Critical Mass Gone Insane!!

This was my first Critical Mass and I am a believer! I will be back again and again to stand-up against the insane use of police force.

Bicycles are the best form of transportation, I expected a nice cycle through town, and I was blown away by the police. I will be writing the mayor, calling my council people, I am even going to call the police to complain.

We all should!

most folks, including the mayor, will not consider it a right to block intersections for the purpose of disrupting traffic. Why doesn't Critical Mass encourage folks to obey traffic laws? Imagine, 1000 cyclists all stopping at red lights, letting pedestrians cross streets, etc. Any cases against the police would be far easier to make, bystanders would come to view cyclists as fun loving, responsible people (aren't we?), and the presence of that many bikes would be no less impressive. Cyclists would have the moral highground we deserve. Has CM always been this way?

Hi. After being shoved to the ground by an overzealous cop,inhaling pepper spray, and seeing friends cuffed and taken away (just for riding bikes !!), I have a little venting to do myself. Could someone post the best contact phone #'s and emails to file complaint against katz, kroeker, and the local precincts that (mis)handled this event so terribly? thanks.

Corking seems to have always been a controversial topic. Stopping for red lights, though -- I think a large majority of CM probably agrees that the head should stop for red lights. Stopping for red lights in the middle, though, encourages cars to get mixed into the middle, breaking up the mass into individual bikelets. So, running red lights, when properly corked, is actually safer. It's similar to when cops cork for a funeral.

there is a Speak Out in the works... watch www.policeaccountabilitycampaign.org for more info coming soon.

The date is Sept. 10th, it will be posted it once we have a location. In the mean time, write letters to the editors of the NY Times, Oregonian, Post, etc, Kroeker, Katz, and all their cronies.

It opens up too many issues to be worth whatever benefit, IMO.

CM needs to have jail support set up so we can do solidarity and court room support. People who were arrested at CM's should plead not guilty and make a media specticle of their trail.

I encourage you to call Portland CopWatch at 503-321-5120. They will give you plenty of information about your rights in this instance.

Also, call Alan Graf, head of the Portland chapter of the National Lawyers Guild at 503-452-2375
(503) 452-2375. They are the people to talk to about this stuff in Portland. You can reach Alan Graf by email at  peopleslawyer@qwest.net

I also encourage you to contact the current chief of police, the mayor, and city council and their staffs to make a formal complaint. If you tie up their staffs' time you will get something done. Here are some addresses taken directly off the city website at:

 http://www.ci.portland.or.us/contact.htm



City/County Information Center
1120 SW 5th Avenue Room 104, 97204
Phone: (503) 823-4000; TDD: (503) 823-6868
E-mail:  cityinfo@ci.portland.or.us


Vera Katz, Mayor
Commissioner of Finance and Administration
1221 SW 4th Ave, Room 340, 97204
Phone: (503)823-4120
E-mail:  mayorkatz@ci.portland.or.us


Jim Francesconi
Commissioner of Public Utilities
1221 SW 4th Ave, Room 220, 97204
Phone: (503)823-3008
E-mail:  jfrancesconi@ci.portland.or.us


Dan Saltzman
Commissioner of Public Affairs
1221 SW 4th Ave, Room 230, 97204
Phone: (503)823-4151
E-mail:  dsaltzman@ci.portland.or.us


Erik Sten
Commissioner of Public Works
1221 SW 4th Ave, Room 240, 97204
Phone: (503)823-3589
E-mail:  erik@ci.portland.or.us


Gary Blackmer
Auditor
1221 SW 4th Ave, Room 140, 97204
Phone: (503)823-4078
E-mail:  gblackmer@ci.portland.or.us


Plus the current police chief Mark "I love L.A." Kroeker:

 chiefkroeker@police.ci.portland.or.us

Good luck! The Portland Police Bureau is out of the community's control, which as everyone knows, is their rightful place.

