EnigManiac

First, I want to thank you for your support in this thread, ghettocruiser. There have been a number of valid responses that seem to neither condone nor agree with CM so your words of understanding are gratefully acknowledged.

I appreciate the difference in opinion with those who misperceive CM or simply don't agree with it. Perhaps they don't see that every day is car day all day and for two hours once a month a group of cyclists choose a Friday night after rush hour in an area not congested with car traffic as the work-day is done and few are rushing home to their kids, so the impact is minimal, meet for a ride. Traffic signals were obeyed, but if the group was about to be separated due to a traffic light changing, blockers politely asked drivers to hold on and wait for the cyclists to continue through en masse. No hostility, no threat, no aggression, no extremism was displayed. Unlike the police. Every cyclist there had all their safety equipment, so it is unlikely that during the harassment any tickets were issued, but a scant few may have been. I didn't get details from everyone.

The difference between Darkmother and what we did is very clear. We did not run reds or amber lights. We all had fully equipped bikes with lights, horns, etc. And we only challenged the police AFTER they insisted we observe rules that are ambiguous and open to interpretation and began throwing their weight around needlessly, threatening needlessly and groundlessly and unfairly targeting the group. No-one was abusive or offensive to the cops that I saw. Ours was a peaceful ride. One CM participant was arrested for not providing his name. I don't know why he didn't. When I was asked, I gave my name. I didn't feel I had anything to be ashamed of or needed to hide. Darkmother by his/her own admission became argumentative and uncooperative with the cop, did not stop at the amber/red signal and did not have a fully equipped bike.