22, from the Lower East Side, attested the police had indeed been out there. One of the orange nets had suddenly popped up in front of them at 42nd St., she said, but they did a quick stop and got away. In addition to scooters, nets and helicopters, she said, there were also officers on horseback. Yet, she said of the police, “It seemed like they were being more tolerant.”

Kim Perfetto, another young cyclist, said the police presence was lighter.

“I asked one policeman who was riding a bike next to us — he was in uniform — ‘Are you arresting tonight?’ ” she said. “He said, ‘No, we’re taking a different approach.’”

The police soon left St. Mark’s, and the bikers continued socializing out in front. As music played from a boombox, a circle of young women danced under a streetlight, hardened bike chains — a de rigueur Critical Mass accessory — slung around their waists.

Holy roller

Inside St. Mark’s, Reverend Billy, the performance artist preacher and artist in residence, and his Stop Shopping Choir, gave a bicycle-themed show. They reenacted the 300 Critical Mass arrests during the R.N.C. ride; Billy canonized any arrested bikers who were willing; he baptized a baby named Liberty on a tricycle and prayed for her future safe cycling; and they held a memorial for Brandie Bailey, 21, who was killed by a garbage truck at Avenue A and Houston St. on May 8 while biking home to Williamsburg from her job waitressing at a W. Fourth St. vegetarian restaurant.

After the show, they went outside and Father Frank Morales of St. Mark’s read aloud a list of names of cyclists killed by motorists in the city.

“We could do this all night long, like Housing Works [which reads the names of people who have died of AIDS],” Reverend Billy said. “This is an epidemic.”

Morales suggested the community take matters into its own hands to calm traffic at dangerous intersections on the Lower East Side, where the area’s burgeoning nightlife scene means more people are potentially at risk of injury from speeding cars.

“This woman died on A and Houston, and I know that people are really doing a drag strip there,” Morales said. “I think we should take back the street and put ‘Drive Slow’ there and put up our own signs. Until we do something there, there’s going to be more accidents. Make it a 25-mile-per-hour strip, 14th St. and Houston St. Just slow it down, particularly [Avenue] A.”

Respect, and safety

One bicyclist, who gave his name as Will, 19, from Soho, said he witnessed a Critical Mass rider get knocked off his bike at Seventh St. last Friday night by an S.U.V., whose driver then tried to pull a hit-and-run. But a pack of two-dozen riders caught the S.U.V., a few blocks away, surrounded it and waited for police to arrive. Police didn’t make an arrest, though, he said, since the driver technically hadn’t fled — albeit only after being stopped by the bikers.

DiPaolo confirmed that a few bikers had told him of this incident.

Gideon Oliver, a National Lawyers Guild legal observer who monitored the ride, said he personally hadn’t heard about the incident, but that there had been a similar occurrence at the April Critical Mass.

A friend of Will’s, Tod Seelie said he knew Brandie Bailey — who rode a brakeless track, or fixed-gear, bike — from the restaurant.

“I saw her like two days before it happened,” he said. “She rode fixed. She was definitely part of the bike culture in New York City, and fixed-gear is a subculture.”

Both Will and Seelie felt the driver of the garbage truck should have been charged with involuntary manslaughter in Bailey’s death. In general, they say, when a bicyclist is injured or killed in a traffic accident, people assume the biker was at least partly responsible. Meanwhile, when a pedestrian is killed by a hit-and-run driver there’s a far more extensive investigation, they said.

“I’m here doing Critical Mass because I think it needs to be safer to ride,” said Seelie. “I’ve been hit five times. I’ve had a lot of close calls. That’s why I come out and risk arrest and getting my bike taken and spending my Friday night in The Tombs.”

Seelie, who lives in Bushwick and rides to his job as a graphic artist in the Village, said the city’s bike lanes offer inadequate safety.

“I wish my morning commute wasn’t white knuckle,” he said. “I wish I could just ride relaxed.”

