Party After Critical Mass

If you are doing the mass this Friday check this out.

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WHAT: Guerrilla park party after Critical Mass!

WHEN: Friday, 30 Sept.
9PM SHARP!

WHERE: Cambridge Common

WHO: Rude Mechanical Orchestra, a 40+ person brass street band, will be
playing.
rudemechanicalorchestra.org

WHY: Kickoff event for Intergalactic Critical Mass, and at the beginning of
HONK!

Festival.

WEBSITE: https://intergalacticboston.wordpress.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=248437968531580

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Globe Picks Up Critical Mass Police Tackle “Incident”

The Globe covered the incident last Friday in which someone got tackled on their bike while riding in the Critical Mass ride.

Its your typical news story, side 1, side 2, interesting fact, no conclusion. Its a formula and they followed it. The fun part comes in the comment section….whoooo boy. Usually you can count on Globe readers to spew out some hateful ignorant bullshit, but you know when the story is about cyclists you are going to get extra hate filled ignorance, suffice to say if the story is about Critical Mass bike riders you get a nuclear level (pun intended) barage of idiocy.

Remember to breath, and remain calm when you read the comment section.

Honestly though, if you skipped the whole thing you wouldn’t really be missing much. Ho hum.

I have been meaning to write up a post about my view of Critical Mass for a while now, perhaps this incident will get me to do it. Suffice to say I think the event is more complicated than a “celebration of biking” or “a bunch of morons clogging up traffic.”

Until then the closest I have come to giving my opinion of such things is this.

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Forum: Critical Mass Debate

Seems that people have strong views about if Critical Mass is a good thing or not. Head on over to the forum to let your views be heard.

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Cop Knocks Over Ctitical Mass Rider In Central Square?

Is this going to be another incident like the one in New York? (to be clear I wasn’t at this ride, and am getting this all second hand, all parties innocent till proven etc etc.) This all went down Friday Aug 27th sometimes around 6 or 7 pm in central square.

From the BCM mailing list

A bicyclist by the name of *name removed* was assaulted by a Cambridge police officer, Raymond Pina, Badge CPD 567, in almost the exact same manner as the infamous NYC Critical Mass incident. Unfortunately, we do not currently know of anyone who caught it on film, so please spread the word and hopefully we can find someone who managed to record it. We have film of the aftermath, we have about seven eye witnesses, and hopefully we can take advantage of any nearby surveillance cameras (one of which we saw looked to be aimed directly down at the intersection near the incident). We plan to call the ACLU for legal advice as well.

For those of you who were not there to witness it, Pina was in the middle of the road, trying to knock over passing cyclists who were all doing their best to avoid him. After a few failed attempts, Pina lunged towards *name removed*, grabbed him, and threw him to the ground. *name removed* was in the bike lane, had not personally been in the way of any traffic, and had not even reached the intersection and could not have run the red light. The ticket was filed for either “Bicycle operating to endanger” or “Bicycle leaving the scene of an accident” but there were no nearby pedestrians, and *name removed* along with all other bicyclists did their best to avoid contact with the officer. There was a clear effort to attack one of the passing cyclists.

Please stand by while we wait for the court date, and please ask around for anyone who might possibly have the incident on video. It is also up to the cyclist to decide where he wants to take this. We will send another update when what video we have goes online.

In case you forgot here is the video from the New York incident that got this cop in trouble (although he was later not given any punishment, the cyclist did get 65,000 in cash from the city).

anybody get video or more info on the incident in Cambridge?

EDIT:more from the mailing list…this is from the cyclist that got tackled.

Hi Everybody- Sorry for the delayed response, but I have been spending some time getting my thoughts together about the incident during the ride. I would like to be completely upfront about the events that occurred, and I would appreciate any advice you would like to offer.I was riding down Mass ave in the bike lane, about 30 feet before the Central Square intersection. As I understand it, other riders were blocking the intersection; I do not know whether the light was green or red. Officer Pina was standing in the roadway, yelling at passing cyclists to stop and lunging back and forth as people passed him. I was unable to dodge his lunges, and he tackled me to the ground. Fortunately I was wearing a helmet.

I sustained two minor superficial injuries to my right arm and leg.Following the tackle, he yelled at me to get on to the sidewalk and asked why I did not stop. I was shaken up from the incident and decided not to answer. Officer Pina called for backup and I had no further interactions with any of the officers until he handed me a $20 ticket, presumably for “Operating to Endanger” (though the ticket is poorly filled out and vague).

Other issues with the ticket include:
The address indicates that the incident occurred right in the intersection, when it in fact occurred well before it.
My old address is listed, as he failed to note my updated address on the back of my license.
The officer neglected to have me sign the ticket acknowledging receipt.
Needless to say, I will be appealing the ticket.

I spoke briefly with Sgt. Joe Keough who said he was unable to comment as he was not there. He said I should appeal the ticket. I would like to thank Dave and the guy with the video camera (sorry, I forgot your name) as well as the other cyclists who stopped. Your support went a long way, and I believe it strongly influenced the Sgt. as well as the other officers to de-escalate the situation away from an arrest.

As for further actions, I am conflicted: On the one hand, I have only been cycling regularly for 3 months, and this was my first Critical Mass ride. While I believe that both Boston and Cambridge would benefit from more bike lanes, I am not overly passionate about this cause. Further, I have no desire for the publicity this would involve
specifically because I am in the process of applying to Medical Schools, and I worry that a Google search of my name could scare off admissions committees. Lastly, I know in my heart that I made the decision to avoid the officer rather than coming to a stop as he had requested. On the other hand, this officer had no reason to stop me in the first place: I was operating my bicycle appropriately. Further, throwing me to the ground could have caused serious injuries.

As for further actions, I will be appealing the ticket. I have called the Cambridge Police Department, and I was told I should be able to pickup a copy of the officer’s report from the Records Department on Monday. I have not decided whether I want to file a complaint, but I am pretty sure any attempt at a lawsuit would be a waste of time and money. Even if I did file a complaint, I would be faced with the fact that the officer demanded I stop and I failed to do so. Even though the stop was unmerited, this will still reflect poorly on me and the officer’s actions may be deemed justified. This single fact may make the difference between yesterday and the NYC incident.

Another option would be some sort of negotiation with CPD. I think the other other officers realized that Pina made a very bad decision to do what he did, and I think that a threat of a complaint may be a good negotiating tool. Are there any concessions we should ask for from the city/PD that would benefit cyclists? Does anybody have any contacts in the Cambridge government or PD? Know any lawyers who could offer advice?

I have written this email as honestly as I could, and I know parts of it are selfish but that is the situation as I see it. I look forward to your responses.

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We Are Traffic

We Are Traffic from Bank Tangjaitrong on Vimeo.

People have strong opinions about critical mass. Hate it or love it I thought this video was interesting. My personal point of view is that the more bike friendly a place is the smaller the critical mass is. Critical mass’ seem to be an outpouring of solidarity based on mutual repression. The nicer a place is to cyclists the less they feel the need to engage in these large protest/fun/whatever rides to raise their status. Basically in places where bikes are seen as just another way to get around there is a critical mass every day.

What do you think?

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