so our Tuesday night community rides have grown so large that of course the pigs are now in on it. last night, the ride leader announced that the po-po would be riding with us on bikes, escorting us on motorcycles and supported by patrol cars..

we all cheered. we thought it would be great. thinking that we now are important in other's eyes.

W-R-O-N-G

the entire ride was filled with cops on motorcycles stinking up the air with loud engines, exhaust fumes, blazing lights, speeding back and forth too close to bike riders, reving engines and constant "STAY TO THE RIGHT" through their loudspeakers. they became intimidating and controlling rather than *******. they also took over the planned route. it sucked. at one point we all reached a big parking lot where we stopped to regroup and wait for the whole group (300+ riders) and i just kept waiting for the gas to start pouring in or the fingerprint station to appear. i was done with it. turned around to start heading back and it was at this point where i noticed they brought a po-po bike paddy wagon. a huge trailer for carrying all the bikes they would be confiscating. riding back, i also saw the vans they would be using for arrests and how big of a deal it was. mind you, this is not a protest ride... simply a community slow ride after rush hour (8pm). never has an entire street be taken over by us and there has only been one confrontation (that happened on campus with some gangsters) which ended peacefully.

about 1/4 mile further i noticed a commotion and saw a tall bike laying on the ground and the pigs all excited like they had just arrested someone. i think they are gearing up for Friday's critical mass ride (the first in a while here in Tucson) where they will be ready to bust heads.

i think the Tuesday night ride is done for. i hope nothing else happened after i left, but as long as the cops are there--> i won't be. fuhck that. (any other tucson riders here have more to add?)

so my advice to you all is keep your rides small and underground unless you are riding a critical mass... cuz johnny law is waiting for you to do something wrong.

You guys should have made it a 2mph ride.

that sucks.

Or start splitting up and taking different routes until the cops get tired of trying to sort it out and go away.

Police Presence Causes More Danger for Everyone
Last night at the Community Bike Ride it was announced that we would have the Tucson Police Department riding with us to ensure safety and additional protection on the road. In response to this news over 200 riders clapped and rang their bells. A friend turned to me and said, "If they are supportive of us I'm all for it." I shook my head in agreement.

The ride began and we were not even off of the University of Arizona mall before policemen on motorcycles with their lights flashing, drove right up beside riders, commanding through their speakers to "Stay to the right," and "Move over to the right." It was shocking and unsettling. An officer on motorcycle revved the engine while passing me and I was so startled I swerved, luckily not into another cyclist. Not only were the officers commanding through their speakers to "Move over to the right," but they were threatening riders with citations.

The policemen on motorcycle that were riding among the cyclists would actually accelerate and pass cyclists on the left, at speeds three to four times faster than any of the bike riders. There were a couple of tangles in the ride as well and if anyone had fallen from their bike while these policemen were accelerating past them, someone would have gotten killed. I witnessed an incident that came too close for comfort. A rider had to swerve to the left a bit because a rider in front of him had slowed unexpectedly and the policeman that was trying to pass him on motorcycle had to slam on the brakes and go off the path into the dirt! What about 3 feet safe passing distance? Can't we all just follow the law together?

This is not acceptable.

At one point we were rounded up and ordered onto a bike path, which is really a very popular path around Reid park for all non-motorized traffic and was being used by walkers and joggers at the time who then had to fight their way through 200 cyclists! A policeman on motorcycle pulled up next to me again on that path. This is how our interaction went: I asked him, "Is this a bike path?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Isn't it illegal to drive a motorized vehicle on a bike path?" He said, "Not a police vehicle," I asked him for his card and he pulled away. I realize that the law is on his side, but I feel I have a point. Why is a policeman on motorcycle necessary when we are riding on a bicycle/pedestrian-only path? Was he protecting us from the jogger who was also using the path? That poor guy, we probably ruined his evening exercise. He will probably hate cyclists from now on...

The policemen also kept their emergency lights flashing for the entirety of the ride. People were actually blinded! I had to ride with one hand in the air to block the lights so that I could see where I was going, and I do have a front light on my bike. A cyclist with a nervous condition could have had a stroke.

All together I counted 18 motorcycles and 9 vehicles, including a paddy wagon (with a bike rack on the back...). I've been trying to calculate how much gas all these vehicles used in the 2 hours of terrorized riding I shared with them, but it's proving a little difficult. If anyone else has any estimates please share them with us.

There were also policemen and women on bicycles. This seemed much more appropriate and safe. Again, if the police presence was actually there to be supportive, to protect and serve, it would be a different story. This felt to me like an aggressive way of attempting to end our community bike ride, through intimidation and threatening acts. I know all but two of my friends left the ride early because of the actions of the police officers.

So fellow cyclists, what are we going to do?

