NYPD is Afraid of Bicycles – Critical Mass

MANHATTAN, N.Y. — I was in Manhattan yesterday for a friendly Critical mass ride. The NYC Police, completely ignoring State and Supereme Court rulings that their cowardly and excessively wasteful attacks on cyclists in NYC were out in full guns.

With the usual helicopter over head (equipped with night vision, of course) 20 or so brand new scooters (the cops crashed 2 last CM ride with their dangerous and reckless driving) 3 passenger vans, 3 big SUVs, 2-3 paddy wagons, countless police cars and 100′s of cops arresting people for riding bikes in NYC.

Until the Feb 14 court ruling barring the cops from arresting cyclists for “parading without a permit.” Here is the press release from Times Up!, a direct-action environmental organization. The New York Times also ran an article about Critical Mass and another news organization that slips my mind at the moment. Here is a little more from Times Up! about the NYPD and cyclists

The ride started out peacefully in Union Square under the watchful, night vision eye of a NYPD helicopter circling above in the February night. From the eastern side of the square the group headed down Broadway to the East Village. There were maybe 200 cyclists at first slowly making our way south.

At first I stopped for the red lights as did many others. The arrests started minutes after the ride started. At one point there was a cop on a scooter driving at an outragous amount of speed the wrong way down a one way street toward the cyclists. A few blocks later, a police van screeched up with helmeted cops leaping from the doors ready for a battle – cyclists can be pretty scary after all. Generally the police pick off the girls and older folks and anyone riding slowly or alone. My stopping for the red lights put me way in the back of the group and in danger of being nabbed.

I started running the lights and staying with the group near the front. At this point, I wasn’t sure if there was another group ahead of us since we were starting to splinter a little. Before and after the Critical Mass I go through the red lights if I can so what did it matter now? I even removed the red blinking light from my messenger bag to blend in a little more (I put it back after).

We went down various streets and avenues. I lost track after a while and I think I have the details out-of-order in my head. It was pretty fast and intense, wondering if there would be road blocks or other means of mass arrest. One good thing was the amount of vocal support from passers-by on the street and cross walks – chants and shouting filled the Gotham shadows.

We were on 8th Avenue. I heard a voice or two say something about Columbus Circle which wasn’t far from where we were. I thought about some escape routes from there like Central Park or a high-speed run through Times Square to Grand Central. I could get through the traffic quickly on my bike, but cops can’t on scooters and definitely not in cars.
The group turned left on 14th Street I think. Left, right, straight … too much traffic run the light. Cops behind us – lights flashing, sirens, helicopter above.
The group started to play it cool again. Stopping for the lights, talking, relaxing. The cops were a little behind and we weren’t surrounded by paddy wagons and those annoying scooters. Three of us split off from the group taking a left onto some street then another … through Greenwich Village and maybe Chelsea and again and onto Houston Street. I need to learn NYC more – not living there makes it tough to know the city like the people who ride bikes there every day. I only recently started riding in NYC – I’m usually walking with cameras.

The ride ended for us where it ended for what looks like most of the original group, the Times Up! space on Houston Street between Mott and Mulberry Streets. I called Stacey to tell her I hadn’t been arrested but a bunch of others were. Instead of joining the after/victory party at Times Up!, I just went home … up the Bowery to Park Ave to GST.

Here is a story that ran in today’s New York Times with photos and video clips. You might have to log in or subscribe to read it, I apologize for that. If you want just the story then here it is without photos and video clips:

“Aggressiveness of Bike Chases Stirs Questions for the Police
By JIM DWYER
February 24, 2006

The patrol guidelines for the Police Department strongly urge officers to be careful when chasing suspects with cars, and national studies show that accidents involving police vehicles result in one death nearly every day.

Yet since August 2004, the New York police have regularly conducted aggressive pursuits in the heart of the most crowded city in the country.