Said Time’s Up!’s DiPaolo, “The number one concern of riders on the street is safety; and riding together creates safety bubbles and makes riders feel a lot more confident; and also will put pressure on the city to create more infrastructure for nonpolluting transportation.

“We want real bike lanes like they have in Europe,” said DiPaolo, “with no cars next to it. Real infrastructure — a raised lane for bikes. New York City deserves this.”

Yet, while the bikers feel last Friday’s ride went better and are hoping future rides will be more like it, the police say it’s status quo and that the enforcement will continue. Asked if last week’s Critical Mass represented any change in police tactics, Officer Doris Garcia, a police spokesperson, said, “No. The same thing we’ve been doing all along — nothing’s changed.”

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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.

Posted by at 11:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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

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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April 30, 2005

NY1: More Arrests At Monthly Critical Mass Ride

From NY1

Police say 34 people were arrested for disorderly conduct and other charges at Friday night's Critical Mass bike ride.

The event, which is held on the last Friday of every month, has been at the center of various court hearings in the past.

Citing public safety concerns, the NYPD has been trying to force riders to seek a permit for their protests.

Participants say the rally is meant to promote alternative modes of transportation.

They say the events are peaceful and that the city's attempts to stop them violate their rights.

"I've been doing this for about a year now and last year at this point it was the most peaceful thing I've ever been a part of. I mean, there was maybe about 600 of us in April last year. We rode out, it was a great night. And it's just about fun and having, you know, an activity that you can do outside," said one Critical Mass rider. "Now it's kind of gotten a little bit more depressing with the police clamping down on everybody."

Last month, 37 people were picked up and 50 bikes seized.

Before this latest ride, the Police Department released a statement saying: "As we have in the past, we will arrest people who are violating the law and endangering the safety of the public."

Video at NY1.

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NYTimes: At Least 18 Arrests Made in Tense Night of a Monthly Cycling Protest

From NYTimes

By KAREEM FAHIM and JIM DWYER

Under tense circumstances, the monthly Critical Mass bicycle ride set out last night from multiple locations in Manhattan, in an attempt by the riders to thwart a police crackdown.

The police did not supply arrest numbers last night, but a lawyer who works with the riders, Julia Cohen, said at least 18 were detained.

Up to 400 people, many of them without bicycles, had gathered in Union Square Park before riders fanned out to locations around downtown Manhattan, including Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, and Madison Square Park in the Flatiron District.

In one of the first arrests of the evening, a young woman who was straddling her bike and walking it out of the south end of Union Square Park was seized and personally arrested by Assistant Police Chief Bruce H. Smolka Jr.

"You're riding your bicycle on the sidewalk," Chief Smolka said. "You're under arrest."

The woman protested that she had done nothing wrong. The chief insisted that she get off her bicycle immediately, and then he tried to pull her off. The woman argued, and then other police officers, some of them wearing plainclothes, joined the chief and forcibly removed the woman from the bike.

Ride participants tried to retrieve the woman's bike and scuffled with police officers, who then arrested a second woman.

The sight of a senior chief in the Police Department struggling in a crowded public place with the woman roused the gathering of people.

Cries of "Let her go, let her go," and "fascist state" filled the air, as Chief Smolka and other officers led the woman into a van. A line of 10 motorcycles then sealed the edge of the sidewalk at the intersection of 14th Street and Union Square East. The arrested woman began to give her name in response to a question from a reporter, but only uttered one word - "Lisa" - before she was pushed into the van and the reporter was forced away from her.

Chief Smolka is the police official in charge of southern Manhattan, and oversaw many of the mass arrests made in August before and during the Republican National Convention, including more than 100 arrests of bicyclists at a Critical Mass ride that swelled to include 5,000 riders.

Since then, the mass rides, which were conducted peacefully for several years before that, have become a point of contention with the Police Department.

Police officials have sought to require permits for the rides, which are intended to promote pollution-free transportation. They have filed for injunctions, first in federal court and more recently in state court. And they have warned that riders who run red lights, block intersections or otherwise break the law will be arrested.

