(Updated May 4) How much longer will these mass arrests during critical mass in New York City go on? Doesn't the city have anything better to do with its police department?
New York's finest swooped in and arrested up to 34 bicycle riders during last Friday's critical mass ride, the 12th anniversary of the event, reports Newsday.
Among those arrested, and witnessed by The New York Times, was a woman who was stopped by Assistant Police Chief Bruce H. Smolka as she walked her bicycle on the sidewalk. Smolka drew a crowd as he scuffled with the woman as he pulled her away from her bike.
City Hall has been trying to bust up the event — held the last Friday of the month in cities across the country — ever since bicyclists demonstrated last summer while the Republican National Convention was in town. Police made 1,800 arrests, although many of the cases are getting thrown out of court, says the Times.
In its zeal to stop the critical mass bicycle ride, which has been known to inconvenience some motorists, the city has taken such Draconian measures as prohibiting publicity of the event — a clear violation of the First Amendment to free speech and assembly. You'd think Mayor Bloomberg, who got rich off his own financial business website, should be aware of First Amendment issues.
Naturally, the critical mass fight is all over the blogosphere. There are a number of eyewitness accounts on Bikeblog, gothamist and elsewhere, photos at Sucka Pants, and online discussions on the rights of bicyclists to ride on city streets vs. the threatening actions of large groups of riders at apophenia.
The Time's Up! website is also worth a look. That's the group against whom the city has filed a lawsuit to stop it from publicizing events that the city deems are illegal. The public affairs program Democracy Now also has reported on the issue. Here's a link to the last article in Biking Bis about the issue.
A Dan Barry column in The New York Times today (May 4) expresses some surprise at the problems between police and cyclists. He writes:
“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.”
That something might be the NYPD.
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