Give me a break. You guys are just riding around terrorizing the City, blowing through yellow and red lights, trying to provoke the police, acting like sophmoric hoodlums. Here you are, living in the most bike friendly city in the country, and you're whining that you can't have your own way. Get a life!
Jane, perhaps terrorizing is a bit too strong of a charge? If Critical Mass proceeds through a traffic control device in
the same manner as a parade is it the worst possible evil? Maybe the riders deserved the forced take downs and the chemical weapons, I wasn't present but it would seem heavy handed. Would you understand if the police acted similarly towards you for a jaywalking ticket?
Portland has indeed been singled out by national magazines for being the "The most bike friendly city in the nation" and indeed it is better than most cities in North America. Having ridden in the city for 10+ years I have escaped most injury save some cut knuckles from a car door and some side impact from cars cutting me off in the bike lane. Most of my fellow cyclists however have sustained at least one significant injury from a car collision with car driver being in gross error. So once a month some of these folks take to the streets, as a demonstration, as a rolling celebration of cycling culture, more significant than any postive article in a glossy magazine. Yes the mass goes through red light and yes sometimes there are no free lanes to get around but at most it is a temporary inconveniance for others.
I have Just watched BBC's serious Newsnight program on UK TV (remember most people only have 5 channels in UK). They were doing a piece on the diversity of opinion within America and were filming in Portland. They used footage from the IMC and had on screen tagline showing "Portland Indymedia" for the full two or three minutes of footage that they used (Police forcing back and pepper spraying protesters even when they were moving back)
so well done Portand IMC!
Maybe I'm just crazy, but the reason for physical force and pepper spray might have more to do with the fact that bicycle riders didn't stop for the police or cooperate with getting a ticket. Run red light - get stopped - get ticket - go on your way. Run red light - don't stop - bad things happen. You want equal rights on the road then you have equal responsibility to follow the rules of the road. If you want to resist these simple rules for traffic safety, then just take your lumps and stop whinning.
My politics are considerably farther to the right than most CM riders. One thing that keeps me cycling for transportation and has motivated that for many years is the realization that a serious mistake of Western civilization has been the giving of wealth to Arabs. Cars burn oil. Oil money goes to two very bad groups of people--TExas oil fascists and Islamo-fascists of the mideast. Any American who opposes alternative (meaning, other than one person, one car) transportation is making a direct financial contribution to the Islamofascist terror war that has been aimed at us since long before the currently mourned September date. What autochauvinists fail to realize is that they are a bunch of fucking lousy Americans, and are also the best friends Al Quaeda has in this country. Crical Mass cyclists are patriots of the best, truest, deepest kind.