In recent months, a cat-and-mouse game has developed, in which the riders try to outrun the police by starting from multiple locations, using cellphone text messages to spread the word. These efforts have been met by increasing shows of force with police officers deployed on foot and motorcycle, and in vans and helicopters. Last night, all of them were darting through the narrow confines of Lower Manhattan.

Soon after the ride began, a freelance reporter for The New York Times, Colin Moynihan, was standing on a sidewalk at Sixth Street and Avenue A interviewing people when he was briefly detained and handcuffed. He was later released by the police without charges.

So it goes on - and they're still busting reporters (and legal observers?). Still looking for other reports... with NYC Indymedia down due to hackers, it's hard to get first-hand reports. Anyone?

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April 29, 2005

Gothamist interviews Matthew Roth

TimesUp! member, Siegel campaign volunteer, and CM lawsuit defendant Matthew Roth is interviewed at Gothamist today.

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April 11, 2005

Democratic Mayoral Candidates on CM

Democrat Gifford Miller doesn't look like much of an ally, though perhaps he just needs convincing; at any rate, he pretty much dodged the issue when questioned by the Gotham Gazette. Yes, it's terrific that he understands we have a First Amendment, but he refuses to outright condemn the harrassment of CM and/or to promise to end that harrasment if elected:

QUESTION: Once a month, Union Square Park becomes a war zone with a massive police presence surrounding the park and arresting people on bicycles. Will you end the existing NYPD/Bloomberg policy and work with Critical Mass they way they used to before the Republican Convention?

Miller: People have a right to ride a bike in this city, but they have to abide by the laws. We used to make it possible for people to march and do all things across the city before this mayor took office and the RNC came to the city. I was critical at the time and continued to be critical of the way the mayor welcomed the Republican National Convention but did not seem to understand that he had the responsibility to welcome those whose views were not on display at Madison Square Garden. It was OK for people to go to a Dave Matthews Band in Central Park, so it ought to have been OK to have protestors exercise their First Amendment rights in Central Park. We have to have a police department that works with groups to accomplish the kinds of activities connected to that.

Fernando Ferrer does slightly better:

Q: Follow up question on police. I submit that we are wasting huge amounts of money on the last Friday of every month with the police surrounding Union Square Park…. Will you change the existing policy of the mayor and police commissioner in working with the group Critical Mass?

Ferrer: I think the theory of preemption is as bankrupt in New York as it has proved to be in Iraq.

As the election season gears up, it's time to make our voices heard - and not just at the monthly rides. If you value your freedoms, you've gotta step up to the plate and get people elected who are ready to represent you and to protect your rights and the Constitution. I'm not ready myself to support any of the mayoral candidates - I just haven't found one I can tolerate - but I'm going to do everything I can to get bike-rights defender Norman Siegel elected to the office of Public Advocate and to get Eliot Spitzer elected Governor.

Posted by at 11:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 10, 2005

NY Newsday Letter to the Editor: Why bother the bikers?

From NYNewsday

Why bother the bikers?

The city schools are in dire need of adequate funding, and the subways are getting more expensive and providing worse service than ever before. Yet every month, countless precious taxpayer dollars are wasted locking down Union Square with barricades and hundreds of police officers in order to arrest bicyclists who peacefully gather for legal bike rides ["Bicyclists protest call for permits," News, March 28].

Critical Mass riders disappear from view 5 minutes after they pass an intersection. But our education and transit crises aren't going anywhere anytime soon with this mayor and his misplaced priorities at the helm.

Andrew Dzija
Brooklyn

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April 06, 2005

Villager: Bicyclists have an axe to grind over lock-cutting

From The Villager

By the always-awesome superjournalist Lincoln Anderson

Critical Mass bike riders are protesting that police did not give them summonses.

