Christ! Americans have an image of themselves as a beacon of freedom and tolerance to the rest of the world. Meanwhile, in New York, in one of the most free thinking of all American cities, we cannot even tolerate a procession of bicyclists, who in good fun, good faith and good spirits, not to mention good excercise... show that we don't have to spend money to feel good, that we don't have to burn fossil fuels and destroy our atmosphere to get around, and that taking to the streets as a community gives joy... is life affirming.

After going to other countries in Europe and elsewhere, as seeing how much freedom they have with regard to dissent and protest, coming back to America does sadly feel like a police state under lock down, with a population that drugs and numbs and distracts itself to forget how few options we really have.

This latest measure fits the pattern of criminalizing dissent, a pattern which has been intensifying since the anti-WTO protests in Seattle in 1999. (A helluva an uprising that was!) The intolerance for dissent in this country got really rabid after 9.11 and continues to suffocate the aspirations of those who take seriously the First Amendment. The U.S Constitution protects our right to freely assemble so we don't need your permission Kelly! We also have free speech, free expression, and free press (not solely in terms of the free enterprise system either...)

And yet those who gather to voice an opinion or express themselves in "the land of the free" face police intimidation, are threatned with arrest, or brutalized, or simply not allowed to gather. If NYPD's Kelly has his way, things will continue to get worst. The cops in this country have way too much power. That's why they think killing young black boys is okay. The police state in America (including the world's fastest growing prison industry) is incredibly sadistic and out of control. Hey, we're the country that brought the world Abu Grahib. What else you got up yer sleeve fellas?

What I learned from traveling is that people actually push back in other countries and fight back. They don't just accept each curtailment of their freedoms and rights with resignation, a sigh and a shrug as we so often do here.

Fascism creeps in on cats paws someone once said. Give em an inch, they'll take a mile, someone once said. A frog in water doesn't know that it must jump out as the water slowly heats to a boil until it is too late to jump. So the lesson here is, we're getting cooked and it will be too late - and we must start pushing back hard now.

First they take your rights, then your country, then your imagination, your soul, your life... everything.

Don't forget the taxpayers don't ask Kelly or Bloomberg for permission. We the people, tell THEM what to do! They got the guns but SO WHAT?! They can't kill us all.

Posted by: warcry at November 29, 2006 12:54 AM

This is an interesting situation for one who has attended Critical Mass rides in San Francisco many times. In that fair city the rides were tolerated as a typical liberal pie in the sky fantasy protest by a few nutcases. Most motorists and tourists were amused and considered it another San Francisco attraction, especially on Halloween when the majority of riders would go in costume. Usually only a few fistfghts or other incidents would occur, such as tourists on the cable cars tourists dumping beer on cyclists and yelling "GET A JOB". (How appropriate for the ignorant to yell these things at dedicated cyclists who have given up their cars to get to work or use them for their livleyhood.)

In 1997 the new "liberal" mayor, Willie Brown, with his new shining city on the hill was upset about being made late to a dinner by a Critical Mass ride. He got on the television later that weekend and denounced cyclists and made very unpleasant comments disparaging their character and voting ability. Clearly the gauntlet had been thrown and after watching the news conference I saw the inevibility of what was to come. I stayed away that July evening but my prediction came true. Tired of being treated like blacks under Jim Crow laws, cyclists came from all over the Bay Area to make their displeasure distinctly known. The end result was 7,000 to 10,000 VERY ANGRY cyclists rampaging across the city. I remember seeing guys on the TV jumping up and down on the hoods of cars in their race kits and cleats, trashing one car after another while the motorists sat in their cars paralyzied with fear. Fistfights were happening at every street corner South of Market. Other large packs of riders, from 250 to 1000 at a time, were moving through the city with the pure intent to cause "vehicular carnage." Paybacks are a bitch was the general consensus, and 250 cyclists not involved in the physical carnage were arrested in a trap like cows led to slaughter. It got the attention of the city and the Bay Area in general. Mayor Brown ate some serious crow the following week appearing in a news conference wearing a bike helemt and paraphrasing Rodney King, "Can't we all ust get along!!??" The mayor and the police tried to seize all the arrested cyclists bikes but were refuted in court in the stongest terms against illegal search and siezure.

The upshot of this was that the politicians realized exactly how many of are out their and they had better pay attention or else. So almost 10 years later things have improved considerably but are still not as friendly as they could or should be. New bike lanes in San Francisco have been held up by the enviromentally misguided who filed suit against lane changes without an Environmental Impact Report. (Somepeople just have too much time on their hands.) I hate to advocate violence but as Hunter Thompson once remarked about violence, drugs, and alcohol, "it worked for me"

Best Wishes,

Sympathetic soul in San Francisco

Posted by: Greg at November 29, 2006 4:29 PM

"—but some speakers tried to establish a conciliatory tone. "Y'all don't have to do this and I hope you can find another way," said biker Roger Manning."

