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Aggressiveness of Bike Chases Stirs Questions for the Police (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/24/nyregion/24critical.html)
New York Times
February 24, 2006
By Jim Dwyer
Video link (http://video.on.nytimes.com/ifr_main.jsp?nsid=a677a2ff2:1099a7a849e:-53c2&st=1140759108937&mp=WMP&cpf=true&fr=022406_123210_677a2ff2x1099a7a849exw53c1&rdm=520998.94144122704).
The World Car Free Network has initiated a letter-writing campaign (http://www.worldcarfree.net/nyc/letters.php).
Related links:
FreeWheels (http://www.bicycledefensefund.org)
Time's Up! (http://www.times-up.org)
World Car Free Network (http://www.worldcarfree.net/nyc/letters.php)
This is an archived thread, you can find the full version of this thread, with images, links and more content
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I'd like to read it but without giving personal info to the NY Times..... why do they need to know what work I do and how much I make?
D
(30)
Paul Browne is such a dirtbag.
I wonder if someone stands next to him, to pinch him if he slips up and says something that is true.
Oh my, parading without a permit. What a bunch of criminals. Better lock them up, impound the bicycles and flog them. Hide the women and children - there is an parade coming and they don't have a permit!
I'm going to make a couple of cynical assumptions about all of this. I'll assume that obtaining a permit costs something. I'll also assume that one of the stipulations of the permit is that you must have a certain number of officers on duty to handle the 'event'. Alright, one more assumption - the officers must be paid overtime by the event organizers. Could all of this harassment just be a shakedown?
Glad someone already posted today's NY Times article.
This issue is something we should ALL be concerned about.
The Critical Mass crackdown is really about a crackdown on DISSENT. In NYC, and nationwide. Note that the Police/CM clash really heated up in August 2004 -- the night that CM coincided with the Republican National Convention. It has already been documented, in the NY Times and elsewhere, that undercover police and/or police operatives posed as ride participants and demonstrators, and that such operatives/officers actually were observed (on camera) provoking clashes with police. And in early 2003, right before the Iraq War started,
The scuttlebutt is that Mayor Bloomberg may have been cooperating with the Bush Administration in surpressing protests. I don't know for certain that that is true, but what IS clear is that the Mayor has given tacit approval to such tactics. Such a position would also jibe with Mayor Bloomberg's extreme position agains the Transit Workers Union in the recent strike (heavy-handed rhetoric while allowing Gov. Pataki's woeful underfunding and mismanagement of the MTA to go entirely unchallenged).
So much for the moderate or liberal Republican mayor -- a poor record on free speech and dissent.
Bicycle riders, whether demonstrating or not, are hardly a threat to national security. Or even local security. WHO DECIDED that this kind of over the top enforcement was a TOP PRIORITY? And for what purpose?
New Yorkers -- PLEASE: Contact your City Councilmembers and the Mayor's office. If we don't act collectively, if we don't make our presence known, it will get worse and worse for cycling in this great city. And more dangerous/deadly. It is that serious.
And JOIN TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES if you haven't already.
I meant to add that in early 2003, the NYPD, in apparent cooperation with the Mayor's office, needlessly surpressed the very large anti-war protest which more than 300,000 people attended. I've never seen a more peaceful and mainstream-looking crowd at any demonstration at all, yet the police used interlocking steel fences to corrall the crowd into immobilized splinters, while blocking tens of thousands of people from reaching the protests at all.
The right to dissent is a sacred American right.
Austin had the same problem with the police during their CMs. The bicyclists did what any good citizens did: by making their voices continually heard and eventually exposed certain policemen for what they were: bullies. And it didn't hurt to elect bicycle friendly politicians...
It amazes me that CM and bicyclists get harassed by City Hall and the NYPD. One day, they'll just find themselves out of office and out of work.
I've yet to see a policeman in this city write a traffic ticket to a truck driver, speeding automobile, or double-parked car occupying a bike lane. You'd think there would be more accolades (and incentives) for cars than bikes.
There's another thread around here about the scooter police crash and the aid given by a EMT on a bike in the CM. I think it is, as above, a crackdown on dissent. It smells like the 60's again. What point is having a protest if you have to do it on the power's terms?
Glad someone already posted today's NY Times article.
This issue is something we should ALL be concerned about.
The Critical Mass crackdown is really about a crackdown on DISSENT. In NYC, and nationwide. Note that the Police/CM clash really heated up in August 2004 -- the night that CM coincided with the Republican National Convention. It has already been documented, in the NY Times and elsewhere, that undercover police and/or police operatives posed as ride participants and demonstrators, and that such operatives/officers actually were observed (on camera) provoking clashes with police. And in early 2003, right before the Iraq War started,
Yawwwwn. So it's all part of the vast right wing conspiracy. And I thought my theory may be a bit far fetched. It's difficult to be taken seriously when moonbat conspiracy theories are thrown out to explain everything.
Bloomberg through the police commisioner tried to ban photography in the subways too..
I don't think it's such a crazy idea when the police in are injuring themselves in trying to split the CM by forcing them to stop at lights etc and effectively make the CM impotent with rolling walls of scootter trying to grab riders off their bikes. While it mightn't be a rightwing conspiracy ...someting is indeed going on at NYC's CMs. It has nothing to do with permits depite the retoric.
Yawwwwn. So it's all part of the vast right wing conspiracy. And I thought my theory may be a bit far fetched. It's difficult to be taken seriously when moonbat conspiracy theories are thrown out to explain everything.
Didn't they say the same thing about Communists? Left, right, liberal, conservative, libertarian, green, independent, commie, whatever. It's simply harrasment by a government wasting taxpayer dollars and ordering the police to chase down citizens on bikes because they don't like them!
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