I really want to ask people who go to Critical Mass with the attitude of raising hell to think twice about this. Sure, motorism sucks, it's wrecking the planet, and millions of people turn themselves into cruel and inhuman robots everytime they get behind the wheel. It's all too easy to want to lash out against this. But Critical Mass is better treated as a legal, celebratory event rather than a protest. Here's why:

1) You don't need to break the law to attract attention
Enough motorists will get pissed off just having to share the road with bikes at all. You have the legal right to take the full lane whenever it would be
imprudent or unsafe to share it with a motor vehicle.

2) Many pigs are dipsh*ts, and they don't even know the law themselves. Many think you're supposed to ride in the gutter or the sidewalk. You'll get
enough harassment from them as it is just following the law. No need to actually give them something real to use against you.

3) The law only requires bikes to keep to the right if they are going slower than the prevailing speed of traffic. But, if most of the vehicles in the street
are bikes, THEY are by DEFINITION going at the prevailing speed of traffic! In that case, you should take as many lanes as necessary to
accommodate all the riders.

Sure, the pigs may still hassle you, but if they ticket you under these circumstances, you have a good defense in court. Take the case to the judge!

Now if they don't ticket, but instead assault you unprovoked in front of numerous eyewitnesses, and then as is typical, charge YOU with assault, not
to worry: You have lots of eyewitnesses! Again, take it to the judge!

All in all, breaking traffic or other laws at Critical Mass adds little but a pretext for legal repression, IMHO.
Furthermore, lashing out in anger at the dehumanized, robotlike motorized majority might provide you with some short-term satisfaction, but long term, it won't lead to more people wanting to quit their cars and ride bikes. More likely it will just harden the antisocial and self-destructive attitudes already ingrained in motorists after lifetimes of motorism. They will identify you, the cyclist, as the obstacle trammeling their blissful motorized glide through life, and by attacking them personally, this attitude of implacable hostility will be reinforced. It would be better to appeal to people's sense of basic fairness and enlightened self interest. "Share the road," "same roads same rules same rights," "lose 2000 pounds instantly!," etc. Messages like these, conveyed in a celebratory and friendly mood, will go much further to promoting bikes instead of cars in this country than displays of hostility.

i think that we are doing a grave diservice to our cause when we piss the mainstream off to the point that they are simply going to turn the other way when the cops get unruly for behavior that others deem inappropriate and even illegal.

when i was at the bush protest, i saw so much community support from those who happened to be in the vicinity. this was one of the best parts of the rally to me. these are the people that we need to reach and convince.

be a rebel with a cause but a smart one that is always one step ahead of the game.

I would love to "muddy the waters" and lash out at motorists as much as the next guy, however I believe anon is correct in suggesting prudence and tact. Confrontation will only tighten motorist's addiction to fossile fuels.
With the oil supplies thinning out eventually everyone will be on bikes ...unless the powers that be release those top secret "exotic energy technologies" to the public for peacful applications (disclosureproject.org).

It's interesting that there is a lot of talk here that maybe riders should follow some laws and not be purposely trying to provoke the motorists and others in "the mainstream."

That is exactly the idea behind the Wussy Mass, which also happened at the same time yesterday and has been for a few months now.
There were over 100 people at this alternate ride, which begins at the North Park Blocks. I was on it and I would like to note that there were no arrests or any police until the ride collided with the main Mass, somewhere around 2nd and Ash I think, where an arrest was happening (someone was being arrested for noise violation. ridiculous!).

Admittedly this may be because the police did not yet know about the wuss ride and/or were confused by it (which brings up a possible future strategy which I won't elaborate on here except to say: multiple simultaneous rides). However the other thing to note about the wuss ride is that the feeling was totally different. It was joyful, it was exuberant, it was friendly. Motorists and pedestrians are greeted with smiles, waves, and "thank you for waiting," rather than snarls and middle fingers. And it works - People smile and wave back, and there are far less ugly incidents with disgruntled drivers. There is an air of relaxed celebration rather than the deliberate conflict vibe that the regular mass has.

So I encourage anyone who feels like the cowboys and rebels-without-a-cause have gone too far: ride the Wussy Mass next month.

When I was like ten I perceived that owning a car, with its' liscence plate, driver's liscence and roving band of police men ready to pull you over at will, is the biggest source of control the state could have over you.

When the FBI called my sister, the second question they asked is "what kind of car does she drive?"

