On Friday Caitlin and I rode in Critical Mass. We rode for about 45 minutes before peeling off and heading to Rooftop Films to see some movies about cycling, including Still We Ride, a documentary about the police repression of Critical Mass since last August, when the Republicans came to town.
There were, apparently, 49 arrests at Critical Mass; although, I didn’t see any of them taking place. The police strategy seems to involve arresting riders almost a random in order to intimidate and discourage. I saw a big SUV full of cops riding along in the middle of the mass using its megaphone or whatever to occasionally chide riders who were straying across the double yellow line or corking traffic. They never mentioned that there was any possibility of getting arrested or even issued a general order to disperse.
Still We Ride is an excellent visual document of the absurd police response to New York’s Critical Mass. If you get a chance to see it, you should (There’s a trailer on line). The erosion of civil liberties in the US these days is pretty stark, even in a supposedly liberal place like New York.
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