well, the warning shots have been fired. the cops are threatening to arrest cyclists again (they arrested 264 of us last month, including my girlfriend), and i'm on the fence about whether to ride this evening.

i feel an obligation to ride, seeing as critical mass is an event i look forward to every month, and i want to defend its right to exist. however, the thought of a weekend in jail, and 3 weeks without my bike is giving me pause. any y'all gonna ride?

Wow, good luck to you all if you do decide to.

If we had a critical mass in Munich I would for sure. Good luck, and be sure to ride in the middle of the pack so they don't single you out.

They're trying to keep it peaceful...
https://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/123368/

but if you do decide to participate, be careful and be on the lookout. It only takes a few idiots to ruin it for everyone. And I'm sure the idiots will be in full force tonight!

Luckily I'm in Minneapolis. Tonight will be my first CM. I don't anticipate any problems.

I'll be there on my bright orange bike. If you don't ride, the terrorists win.

i would be there, but i made plans to eat dinner and watch a movie with a girl i have a crush on and my best friend. silly me. i'm going right now to do some laps around prospect park to atone for my sins.

good man, good man. i think i'm gonna scope it out once i get to union square. i'll be the guy with the bright yellow bike. i'm with ya, not against ya.

I say ride!

.... even though i dont really like the critical mass in Philly, i still support their right to do it.

Have fun!

From the NY Times...

Protest
By LYDIA POLGREEN and COLIN MOYNIHAN

Published: September 25, 2004


ine people were arrested last night and 40 bicycles were seized as about a thousand cyclists hit the streets in the monthly Critical Mass bicycle protest ride, the police said. The cyclists filled the canyons of Park Avenue and Broadway in a smaller replay of the ride that led to hundreds of arrests on the eve of the Republican National Convention.

With police and news media helicopters whirling overhead, the ride began at Union Square and proceeded in fairly orderly fashion for about an hour as a phalanx of police officers on scooters and in vans kept close watch.

"We said we'd head up Park Avenue, and they let us go ahead," said Bill DiPaola, executive director of Time's Up!, the environmental group that promotes the ride to bring attention to the pollution caused by cars and encourage cycling.

Whistles shrieking and bells tinkling, hundreds of cyclists flooded into the street, heading north on Park Avenue until 57th Street, then west to Broadway and south again through Times Square.

But the mood suddenly changed at Broadway and 33rd Street, when a string of officers on scooters briefly blocked Broadway, setting off a panic among riders, many of whom headed north on Broadway and turned east on 36th Street, only to find themselves blocked again at Fifth Avenue.

"The cops blocked off the whole street and scared everyone," said Gus Ortiz, a 43-year-old graduate student. "I locked up my bicycle immediately and ran into a building lobby."

Many cyclists hopped off their bikes and tried to walk away, but the police began grabbing people from the crowd, said Caitlin Hawke, 39, who said her friend Andrew was among those arrested.

"They blocked us in," she said.

Officers used power saws to cut the chains securing bikes to sign posts, despite the protests of their owners, who offered to unlock them.

Still, the arrests seemed to arise out of confusion rather than confrontation. At the end of the ride, Mr. DiPaola said that it had gone relatively smoothly.

A police spokesman said the arrests were made on charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of traffic.

Police officials said a route had been agreed upon earlier in the day, but a police spokesman could not say with whom the agreement had been reached.

Critical Mass is a monthly bike ride that claims no organizers but simply materializes on the last Friday of every month. People who promote the ride have said they have no control over the route.

Norman Siegel, a civil rights lawyer who represented cyclists arrested before and during the convention, said before the ride began that the police had told him they planned to make arrests for "any and all violations."

i'm being reminded of a certain NWA song at the moment...

best wishes to those brothers and sisters that got caught up in that maddness, hopefully since the police were planning on doing this they had some sort of station set up where it didn't take too long to process through...

.

Are they still planning on doing these rides in Brooklyn?

There were heli's in the air from 6pm on, watching over Union Square and presumably along the route the riders took. Such an expenditure on resources...!

I read about this.

We organized a critical mass in Williamsburg, VA. Not a ton of people showed up (it's a tiny town), but enough were there that we could fill up one lane pretty well. We rode by two police cars. They just looked at us like they didn't know what was going on.

Good luck to every one riding Critical Mass tonight.