--

A group of friends and I were chilling on an awesome road trip in CA a few years ago. We wanted to go up and visit Julia Butterfly in her tree but we couldn't. Why? Because the cops were confiscating cars and frankly, we needed ours to go back home.

Why not develop your feet, your body, your lungs, your public transportation freedom and <I know, it takes a lot of will power, but...> drop the car?

You run red lights, you post on message boards that you are planning a mass action to run red lights during rush hour, and then you whine about being arrested?

What the fuck do you expect?

Don't you DARE associate yourselves with the brave an honorable individuals who were subjected to gratuitous police violence A22. YOU are responsible for the erosion of our civil rights by confusing the public mind between your idiocy and honorable activism.

Shitheads.

i was gonna stay outta this one, but, i mean, really! since when is running a red light grounds for physical abuse and arrest, not to mention pepper spray? just who's being ridiculous here? if any one of the people who were unfortunate enough to be involved in this police action had run a red light in a car, would the outcome have been the same?

perspective is a pretty important to keep when we are addressing our rapidly diminishing civil rights.

<You run red lights, you post on message boards that you are planning a mass action to run red lights during rush hour, and then you whine about being arrested?
What the fuck do you expect?
Don't you DARE associate yourselves with the brave an honorable individuals who were subjected to gratuitous police violence A22. YOU are responsible for the erosion of our civil rights by confusing the public mind between your idiocy and honorable activism.
Shitheads.

>Wake up! People RIGHTLY feel that this social system is based on a philosohpy of disimpowerment, the ideal of depersonalisation. We are bakers we are carpenters we are your friends, and for hecks sake we ARE THE CRITICAL MASS! I was at a22 as well. My black blocking friends were there, and I support them. What the hell are you thinking? We should stand aside, meander around in tacticly POINTLESS circles, chanting "Repeat after me?" Or maybee that our indignation at seeing our friends bieng pepersprayed is a tadd too confrontational? Or that we should obey the LAW that despises us, that is at war with our comunity, & with any community that smacks of independance? Or maybee that we arn't doing enough feel good outreach to the folks in suv's? Well I got words for you. First of all- stop lights are made for cars, not bikes, they have no functional porpose outside controlling the flow of automobile traffic.
Are we automobile traffic?
I don't feel that the porpose of the critical mass is to disimpower cyclists. Alowing the "law" in this case the lights- to break us up into three or four groups is tacticly DANGEROUS, and is akin to strapping signs on our back that say "Cops please beat, & arrest us." I corked and I directed traffic around the mass. I wasn't the only one doing this (if possible) and the general feeling was that we were showing people traped in thier cars a way out. In my eyes that's positive.
You say that we shouldn't "associate ourselves with the brave an honorable individuals who were subjected to gratuitous police violence A22." I'll tell that to my friend that got shot in the leg pulling some guitar carring "peace actavist" out from under a riot fence that the cops kicked down on him. And next time I talk to an anarchist that shielded a family from a blast of peperspray- I'll tell em to watch out- portland peace cops are gunning for you.

What's going on? First we got neo nazi bone heads trying to convince us that unions are anti anarchist- & We face that lie only to find peace cops trying to convince "actavists" that anarchists arn't thier friends and family but rather demonic shitheads out to fucking rob them of freedom. You sound like a cop, blaming the victim as usual.

I do! It's inhumanity and coercion and all sorts of nefarious stuffs that I hate.

When I was a kid, the street lights weren't timed that well. Nobody knew what to do: motorists, pedestrians, cops alike. Basically, there was a kind of anarchy, cars jutting, pedestrians breaking, and it wasn't that cool. Everybody became tense as a result.

Civil engineers have since developed a reliable, expansive method that gives equal time to all parties - and I frankly find it to be a great relief. I mean, do you really want this to be your fight? The right to prevent other people from making their left turns at a light?

Sleepy cell- In the time that it took to post and reload this page you posted a respose. You responded to my post in like 30 seconds? Wierd..

Yo bro, you're blinding me with science!

I agree, there just is some funkiness with this system.

That's all I'm sayin'.