That’s what happened — or, rather, didn’t happen — when the cyclists went to retrieve their confiscated bicycles at a Police Department warehouse in Greenpoint last Friday and this Monday. They got back their bikes, but — contrary to what they had been led to expect when their bikes were seized by police during the March 25 Critical Mass event — did not receive summonses.
The bikers and their attorneys are calling this a violation of the restraining order issued last October by federal Judge William Pauley that barred police from sawing locks on bicycles and seizing the bikes without giving the owner a ticket. According to Gideon Oliver, an attorney representing the cyclists, they may sue the city over the latest seizures.

“Judge Pauley issued an injunction against these seizures in September — and [the police] did it again in March,” Oliver said. “It’s something that we’re certainly going to raise again in court.”

The federal case brought in September over police cutting locks and seizing bikes is wrapping up, with both the bikers and city moving for summary judgment.

Fifty bikes were seized and 37 arrests made at last month’s Critical Mass. Barbara Ross, whose bike was among those confiscated, said it quickly became clear police were planning a preemptive mass arrest of the bikers on 17th St. between Fifth and Sixth Aves. — just half a block from the start of the ride — so she locked her bike to a scaffolding. She and a friend went into an upscale Japanese restaurant — “They asked if we had reservations. We definitely looked out of place in our bike helmets,” she noted — and sat at the bar while they watched police saw their locks and take their bikes.

“They took every bike on the block,” Ross noted. “If someone not in the ride had had their bike there and came by later, they would have thought it was stolen.”

According to Oliver, the police are now claiming the confiscations of locked bikes is justified under a section of the administrative code allowing police to remove any “unattended box or bale” of merchandise on the street.

In a statement, Gabe Taussig, chief of the Administrative Law Division of the city’s Law Department, said, “In general, it is difficult to answer…questions regarding a potential lawsuit, since we don’t know what the legal basis for the threatened lawsuit might be. However, in regards to the recent Critical Bike Mass happenings, we believe that the N.Y.P.D. acted lawfully when they seized the bicycles.”

The city also recently brought suit in state court to try to bar Critical Mass from gathering in Union Sq. Park unless the ride gets a permit. Oliver said the event has no leaders and happens organically and so no one is likely to apply for a permit. However, he said there is talk by some — including civil rights attorney Norman Siegel — who has also been representing the cyclists, of requesting a permit for Union Sq.’s north plaza for April 29, the evening of the next Critical Mass ride. Oliver said the event would be a rally for free speech and against the city’s demand for the bicyclists to have a permit for 20 or more of them to assemble at Union Sq.

Once again the Villager comes through. It's rapidly becoming my favorite newspaper...

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April 05, 2005

Greens Defend Critical Mass: 'Bikers are not criminals'

The Green party rides to CM's defense!

Green Party press release

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green leaders spoke out against efforts by law enforcement to target Critical Mass, defending cyclists' right to assemble.

Critical Mass, which holds mass bicycle rides to celebrate the bicycle as a healthy alternative to the automobile, has been the target of recent mass arrests and confiscation of bicycles.

"Police could easily allow Critical Mass rides to proceed without incident, instead of disrupting them and arresting riders," said Henry Lawrence, past President of the Florida Bicycle Association and Florida Green Party candidate for Bay County Commissioner in 2004. "Cities should make every attempt to accommodate bikes. Cities face increasing traffic demands, the effects of car exhaust such as asthma epidemics among children, and global warming. Bicycles represent one of the best hopes for clean urban transportation."

At least 37 Critical Mass participants were arrested in New York City on Friday, March 25; riders claim frequent harassment by police and city officials in New York and other cities. More than 250 riders were arrested and at least 338 bicycles were confiscated during the Republican National Convention in August 2004.

"If bikers need a permit in order to gather in a public space, why isn't a similar permit required for cars?", asked Hank Chapot, archivist for the Green Party of California who has participated in Critical Mass rides in San Francisco, Berkeley, and London. "The permit requirement allows arbitrary arrest of bicyclists, including those who aren't involved in Critical Mass events but happen to be nearby."