If you were cited by the police at the ride last night, or otherwise harassed, please let us know.

-elizabeth

Posted by tucsonbikelawyer.com at 10:24 AM 0 comments

Haha you thought it was going to be cool having cops around. I'd have been sympathetic for you losing your tuesday night ride had you not been looking forward to having cops involved in the first place. The **** did you think was gonna happen?

more...

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

Another good idea, yeah.
Cops arent too smart really. Its pretty easy to ruin their gay little plans and still stay within the law.

pazzmore, tight avatar

I was at the ride last night as well, and it was so disappointing. I was riding with Varo before he got arrested, and he was being hassled the whole time. There's a reason that we took bike routes: so people like him can ride something like a tall bike and not have to be bunched in with other riders. It was ridiculous. At one of the many stops the cops made us take, I told the 300 pound copper to my left to ride bikes next time, because his exhaust coupled with the other dozen motorcycle cops was really disgusting. He shook his head no and told me "I respect what you guys are doing, but this is just a job". "I get that, but don't you think it's a little counterproductive to what we're trying to do here?". Nothing. Nice. Funny how in the Tuesdays prior, things have gone swimmingly without the influence of the fuzz. I don't think we can stop doing it, the negativity from the law enforcement can't defeat the positive things that we are trying to do. Hopefully it won't be that bad next week, I wrote to TPD, requesting "bicycle" officers if they are in fact going to have them at our next ride, because the flashing lights and exhaust of the motorcycle officers were just obscene. Will it do much? Probably not, but having a defeatist attitude won't either.

You guys really need to defeat the cops here. I like the small groups idea. Have many different routes, with planned meeting spaces so that you can still hangout and mingle. Honestly with the cops purposefully fostering a "us against them" mentality it could be really fun.

Comeon the group is 300 riders. Get some strong people and push the motorcycle cops out of the way. They don't have room for 300 people in jail. They should be catching DUIs and murders.

breathing on a cop can get you thrown in for assault on a police officer, if you think you're gonna push them out of the way and be okay, might as well start swinging bats at them.

worse ideas have been proposed.

Have a wednesday night ride from here on.

+1

having a few cops on bicycles riding along ISN'T that bad an idea (a reason for motorists to think before being jerks, deal with hecklers, settle those common disputes between friends about what's actually legal and what's not), but having a whole detail full of motorbikes, vans, cruisers, etc. is pretty ********. if i was in your spot, i'd be vocal about how it's cool to have cops ride along to promote safety, but the cops should be on bicycles to maintain the air of the community ride.

That's their strategy, assimilate and conquer. Make the ride so un-fun that nobody wants to participate anymore.

It's not about making the ride better, it's about making it go away.

+1...i was in a pedalpalooza bike parade in portland, and the cops were there and it wasn't fun, it just seemed like they wished they weren't there and that we weren't either.

Really sucks, but what did you expect?
No love for the po-lice from this guy.

i hate cops. i mean for real, there has to be something better to do with the resources they have other than bother people trying to establish a sense of community through a bike ride.

acab.


i like the splitting up idea, i think that's a great call, we did that in boston during critical mass when the cops tried to stop us. We all just split up and ran into brookline out of their jurisdiction, no arrests and 2 very frustrated members of boston's finest.

It's called, 'make life easier for the vast majority of car drivers who vote for the next mayor' by the chief of police.

They think of it as a nuisance to be eliminated, because that's what law enforcement is all about.

The fact that cars are the nuisances has never crossed their minds.

We might catch up with Europe in that way in, oh, 100 years or so.

Bicyclists are just too threatening for police to stand having around, doing their own thing. Bicyclists are pretty generally smart, fit, and independent, and there is nothing police hate more than a smart, healthy person breaking laws for a totally reasonable cause, with no victim. Here in Milwaukee, a couple weeks ago, the police arrested someone who organized an alleycat here in Milwaukee, citing him for disorderly conduct or something ********. In reality, though, it was obvious that they wanted to try and break up the 65 or 70 people who had arrived and been hanging out with all their bicycles in the parking lot.

Personally, if this happened in my town, I'd change the night of the ride discreetly, making sure that no police informants found out. If the new day gets busted as well, chances are that there is an informer at some level, and rides should be kept smaller. Breaking up into small groups on a whim would be entertaining, but only if you are all obeying the laws while under observation. It sounds like the police at that particular event were ready for a riot, and short of arming every bicyclist with a semi automatic weapon, it sounds like there was no real way of eliminating the police presence without dispersing the ride. Maybe it would be possible to file a complaint with the city. It's a huge waste of resources for them to ruin peoples' weekly fun by driving a bunch of gas powered vehicles along for the ride.

https://prisonplanet.com/articles/sep..._brutality.htm

yeah....acab.