"Ridiculous"? Good Name! You COINTELPRO agents crack me up. Spamming every Indymedia thread with all this transparent divide and conquer crap. Hahaha! Well, that cinches it: between you and Katz I know what to do -- buy a better bike so I can join the fun.

Hey Wake Up, get a clue dude. The rules of the road include bicycles. Bicycles are considered vehicles and, for the same reasons as a car, need to follow the rules of the road. It is exceptionally nasty when a bicyclist and car collide in an intersection. Equal Rights - Equal Enforcement - Mutual Respect.

Is it scheduled on the CM webpage, or is there a fixed starting point every month? Details, please.

<Hey Wake Up, get a clue dude. The rules of the road include bicycles. Bicycles are considered vehicles and, for the same reasons as a car, need to follow the rules of the road. It is exceptionally nasty when a bicyclist and car collide in an intersection. Equal Rights - Equal Enforcement - Mutual Respect.

>Rules- You mean like the laws that guarentee that we have equal protection UNDER THE LAW? Where was the equality for the Move family? Thier family was BOMBED by the pigs in Philly. Where was the Equality for the children of the A22 protest? For Rosebraugh as they draged him four blocks by his broken arm? For the countless SPECIES that die every year? For the Millions of refugees in africa displaced by floods we cause? For the pinguins starving to death on the north pole- as thier Rhode Island sized feeding ground falls into the ocean?
When we allow ourselves to be split into three or four blocks cause some folks want to obey the law, then we risk further abuse BECAUSE we obey the law. The authorities take great pains to break us up, and you want to help them? I for one will never respect any authority, or force, thats guiding principle is go forth and dominate. Yet, it seems you woud acuse us of doing just this. I say that on this mass, the majority of folks corking were directing traffic around the mass. If drivers got any more respect from us, the mass woud court destruction, we wouldn't be a critical mass, but minimal masses.

Hey all, why not get a special grant from some philanthropist out there to send some anarchists (choosing the ten "best" - that should be fun!) to a real live working anarchistic system -- I believe Albania and the Ukraine are now available.

They can go for a week and see how truly painfully soul-crushingly ridiculous a real anarchy is.

I'm actually not kidding. Addressing this constituency could have a real effect on calming down everything.

Well, I'm all for real "Anarchy", unlike 95 out of 100 posters here. Real, true, "Anarchy" is little kids fishing bombs out of streams to fish, and winding up missing a leg. Real anarchy is food riots and weapons confiscation by gangs, law enforcement or mafia. Anarchy is the price of goods and services being outpaced by the surplus of avaliable human beings. Anarchy is closed hospitals, schools, jails, and social services, while the strongest, most organized, and most ruthless criminal elements take over the basic means of production, without any laws in their way, and set up a Fascist infrastructure of their own.

You see, it all comes down to a basic "Altruistic" vs "Pessimistic" argument, this "Anarchy" you work so hard for...and, unfortunately for you optimists in the audience, Humanity just isn't quite that evolved yet.

But, again, I'm all for it. The weak and stupid burdens upon our species, be they white, black, yellow, or brown, will be culled, and the best and brightest might get a chance to start over. I mean, white Anarchists constantly cry about the unlevel playing field. Let's just accept that premise as correct. What better route to equality than mass instability and chaos ? When stronger, more remorseless, violent, and cruel humans push you to the back of the line in the humongous world-as-a-soup-kitchen of your wildest fantasies, just like they do in the real word microcosm of parity called 'Jail', you will have finally achieved what you have been whining about all these years.

It's like the old cliche..."Be careful what you ask for..."

anarchie
You make me want to cry.

I've lived in circumstances where authority is the dominant phelosophy. I've lived in other ways as well. Anarchy is not as polemic as you say. It isn't a case of black bloc versus white. Liberals are infested with cointellpro like a bad case of vd. You wonder why? Some of us think it's cause of your adherance to authority. The government believes that you hold sway over the radical community, and yet you sympathize with the authoritarin nature of government. This makes YOU the likely conduit to control US. The problem is we are you and the more you turn peace cop, the more you go fedbait, the more you have to watch your precious government cart your friends and family off for having militant views. Now the question is: Are you gonna let them gonna take one group, and then another untill at last they come for you? Or, are you gonna stand up and fight while you still can?

