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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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 AmericaIn 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."
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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MANHATTAN: REPUBLICAN CONVENTION ARRESTS TO BE INVESTIGATED The Justice Department will investigate claims that the police violated citizens' civil rights in making arrests during the Republican National Convention last year. Responding to a request from the ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman John Conyers Jr., the Justice Department said in June that it would investigate his allegation that the police engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional conduct. The police arrested 1,806 people during the convention, and in most cases the charges were dismissed or the defendants acquitted. Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's chief spokesman, said lawful dissent had been accommodated.(NYT)
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 backAt 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 rollerInside 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 safetyOne 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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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.
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."
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.
AdvertisementMs. 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.
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!
]]>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."]]>
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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