You are hereVideo footage of the April Critical Mass police stop (and arrest), plus a few words of my own
Video footage of the April Critical Mass police stop (and arrest), plus a few words of my own
I just got permission from the videographer (Luke Iseman, who freaking rules) to post his footage from the last Critical Mass ride. This is a short 10 minute clip of his observations and his dealings with the police shot via cell phone camera, but what it captures says volumes about the police's willingness to push around citizens and try to intimidate them into bowing to their will. Check it out and let me know what you think:
REMEMBER: You ARE allowed to video tape and photograph police action as long as you are not directly interfering with the arrest/incident and you obey their orders when they direct you to do something (yay for police entitlement, eh?), otherwise they might arrest you as they did Michael.
I for one am not going to be intimidated or harassed by these "custodians of the law". I'll be there next month and I hope all of you will too. One thing though, lets try to leave the left lane free. Maybe that way police and people can co-exist peacefully. ;)
I did not see the tackle myself so I cannot comment on what lead up it. But I did turn around in time to see the officer picking michael up off the ground. And I did witness the technique the officer used by placing his vehicle close to the cars on the right side, thereby forcing people to cut left and right into his waiting arms.
I also witnessed front row as the backup officers pushed innocent people onto the side walks with their night sticks. Luke gets shoved on tape by one particular "ready for war" officer, though he had already complied with the request to get on the sidewalk at that point.
This is typical abuse of authority when responding to a complaint. plain and simple. The next few rides will definitely make for some interesting events I'm sure.
I didnt see what happened before the dude got tackled but I saw him get tackled and he was deffinately riding on the wrong side of the street and on the left side of the cop car.
I've been doing critical mass since the late 90's and I've personally witnessed lots of tickets issued and a few people get arrested. most of the people that I've seen get ticketed were taking up a left lane and purposefuly blocking traffic.
One thing I havent heard any one mention was the route we were riding when both police issues went down. we were seriously blocking some pretty major roads. out of all the critical mass rides that I've done that was only the 3rd or 4th time I've seen the group go north on guadalupe. I had never seen a ride go down lamar the way we did.
not saying we shouldnt take those routes, but with a group that big we should deffinately expect to get hassled when doing so.
As for stopping at the stop lights. well theres intersections where we need to stop and theres some where we dont need to stop. I personally ride with the motto of NO COP NO STOP. that goes for critical mass and just every day riding.
theres no need to discuss changing the way critical mass is done. its been done the same way for a long time and it should stay that way.
fixed gears are like butt holes, every one has one.
although i'm never a fan of doing things the way they've always been done, i am a big fan of civil disobedience and "no cop, no stop." i could really care less if we get a permit; it's just an idea from the city that started critical mass. i just don't think we should be surprised when the police show up with ruffled feathers if:
a) we aren't riding peacefully - a rider next to me tried to start a fight with a motorist on guadalupe. the motorist was an ass and deserved a karmic face kick, but the rider started screaming at him to get out of his car and fight. the man in the car was at least 30 years the biker's senior. i don't think they ended up fisting it out, but i'm sure this man called the pigs on us.
b) we block traffic on lamar during rush hour. that was the most unsafe i have felt on a group ride, ever. at one point, i looked around and i was surrounded by cars. the group had splintered and we were all spread out between cars...thank baby jeebus none of us got hit. pretty sure those people alarmed the pigs, too.
c) we break the law in front of pigs and give them a reason to show us how big their batons are, cause those pigs then called more pigs.
i do my share of law breaking, but as a brown person i like to keep APD out of it . i'm not trying to get shot or tazered!
with that said, i'm still coming to next month's ride and i'm bringing more friends....i just hope there are more bikes, more love, and less cops...
i watched the video and i saw the whole thing go down in person. the video seems to imply that the person who was arrested was on the right side of the road when the cop tackled him. this is not what i saw and i was right behind them. when we pulled onto that street and saw the cops blocking the left lane, two men (the arrested included) illegally crossed the double yellow line into the oncoming traffic lane in front of the cop. the cop raised his hands and told them to stop. at this point, both guys tried to weave away from the cop and this is when the cop tackled one to the ground. although i never, ever think it's ok for a cop to tackle a peaceful rider to the ground, the rider very clearly broke the law right in front of the cop and then disobeyed a direct order from an officer. i don't like to make excuses for pigs, but we really leave them with no choice but to harass us when we break the law in front of them and directly disobey orders. they're pigs, they love giving orders and having them obeyed.
i wonder what everyone thinks about getting a protest permit for the rides? the cop suggests this and it would mean we get an escort and lanes blocked off. has anyone ever tried? i know that critical mass in san francisco gets a HUGE motorcade of police escorts every month for their rides.
Thanks for your comment and eye-witness report. This is the first I'd heard that the two cyclists the cop was after had actually swerved over the double-yellow line and into the oncoming traffic lane. Disobeying a police officer is never a good idea (legally speaking, at least) because it seems that many of them carry a huge authority chip on their shoulder and just hate it when regular people don't cower and bow to their supreme will. Only give in as much as you're legally required to, or they'll walk all over you and your rights.
Heh, I can't even begin to think of the number of times I've had cars do the same thing to me while I was legally taking a lane, including my last accident where the guy clipped me coming back over the double-yellow lines due to the on-coming traffic. When he called the police out to the scene as he wouldn't surrender his insurance information they let him go without even issuing him a ticket, let alone carting him off to jail. Who'd have guessed?
Is Critical Mass a protest? I'm sure it is to some, but not all. For me it's a ride with friends. I'd rather not have a bunch of snooping police tagging along on me and my friends' ride. ;) I thought for police escorts you had to turn in a route path and such so that they could plan ahead. Critical Mass doesn't "plan" anything beyond setting a date and time for cyclists to meet. From there it's up to the mass.
So, the short version:
One dude gets tackled by a cop (while on his bike) for riding on the wrong side of the road, or something like that.
Another fella (very good camera work, I love how he gets the faces no matter what hand or where he's holding the camera) "whips up" his comrades and makes the cops pee their pants. Then, after the suited reenforcements arrive, he invites the cops to come along on next month's critical mass. (yikes!)
See, that wasn't so hard, was it?
-- rudeboy
(update)
I think the postscript ought'a be: A little less anarchy (you don't have to run every red light and stop sign, do ya?) while driving bikes like cars, and the cops won't be trippin' so much.
Heh, yeah to hell with having a police escort. Plus it's kinda hard since no one organizes the rides, there's no route, and no real destination either. Ok, how about this. We'll have the President of Critical Mass contact the cops next time he organizes a planned ride...
I'm with you on the less anarchy. I'm going to suggest at the next ride that if we come upon a stop light that's red or turning, we stop. That'll let the crew gather up and it hopefully won't piss off the cars as much as it does when we "take" an intersection. I don't see any way around corking intersections when the light changes as we're proceeding through though. Maybe that and leaving a lane free for automobile traffic will keep the police off our backs and on more important things, like busting hippie potheads or whatever it is they usually do.