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Wednesday, October 24, 2007
One arrest at Tucson Community Bike Ride
Like Elizabeth, who posted below, I was at the ride last night. I drew the same conclusions she did but she was toward the front of the ride, and I near the back, so we saw some different things.

For example, I got to see local bike-celebrity Varo arrested, and his beautiful tall bike tossed unceremoniously in the back of a stock truck. He was arrested for not "staying to the right" on a narrow road that was packed with 360 cyclists and a dozen or so reckless motorcyclists representing, sadly, the City of Tucson.

It seemed pretty clear to me they singled Varo out for special treatment. They hung back toward the rear to pick people off without disturbing anyone up front. I believe it was a dry run for critical mass.

One reason I believe this is because I saw them, about an hour after the ride ended, in a parking lot assembling their vehicles. They had assembled several vans, a huge truck for picking up the bikes, motorcycles, unmarked cars, and numerous cruisers.

It's depressing that somebody finds this joyful expression of bicycles to be so threatening as to require arresting people and taking them to jail for minor traffic infractions that are, under the circumstances, impossible to avoid committing, but they do.

Let's remember that Varo didn't get arrested last night for not staying to the right. He got arrested for attending this bike ride and having the bad luck to be the one the cops singled out.

--Erik Ryberg

Posted by tucsonbikelawyer.com at 11:54 AM 0 comments