BIKE: 100 Cyclists Are Arrested as Thousands Ride in Protest

[Michael Bluejay]

All other sources say it was over 250 arrests.  More coverage on:

	http://CriticalMassRides.info

-MBJ-


On Aug 28, 2004, at 4:37 PM, watcyc wrote:

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> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/28/politics/campaign/28protest.html? 
> pagewanted=print&position=
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> August 28, 2004
> PROTESTERS
> 100 Cyclists Are Arrested as Thousands Ride in Protest
> By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
>
> Thousands of cyclists rode through the streets of Manhattan last night  
> in an
> anti-Republican, pro-environment display of bike power that ended in  
> more
> than 100 arrests by the police after the ride blocked some streets.
>
> Despite tension over police warnings to obey traffic laws against  
> blocking
> traffic and running red lights, the cyclists - numbering 5,000, the  
> police
> say - did just that in a meandering course that started at Union  
> Square and
> wound its way to the West Side, Central Park, Midtown and the East  
> Village.
>
> As of 11 p.m., Paul J. Browne, a police spokesman, said that officers  
> were
> still processing people who were detained, but that he expected more  
> than
> 100 people to face charges, mainly for disorderly conduct.
>
> The arrests, two days before the convention starts, seemed to herald a  
> busy
> period for the police, who must patrol a stream of demonstrations  
> large and
> small, several each day. The police on Thursday made 22-convention  
> related
> arrests, more than three times the number during the entire Democratic
> National Convention in Boston.
>
> The police apprehended riders in several spots, including more than 50  
> on
> Seventh Avenue at 36th Street near Madison Square Garden, where the
> Republican National Convention will be next week. Riders had chanted  
> "No
> more Bush" as they passed, and participants in the ride, a monthly  
> fixture
> for several years, said that many more people than usual took part,  
> out of
> animosity toward the convention.
>
> The two-hour ride began about 7:15 p.m. in Union Square with a  
> cacophony of
> bells, whistles, hooting and howling, and the police seemed to  
> tolerate it.
>
> An hour and a half into the ride, the police patience appeared to grow  
> thin,
> as helmeted officers dragged netting across Seventh Avenue and 14th  
> Street
> to block the ride.
>
> Hundred of cyclists at first gathered by the net and then most turned  
> west
> on 14th Street and south on Greenwich Street and kept riding toward  
> the East
> Village.
>
> As the ride backed up, the police arrested dozens of people on Seventh
> Avenue near the Garden on charges of blocking streets, saying some  
> riders
> had stopped traffic on side streets to let the larger mass through.
>
> More arrests took place at the end of the ride in the East Village,
> including along Second Avenue outside St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery Church,  
> where
> cyclists gathered for a celebration of the ride and shouted abuse at  
> the
> police who were arresting their companions.
>
> "Ninety-five percent of the ride was beautiful,'' said Bill DiPaola,
> executive director of Time's Up!, an environmental group that  
> participates
> in and promotes the monthly ride. "People were cheering us on the  
> streets,
> but at the end it was difficult to funnel people off and it was very  
> clear
> the police were upset at how well the ride went.''
>
> The ride is known as a Critical Mass, a bike ride that claims no  
> organizers
> and simply materializes, thanks to leaflets and Internet messages, on  
> the
> last Friday of every month. The rides have been held in New York for  
> the
> last several years, and are usually tolerated by the police, who in  
> the past
> have cited only a few riders for traffic violations and have sometimes  
> even
> escorted the group.
>
> The rides are meant to protest cars and their pollution, but the ride  
> last
> night was advertised as the R.N.C. Critical Mass, and scores of riders  
> wore
> clothes or carried signs with messages against the convention and  
> President
> Bush. Others wore fanciful attire, like a woman who rode in a peach  
> wedding
> dress. One woman pushed her friend in a shopping cart.
>
> Abby Lublin, a 28-year-old schoolteacher from Brooklyn, decorated her  
> bike
> with a bust of Mr. Bush, hanging by a rope and attached to a milk  
> crate.
>
> Dick Camacho, a photographer, wore a rainbow cape with the message,  
> "We the
> people say no to the Bush agenda." But like most riders, he emphasized  
> the
> desire to send a message to motorists.
>
> "Its a rush to see bikes take over the streets," he said.
>
> Before the ride began, police officers distributed fliers outlining  
> traffic
> laws related to biking, and a commander had sent a letter this week to  
> a
> leading bicycling advocacy group expressing concern about the growing  
> size
> of the ride and increasing violations of traffic laws.
>
> Several police officers trailed riders in the front of the pack, which  
> broke
> up into at least three masses shortly after the ride began. .
>
> Bicycles could form a pivotal part of the coming protests.
>
> Apart from the ride last night, Time's Up! has called for a Bike Bloc
> tomorrow in solidarity with the large Midtown antiwar march organized  
> by
> United for Peace and Justice. The group suggests riders meet at Union  
> Square
> before the march for details.
>
> The group also plans to ride around ground zero tonight during Ring  
> Out the
> Republicans, a protest expected to draw people ringing bells, and on
> Tuesday, a day expected to be devoted to civil disobedience.
>
> Time's Up! has also prepared several bikes to be used by "street  
> medics,"
> legal observers and food servers during convention protests.
>
> "The main thing we are pushing is that bikes need to be thought of as  
> an
> integral part of how people get around," said Brandon Neubauer, an  
> organizer
> with the group. "We are just trying to raise awareness in the city that
> bikes need to be looked at and respected."
>
> In the past few weeks the group has been operating a makeshift  
> workshop in a
> storefront at 49 East Houston Street, strewn with bicycle parts,  
> fast-food
> containers, anti-convention posters and leaflets and T-shirts with  
> messages
> like "One Less Car."
>
> Mr. Neubauer said he did not believe bicycles block traffic, "because  
> we are
> traffic."
>
> "We are reclaiming public space," he said.
>
> The Police Department warned yesterday that it was illegal to ride in a
> procession on public streets without a permit, or to ride outside of
> designated bike lanes.
>
> Earlier in the week, Michael Scagnelli, chief of transportation at the
> department, sent a letter to Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy  
> group
> promoting bicycling, walking and public transit, warning that the  
> police
> would not tolerate lawbreaking.
>
> But organizers of the rides said that most people were law-abiding, and
> suggested that the police chose to crack down because the ride last  
> night
> was expected to be larger than usual.
>
> Critical Mass rides began 12 years ago in San Francisco and have since
> spread to more than 300 cities around the world, organizers say. Rides  
> have
> been organized for the last eight years in New York, and only  
> occasionally
> have riders received tickets, participants said.
>
> "Most of the time the police accommodate us," Mr. DiPaola said.
>
> Paul Steely White, of Transportation Alternatives, said he believed the
> growing size of the rides had aroused police concern because of the  
> blocked
> traffic.
>
> "We saw it coming as the rides have been growing,'' Mr. White said,  
> adding
> that he found it paradoxical that any crackdown on riders would come  
> at a
> time when the city's Transportation Department has advised people to  
> use
> bikes as an alternative because of the heavy traffic expected near
> convention sites.
>
>
> Colin Moynihan, William K. Rashbaum and Judy Tong contributed  
> reporting for
> this article.
>
>
>
> Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
> <The New York Times Washington Campaign 2004 Protesters 100 Cyclists  
> Are Arrested as Thousands Ride in Protest.url>
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