It wasn't my intention sound "conciliatory", though my tone certainly was not an angry one. Regarding the quote in the above article, it was at the end a series of remarks that stated, amongst other things, that many of the cops know very well that Critical Mass is not a problem and that it effectively "polices" itself. Over the 10 years the ride has been around the cops have been involved and uninvolved in varying degrees and they know very well that these rules and what they've been doing since 2004 is bulls--t.

I also pointed out that there's 300 - 400 cities around the world with monthly Critical Mass rides and look at "fascist New York!..". Of all places to be backwards, it's us thanks to the wanker cops.

Posted by: roger m at December 1, 2006 10:12 AM

C NNECTING THE D TS

Has anyone made the connection between the two Police Department events on Monday?. One was a mockery of a “Public Hearing”, intentionally scheduled on a day, - after a major holiday, - and at a time, - mid-day - calculated to minimize participation. In the auditorium at Police HQ, walls lined with 30 officers, in and out of uniform, scores of people testified, after being x-rayed and escorted, before a panel of three silent and impassive officials. Every last one of them said, in their own way, that the Police could not, and should not, attempt to squash bicycling and protest by taking over the role of defining what a permitted event is. There was not a single voice raised to defend or even explain what these “rule changes” constitute. Many said that this is, in effect, a kind of attempted paramilitary coup, weakly resisted by an overly-compliant City Council with an ambitious Speaker. (Thankfully, six members, out of 51, defied their leader and testified. Others may have submitted written testimony).

The undisputed target of the Police’s newly claimed powers is the urgent need to control cyclists, riding together for safety, on our notoriously hazardous streets. Oddly, because the City does so little to lessen the mortal dangers posed by multi-ton machines operating at illegal speeds and with minimal regard for the health and safety of pedestrians and cyclists and wheelchairs, the Police argue, more limitations must be put on both cycling and free expression. The illogic here is as clear as it is cruel: If this was a case of multiple child abuse, the recommendation would consist of severely punishing the children for complaining, and than taping their mouths shut to help them keep their future thoughts to themselves.

What makes this so ironic is that, at the very same moment, a few hundred yards away, in City Hall, a police union official was attempting to explain away 50 shots, one fatal, being fired at a fleeing vehicle, by saying that this car constituted “deadly physical force” being used against them. While none of the five officers involved may have been, at that point, in its direct path, this car had to be regarded as potentially homicidal in its impact and needed to be shredded with gunfire to protect their lives.

The eerie silence at One Police Plaza, where nobody employed within is permitted to speak a word on policy without the express permission of their superiors, may well be the most unimaginably unsuitable venue, for the rest of us to feel at ease expressing ourselves fully and without fear, as our Constitution proudly proclaims is our primary right. Still, against all odds, it appears that the most articulate message coming from the Police community itself this day, is remarkably similar to our own perennial mantra:

Automobiles are so dangerous, that the strongest actions taken, to defend ourselves against their imminent lethality, are justified*

*We couldn’t agree more. Isn’t it obvious, that any time one of these, out-of-scale, urban unfriendly pollution machines is being operated in an irresponsible and treacherous manner, by speeding, blocking crosswalks and roads, being overly aggressive and menacing, emitting excessive noise and noticeably toxic by-products, it is the highest-priority duty of every police officer to make certain that the person inside is sober and coherent, and that they have proper insurance and are not driving on a suspended license. Then, of course, it is necessary, to get out the summons book and start writing, or even temporarily take possession of the machine, and peaceably detain the driver if there are bad enough infractions involved. Respect for the law will be increased immeasurably. The city will get a lot of money to help pay their employees. Most importantly, the city will become a safer and far more welcoming and friendly place. In response, police officers may expect suitable gratitude from all those passing by, on foot or cycle or wheelchair, who are quietly and carefully trying very hard to get from one place to another, while having minimal negative impacts upon their budgets, neighbors and home planet.

Posted by: Steve Stollman at December 2, 2006 12:30 PM

Way to set set an example for those fighting wars over seas to bring freedoms to others while you are taking them away from those that call your so called "land of the free" home.

Posted by: JR at June 19, 2007 1:35 PM

It's a sad time when our freedoms are being erroded away, especially the very freedoms that let us put the government in their place. That was the very POINT of the constitution, that to bequeath the power into the hands of the PEOPLE.

To strip the power from the people sets up a form of government that is no longer democratic, but a dictatorship. Having elections that are questionably "free" every two/four years for our congressmen and president doesn't automatically make a country democratic.

Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand, but freedom and security are polar opposites. When the ballance between freedom and security gets tipped too much into the favor of security, there comes a point when the public rebells (or flees or does something else). This is how revolutions in other countries started, history is never wrong and we never learn from our mistakes.

Our country is ripening for dramatic changes.

Posted by: phys431 at August 8, 2007 12:31 PM