Anarchy is not chaos
Anarchy IS SELF GOVERNMENT
accuse us all you will of re-defining anarchy
but I will say that anarchy is in itself the act of resistance by defining your own life in the most free way.
Now you accuse fuedal gang warfare as bieng anarchy? I say struggles bear many fruit- Most often governments- some times freer societies- as in the paris comune-
Slavery, mobs, and tyrants, are NOT freedom! People can be free and not think for each other, disputes can be settled through debate, unless the depersonalization has gone so far that you must fight. But for every solution through regulation and government, there is a better one through empowerment and anachy.

Heck

I have been to Critical Mass on and off for the past 8 years. This was by far the biggest I have seen, and the police response was the worst.

Any way you look at it, no matter what your opinion is about the tactics or effectiveness of CM, the police (once again, just like at the A22 Bush gathering) responded inappropriately. Running red lights and such are TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS - you get tickets for those, not arrested! Pepper spray and rubber bullets (not used as far as I know, but their guns were definitely out on more than one occasion) are obviously way out of control. And just like A22 (as documented by mainstream media even!) there was no "violence" or "rioting" until after the police started going crazy. What are people supposed to do when cops start throwing people's bikes around and spraying them with pepper spray?

I also was trailing my 3 year old daughter around (there were plenty of other kids on the ride, too), and pepper spray and potential rubber bullets makes me even more furious. Totally unacceptable. We cannot stand for this. We also need to get rid of people like the cop who said after A22 that the people whose kids got pepper sprayed deserved it for bringing them there in the first place! (quote is in the last Willamette Week) I also heard one cop tell a rider that the cops are there because "we're sick of people being buttheads". He opviously has respect for the people and their rights.

I should also point out to those who slam CM because the ride blocks street FAR longer when the police are ticketing or arresting people than if it was allowed to proced peacefully (which I think it generally does). Cops blocked most of W. Burnside at least twice, eastbound Hawthorne Bridge, and other streets for 10 - 20 minutes at a time while giving out tickets (usually just one), making ridiculous arrests (one for waving a flower?!), and, in the case of the Hawthorne Bridge, for no apparent reason (no tickets or arrests were made, and then they let us ride over taking one of the "car" lanes!). Ridiculous, and it creates more traffic problems for everyone! (Which are probably then blamed on CM.) I am not into antagonizing motorists, but I am fine with staying together as a Mass even if it means going through red lights and taking over whole streets for a few minutes. They do it in SF all the time, usually with police escorts. (Not that we need an escort...)

I also think that most, if not all, tickets and arrests are dropped or not upheld. I got a ticket once, and the coward officer didn't show up in traffic court - a common result, I hear. Does anyone have any stats on conviction rates from CM "crimes"? Perhaps the CM site would be a better place to ask that.

Anyhow, corrupt police action will not prevent me (and my daughter!) from coming again and again. Hopefully it will not stop hundreds of other people from taking to the streets again!

i am so sikk of being called a critical mass protestor. i'm not protesting anything. all those other fukks can do what they want, drive their cars. i'm merely out to celebrate the use of bicycles, the riding of bicycles. maybe when they see my fun they'll get out of their cars, those others.

critical mass happens in over 200 cities around the world, usually on the last friday of the month. for more info, see criticalmasshub.com

for local info, see
 http://www.subluna.com/CriticalMass/

Many people that love bikes just as much as you have different takes on what positive change feels like. I felt very empowered by the actions of riders at the mass. We clearly have different ideas about what the mass is, but that's a good thing. Diversity is strength.

My heart yearns to accept your sentiments as reality. I mean, it sounds so simple, pure, so, just, human...this idea of a human species free of aggression and evil. A human race free of the need to hang on to bits of private property. A fairly bald monkey free of territorial
disputes. A species deviod of jealosy, envy, and petty trifling games laid out in advance for them by the more evil monkeys. A species whose languages and societal systems evolved free of the "might vs. right" equation which seemed to govern all the other animals, and gave that species a special dominion over nature free of this rule. A species capable of morality, judgement, and consideration of the very resources it depends on for survival, and even capable further of segmenting this basic survival-oriented type of morality into different types of morality which apply, all true in the given context, to the given needs of the individual in the group for survival, group acceptance, and self-realisation, in that order.