"When you consider the double-edged permit requirement -- one from the Parks Department for cyclists gathering on a paved part of Union Square Park, and the second because the NYPD believes it to be a procession or parade -- add the two and what you have is zero public space for free association and expression," said Peter Meitzler, a registered Green and regular "masser" from New York City.

Greens called the suppression of Critical Mass and a recent New York City lawsuit to gag Times Up, a nonprofit organization that has mentored Critical Mass, part of a larger campaign to criminalize protest.

"We see a pattern in the increasing police suppression of public protest, the removal of anyone considered a protest risk from President Bush's public appearances, and efforts by public officials to vilify various groups, from Critical Mass to unions to AARP, that disagree with administration policy," said Jody Grage Haug, Washington State Green and co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "People have been banned from the President's 'town hall' meetings for wearing the wrong tee shirt or the wrong bumper sticker on their fenders or merely publishing their opposition to ideas like Mr. Bush's plan to privatize of Social Security."

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April 04, 2005

NY1: Bikes Returned, But Critical Mass Riders Remain Angry

From NY1

A group of Critical Mass riders get their bikes back from
police, but they're not exactly happy about it.

The bikes were among 50 that were seized during last month's
ride. Most were returned last Friday, but a few remaining
bikers didn't get their rides back until Monday.

The riders say they were never charged or even issued a summons,
and so they're considering a lawsuit for illegal seizure.

"I was not arrested and I was not doing anything illegal, but
the police still cut my lock with a saw and confiscated my
property," said Critical Mass rider Jamie Favaro.

"The police were basically told by a federal judge they cannot
take property without linking it to an arrest, and they're
basically in contempt of court for disobeying a federal judge's
orders," said fellow rider Michael Green.

For its part, the NYPD says the bikes were seized because they
were chained illegally.

A spokesman for the department says while they recognize the
inconvenience of having a bike seized, it can be avoided by not
chaining a bike illegally in the city.

Total bullshit from the City. Again. Doesn't Mike know this is an election year?

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April 01, 2005

Villager: With lawsuit and nets, city keeps chasing Critical Mass

From the insanely supportive Villager

By the insanely awesome Jefferson Siegel

In the city’s latest legal maneuver against the monthly Critical Mass bike ride in Manhattan, just days before last Friday’s ride, the city issued a controversial summons to four members of Time’s Up!, an environmental action group on E. Houston St. that supports, but claims it does not organize, the Critical Mass ride.

In the few days it has been circulating, the 13-page paper has raised concerns about more than just the legality of a bike ride. Buried in the legalese of park and parade permits is an item that has drawn a chorus of criticism from constitutional lawyers and activists. Under the “Third Cause of Action,” Item 40 claims, in part, “...it is unlawful to advertise the time and location of a meeting or group activity in a City park.” Concluding in the “Wherefore’s,” the city seeks to permanently stop “the defendants, and all those acting in concert with them, from advertising that Critical Mass bicycle ride participants gather in Union Square Park (or any other City Park).”

The four Time’s Up! members named in the suit are Bill DiPaola, Matthew Roth, Leah Rorvig and Brandon Neubauer.

DiPaola, who founded Time’s Up! 18 years ago, voiced concern on the day of the ride. “It is really shocking, where you have a bunch of people that have been working for free, over 100 people for 18 years promoting this city, that the city, instead of rewarding us, working with us on issues, has come out and filed a suit against us.” Standing in the group’s headquarters on E. Houston St., he continued, “If they deem something we do is illegal — we can’t talk about it, we can’t advertise it, or we can’t participate in it — that is just unbelievable and it shows the state of what I like to call corporatization of our public parks and our public spaces.”

Robin Binder, deputy chief of the Administrative Law Division of the city’s Law Department and an attorney involved in the lawsuit, said, “We believe that the claim that Time’s Up! is not a sponsor of the local Critical Mass bike rides is belied by its own actions, including the information contained on their own Web site. It will be up to the court to resolve this factual dispute.”

