Police stated the tickets were for running traffic lights, and blocking traffic...
Clearly running traffic lights is a ticketable offense... "blocking traffic" can and should be examined for what it is... if the police think cyclists riding down the road are "blocking traffic," then those police need to understand that cyclists are traffic too.
Cyclist states: "its just a bunch of kids having fun... but the police are acting all adult and handing out tickets."
Yeah, sounds like great representation of and for the cycling community.
As far as Bike to Work day... don't run stop lights and there should be no problems.