But, umm, where does this curious monkey find safety and acceptance outside of it's peer group ?

In political rhetoric; that's what.

Please, do, offer a few examples of mass groups of humans living in peace without a strong authority, for an extended period of time, without the inevitable takeover by more ruthless, strong, and organized humans. Human civilazations, the ridiculous counter-argument by Mr. Zerzan not meaning much, have always advanced by the iron rule of the cruel and strong.

Name one human "anarchic" endeavor that has stood the test of time and history...

After all, this was my central point. I do not disagree with your proposed utopia, but rather the idea of our ugly history suddenly reversing itself and presenting us with a real, workable blueprint for peace.

For every Paris "Comune", there are a hundred Soviet Gulags.

For every well-written Chomsky dissection of US Foriegn Policy, there are a thousand USA TODAYS.

For every vegan Anarchist, there are a million would-be-Hitlers.

All that we have to base our opinions and beliefs about human nature upon is our history. That's it. It is written in the loser's blood, but it's still there.

My point ? Again...Anarchy results in mass instability, results in tribal warfare and consolidation of resources by organized mafias, and eventually crushes freedom, by the well-documented rule of the mob. The little human, if he or she is lucky, in every example of long-term situations of anarchy that there is, manages to hold onto resources to temporarily survive until the next organized crime syndicate amasses enough power and influence to cloak itself in the robes of "government."

That's it. Name one, signifigant, long term example that contradicts this history of homo sapiens.

The Primitivist Argument of Mr. Zerzan would hold a little weight, if only the archeolgical data would support his idea
of a pre-agrarian "Golden Age." It simply does not.

Me ? I adhere to the Pirate school of economics...

Mutants evolve the species, simply. The unevolved slugs just die...well, that's cruel, I know...but I sure didn't invent this "Best of all Possible Worlds."

G' nite.

If you feel that you have been the victim of unnecessary police action, then report it. Portland has an independent police review board that is staffed by citizens, not the PD, or city workers -  http://www.ci.portland.or.us/auditor/ipr/

The system is, whether you want to believe it, or not, still weighted towards the citizens, not the government, but you have to use the power that you have the rights to. A few thousand complaints, in the City Auditor's office, is going to do a lot more good than bitching about it, here.

Okay, I know that nobody wants to stoop so low as to work with the system . . . but what about getting a parade permit for Critical Mass? City doesn't require insurance anymore, they waive the fee 99.9% of the time, and nobody is "held responsible." In return, you get the absolute right to block traffic along any route you want! And the cops? They HAVE TO BLOCK TRAFFIC FOR YOU!!!! FOR FREE!!!! Nobody pays for the cops when they block streets for permitted events like Portland Marathon, etc.. The traffic cops just have to work it and use OT from their budget.

Of course, this would only be a good idea if the ultimate goal of Critical Mass is to safely show the car-addicts how great bikes are and NOT how to break traffic laws.

The anarchy I speak of is not couched in some history book sorry. Like all words this word has meant different things to different people at different times. Your right, any time a free community steps up it's destroyed by authoritarians- In my mind there is no clearer arugment for community, for self determination, than to expose the threat with wich these ideas are viewed by authoritarian "civilization." That free communities are attacked is demonstratable. That we can be free needs to be demonstrated. If no one ever swallowed thier fear and faced authority then this species would have died along time ago. People have lived differently. Your right, this "golden age" you speak of is probably about as real as the one that the Hare Krishna's attest to. I believe that fear is government. I and many like me fear the chaos our culture has wreaked apon the earth. I want to face this fear. Anarchy is about empowerment, you want to do some next shit? If so maybee I'll see ya at the tugboat jazz house and brewery across from the church of elvis, a block behind where broaway and burnside intersect @9pm this friday.
I'm having a little getting out of jail gathering.

Michael b