There was palpable tension in the air last Friday evening. As Greenmarket vendors packed up their fruits and vegetables, a handful of bike riders arrived in Union Sq.’s north plaza, which had been completely surrounded by metal barricades. Word of the city’s lawsuit had traveled fast on bike blogs and Web sites. On this night, riders were slow in arriving, uneasy about a potential crackdown. As they slowly filled the darkening plaza, Norman Siegel, a candidate for public advocate and the attorney representing Critical Mass riders, expressed his concerns at the language in the new summons.

“No court has said that it’s unlawful to stand in Union Sq. Park without a permit,” Siegel said. “If the city of New York succeeds here, it would have huge implications for social protest movements, not only in New York, but throughout America. For example, the idea that S.C.L.C. [the Southern Christian Leadership Conference], Dr. King, could not publicize and tell people to gather, to sit in at a lunch counter, that would have been unlawful at that time. People were challenging the idea of segregation. So the idea that you could not publicize the gathering to challenge unlawful laws is alien to what American history is all about and we will vigorously oppose that in the state court.”

As night fell, over 100 cyclists mingled in the plaza, talking but wary of the growing police presence just outside the barricades. A police loudspeaker broadcast a warning that riding in a procession without a permit would result in arrests. In a counterpoint, from the other end of the plaza, another booming voice caught the crowd’s attention. Striding into the crowd, clad in his familiar white suit and collar was Reverend Billy. The reverend, real name Bill Talen, a longtime activist and proselytizer against consumerism, gave the nervous riders a pep talk.

“What’s more peaceable than a bicycle? Hallelujah!” he yelled into a white paper megaphone. Lowering his voice a notch, but still serious in tone, he explained his presence. “The feeling that we cannot peaceably assemble flies directly in the face of a famous First Amendment phrase that has been defended for 250 years by everybody from Thomas Jefferson to Louis Brandeis to Martin Luther King. What they’re doing is they’re saying, ‘We will be the legislators — we the cops, we the police, we the city — we will be the legislators until the courts can catch up to our administrative mandate, and that might take days or weeks or months, but in that period of time, we will control you, we’ll impound your bicycles, and we will fly in the face of the Bill of Rights.’”

As if by some unheard signal, the riders pointed their bikes west and started pedaling out of the plaza. They did not get far. As soon as the first bikes entered 17th St., police blocked off the street with orange netting and stopped vehicular traffic heading down Broadway. Riders forced south were blocked by more netting across 16th St. A lucky few were diverted back into the park.

Stephen Rowley, an N.Y.U. student, was one of the first to be arrested. “I start biking around, trying to go and they netted a bunch of the exits. Basically, I was trying to leave the premises without participating in the so-called ‘procession’ and got arrested in the process of asking an officer how to leave. I was walking my bike.”

One block west, two members of Copwatch, a group that videotapes police actions at public events, pointed a camera at police spreading orange nets across Fifth Ave., creating a “tunnel” on 17th St.

Zachariah Artstein held the camera as he talked. “They [police] threw up nets on both sides of Fifth Ave. It looks like they set up a mass-arrest situation on 17th St. between Fifth and Sixth. Once they set up the nets they arrested five riders.”

Riders entering 17th St. saw a massive police presence ahead of them. Many dismounted; some locked their bikes to scaffolding poles, others walked their bikes onto the sidewalk. Hoping to avoid arrest by detouring into a through-block parking lot, they found the lot was netted and closed. Police kept moving everyone west towards a group of arresting officers.

William Laviano normally rides his bike to work in Chelsea. He believes police “created a mousetrap, sealed off every possible exit, trapped [riders] preemptively.” He was walking his bike on the sidewalk, he said, “when I realized I was in a cage already. I placed my bike against a wall, I didn’t chain my bike and waited for my turn to be handcuffed.”

As a line of riders stood handcuffed in the middle of the street, a power saw roared into life. Blasts of orange sparks shot out as police cut the locks of bikes secured to scaffolding poles. As a sergeant supervised the cutting of one lock, a man approached on foot and was given two options: either unlock the bike, receive an $80 ticket and walk away, or have the expensive lock cut, the bike seized and pay the fine when he came to claim it. He took the ticket and unlocked his bike.

Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the New York Police Department’s top spokesperson, explained the department’s rationale: “If you had a group of motorists who, every Friday, decided as a group they were going to ride as a group and violate traffic laws, I can assure you they would be arrested and their cars would be seized.”

Gideon Oliver, a civil rights attorney and legal observer for the National Lawyers Guild, spoke to the issue of lock-cutting over the roar of the power saw. “The seizures of these bicycles are extremely constitutionally suspect,” Oliver said. “It seems that the position they [the police] are taking is because they’re giving people summonses that, after they take the bikes, that constitutes good notice under the due process clause of the Constitution.” Tickets bore the name of the Environmental Control Board.

The N.Y.P.D.’s Browne commented, “We can seize bikes that are illegally padlocked. I don’t think it’s a constitutional issue at all.”

An unlucky tourist, Fran Corcoran from Philadelphia, was not in the ride but received a ticket. “I come to the city all the time with my bike,” Corcoran said. “I was up at the Met and then I biked down to the park. I had dinner in the Village, then I came over to this bar [Splash] where I usually have a drink and then I go home on the train.”

Hearing the commotion outside, he left the W. 17th St. bar to find his lock broken and his bike missing. Spotting it on the top of a pile of bikes in a police truck, he just managed to retrieve it. “I spent about $100 up here [in Manhattan] today, more than $100, and this is how the establishment of the New York area pays me back? It gives me a summons for another $80. I had no idea this was going on. It doesn’t end a nice day very nicely.”

Riders in handcuffs waiting to be photographed stood in a line in the middle of 17th St. They were asked to identify their bikes, which were then tagged and piled in the middle of the street before being loaded onto the truck.

Around 8:30 p.m., a paddy wagon and a police bus left for the Seventh Precinct on Pitt St. Thirty-seven riders had been arrested; 33 would be released by 4 a.m. Saturday morning. Four others were found to have outstanding warrants and were held until early Sunday morning. Some 50 bicycles were seized.

At a hastily arranged news conference Sunday morning at Time’s Up!, attorney Siegel and half a dozen riders who had been arrested spoke out. “Preemptive arrests are antithetical to American jurisprudence,” Siegel said to a row of TV cameras. Commenting on the city’s summons enjoining any publicizing of the rides, he said, “This argument is very troubling. It’s a prior restraint and a violation of the First Amendment.”

Binder of the city’s Law Department said the law prohibits more than 20 people from gathering in a city park without a permit. “Nobody has a First Amendment right to publicize unlawful activity,” she said.

Time’s Up! now burdened with growing legal expenses, held the first of several planned fundraising meetings at its headquarters Monday night. Lawyers plan their response to the lawsuit, and the constitutional issues it raises, by April 19.

“I don’t think the city gets it,” said DiPaola. “They think we’re in charge of it but it’s like the same kind of thing we did with the community gardens. I don’t think the city understands, we’re just trying to support sustainable community.

“They don’t want to provide the infrasturucture, the positive environmental and safe infrastructure for bicyclists,” DiPaola said. “It has nothing to do with the ride.”

As always, photos and more at The Villager.

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March 31, 2005

Newsday editorial: City riding hard on cyclers' freedom

From NY Newsday

BY CHARLES KOMANOFF

My wife and kids spent Purim at a Greenwich Village synagogue. I celebrated the holiday in a sausage joint near Union Square, hiding from the police.

Just outside my one-man shul, on 17th Street, dozens of bicyclists were being arrested for riding without a permit, in what the cops call a "procession."

The so-called procession is the Critical Mass bike ride that takes place on the last Friday of every month, starting in Union Square Park and meandering through the city for an hour or two.

