Yesterday I went to the Still We Speak rally at Union Square before the monthly Critical Mass ride. (Flickr photoset here) Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU, Norman Siegel, former Executive Director of the NYCLU, City Council Member Margarita Lopez, and others spoke about free speech, free assembly and the city’s crackdown on bicycle riding. Lopez really stood out in particular for her emotionally-charged speech in support of Critical Mass and our rights as citizens of the United States to congregate and ride bicycles without police harassment. The guy on the left with the sunglasses mentioned how he would much rather be at home sitting on his couch watching baseball where he ‘belongs’ but instead, after being arrested twice for riding a bicycle (!!), he’s been busy organizing a legal defense fund for Critical Mass arrestees. Here’s a point that really put things in perspective: Legally cyclists count as traffic. Just imagine if the police arrested people for clogging the streets with cars.
The police presence at Union Square was heavy, including many undercover cops (who stood out like sore thumbs) and a police helicopter. Sadly, at least 18 people were arrested last night during the Critical Mass rides. From the New York Times’ coverage:
In one of the first arrests of the evening, a young woman who was straddling her bike and walking it out of the south end of Union Square Park was seized and personally arrested by Assistant Police Chief Bruce H. Smolka Jr.“You’re riding your bicycle on the sidewalk,” Chief Smolka said. “You’re under arrest.”
The woman protested that she had done nothing wrong. The chief insisted that she get off her bicycle immediately, and then he tried to pull her off. The woman argued, and then other police officers, some of them wearing plainclothes, joined the chief and forcibly removed the woman from the bike.
Ride participants tried to retrieve the woman’s bike and scuffled with police officers, who then arrested a second woman.
The sight of a senior chief in the Police Department struggling in a crowded public place with the woman roused the gathering of people.
Cries of “Let her go, let her go,” and “fascist state” filled the air, as Chief Smolka and other officers led the woman into a van. A line of 10 motorcycles then sealed the edge of the sidewalk at the intersection of 14th Street and Union Square East. The arrested woman began to give her name in response to a question from a reporter, but only uttered one word – “Lisa” – before she was pushed into the van and the reporter was forced away from her.
Chief Smolka is the police official in charge of southern Manhattan, and oversaw many of the mass arrests made in August before and during the Republican National Convention, including more than 100 arrests of bicyclists at a Critical Mass ride that swelled to include 5,000 riders.
Since then, the mass rides, which were conducted peacefully for several years before that, have become a point of contention with the Police Department.
There’s one image from last night in particular that I can’t get out of my mind. A few hours after the ride started, a group of cyclists passed by Union Square chased by several police cars and at least 3 police vans. As I stood on the corner and watched, a police car moving at high speed swerved in front of a young cyclist who was riding by himself by the side of the road and who was clearly obeying traffic laws. It was an incredibly dangerous and aggressive move by the cop driving the car. Luckily the kid on the bike avoided the car and injury..
Matt Ransford wrote about his experience riding last night here. Also check out Gothamist’s interview with
Matthew Roth a Time’s Up volunteer and bicycle enthusiast.
Here’s a gallery of photos including many of the heavy police presence.