I had been riding near the front when I saw patrol cars blocking Fifth Avenue ahead. I turned around only to see the cops spreading a giant orange net on Broadway, behind me. I was trapped in the middle of the block when a fellow cyclist grabbed my arm and walked me and my bike into the sausage place.

Safe for the time being, I envisioned my family at the synagogue, re-enacting Queen Esther's rescue of the Jews from the evil Haman of Persia. Life's little ironies: Haman built a 50-cubit gallows to hang the Jews, and this Jew narrowly escaped a 50-foot net the NYPD had strung to snare another embattled minority - New York cyclists.

Haman has become more touchy of late. Almost a hundred Critical Mass rides took place in New York City without incident after the rides started in the mid-1990s. But during the Republican National Convention last summer, demonstrators on bikes showed up in much larger numbers than usual for a Critical Mass ride, infuriating the police and, apparently, the mayor.

Although the rides have gone back to business as usual, the police haven't. With each successive ride, more cops have shown up, the nets have been brought out sooner and more riders have been hauled to jail.

The city has revved up its legal assault as well. Just before last week's ride, the city sued to forbid Time's Up, an environmental group that helps publicize Critical Mass, from telling anybody about the rides. Apparently freedom of speech, in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's New York, is no more secure than freedom of the streets.

So these rides must be a terrible threat, right? Well, maybe they are. Twelve times a year, we fill 10 blocks at a time with living, breathing people instead of faceless metal boxes. Who knows where that might end?

Seriously: What is the city's problem?

It's not traffic congestion, no matter what the city says. In the worst case - there are 1,500 bicyclists, and a driver arrives at an intersection one second after the front of the ride - he or she might wait out three light cycles, a one-time delay of five minutes.

Of course, the average delay is far less, and the vast majority of drivers experience no delay at all. In the crazy context of New York traffic, Critical Mass isn't even a flea bite.

Yet the NYPD is spending a fortune deploying troops and equipment - including helicopters! - against a few cyclists who just want to ride in the streets, as the law clearly permits.

But don't try citing the law to Asst. Chief Bruce Smolka, the top cop assigned to suppress the ride, unless you want to spend a night in jail. Smolka has said in court that, while any number of cars may legally occupy a street, if an equal number of bicycles show up, they need a permit. From him.

"The roadways are designed primarily for [motor] vehicles," Smolka has testified, ignoring a century's worth of clear-cut law that grants bicycle riders the same rights as motor vehicle operators.

Why does Smolka have such a thing about cyclists? Why did Haman hate the Jews?

The media describe Critical Mass as a protest against cars and petroleum, and so it is. But more importantly, like Purim, it's about freedom: a once-a-month chance to escape from the metal cage and get around under your own power.

And freedom, as we all know, has many foes.

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March 30, 2005

NY Press Editorial: FREEDOM TO RIDE

From NY Press

A few weeks shy of the NYC Critical Mass's 12th anniversary, the monthly bike ride is once again under attack.

On March 15, Ray Kelly, Parks Commish Adrian Benepe and the City of New York filed a fresh complaint to shut down the ride. (The last legal attempt to do so, spearheaded by the NYPD's Assistant Chief Bruce Smolka, was denied by a federal judge in December.) The new complaint, which names four TIME'S UP! activists and those "in concert" with them, seeks to enjoin anyone from promoting or advertising Critical Mass in any way. It also states that any gathering of 20 or more people requires a permit.

Civil rights attorney Norm Siegel has correctly decried the city's action as a blatant violation of the First Amendment, calling it "prior restraint" (no judge has ever ruled Critical Mass illegal). According to Siegel, Americans are subject to arrest only when we've broken the law, not before. Citizens, even ones on bicycles, have a right to gather peacefully and participate in legal activity. But instead of screaming foul play, New York Press prefers to give city officials the benefit of the doubt. Important folks like Ray Kelly and Adrian Benepe have a lot going on. Maybe it's only the more visible gatherings of 20 plus, like Critical Mass, that make it onto their cluttered radar screens and spur them to action in the name of public safety. In the spirit of good citizenship, we've compiled