Police vehicles have driven the wrong way down busy Midtown streets and have cut at sharp, brake-screeching angles across Greenwich Village avenues, videotapes show. They have climbed onto sidewalks to skirt traffic jams near Grand Central Terminal, according to witnesses. Officers have been filmed driving a large sport utility vehicle along the Hudson River bicycle and jogging path.

On all these occasions, police officers in vehicles have been chasing bicycle riders who throng the streets on the last Friday of every month in a group ride known as Critical Mass. The dispute over the terms of the ride has swelled into bitter court fights and what have been, by New York standards, street chases of startling character.

The police and the city say public safety is at stake because the bicycles block traffic and the riders will not agree to a route. Many riders say the stakes are free movement on public streets for people who should not have to get police permission simply because they are not in cars.

Earlier this month, a state judge rejected the city’s request to shut down the event and counseled “mutual de-escalation of rhetoric and conduct.”

At last month’s ride, two police officers on lightweight motorcycles were injured as they maneuvered into position to cut off the bicycle riders on Third Avenue.

“One of the motorcycles made an abrupt 90-degree turn, and the one behind just T-boned him — hit him perpendicularly,” said Luke Son, a bicycle rider who said he saw the crash happening from a few feet away. “A really violent collision. The officer in front went flying.”

Mr. Son, 23, a student at Columbia University and an emergency medical technician, began treatment of one of the officers.

Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said that the officers were not seriously hurt and that the accident was provoked by bicycle riders who were breaking the law. It “would not have occurred if Critical Mass participants observed the law,” Mr. Browne said.

A number of riders said the crash touched off an especially forceful effort by the police to round-up cyclists. Later that night, witnesses say, police officers in two black sport utility vehicles chased 12 to 20 riders near Grand Central Terminal. One of them, Mark W. Read, said that the police drove against traffic on a one-way street, most likely Vanderbilt Avenue, and that as bicycles moved west along 45th Street, one S.U.V. followed them.

“The S.U.V. went up onto the sidewalk and drove on the sidewalk for 15 or 20 feet, then dropped back onto the street,” said Mr. Read, 38, a filmmaker and adjunct instructor at New York University, whose account was first reported in The Village Voice. “It was unbelievable — a high-speed chase, something you think would be reserved for serious criminals, for people fleeing a murder scene or bank robbery.” Mr. Read was later arrested on 43rd Street and Broadway and charged with parading without a permit.

Mr. Browne declined to comment on any specific chase, saying in general that the descriptions “are the exaggerated, self-serving statements of individuals engaged in breaking the law or opposed to police enforcement of it.” Asked about videotapes that show the chases, he said that he stood by his comments.

The department’s guidelines say that before starting a pursuit, officers should consider the nature of the offense and how crowded the area is. The guidelines also include an instruction, highlighted in bold type, that says, “Department policy requires that a vehicle pursuit be terminated whenever the risks to uniformed members of the service and the public outweigh the danger to the community if suspect is not immediately apprehended.”

One police spokesman said that applies to the pursuit of motor vehicles, not to bicycles; Mr. Browne would not comment on that interpretation. The bicycle riders generally are charged with offenses like parading without a permit that are violations of the city’s administrative code, which are not included in the state’s penal code of felonies and misdemeanors.

At a Critical Mass ride on Sept. 30, bikers rode up Second Avenue, and turned east onto 14th Street, followed by two police S.U.V.’s. On a videotape, some of the bikers can be seen riding east in the westbound lanes, against oncoming traffic; the two police S.U.V.’s also can be seen driving in that lane, for part of 14th Street between Second and First Avenues.

John Hamilton, an in-line skater who videotaped the chase, said the sight of the S.U.V.’s driving the wrong way down 14th Street was vivid. “It was a very dangerous situation, and I certainly felt it,” Mr. Hamilton said.

Mr. Hamilton also filmed a chase on March 25, 2005, in which a police S.U.V. drove across a pedestrian island on West Street and followed the cyclists onto the Hudson River bicycle path for about a mile. “The S.U.V. ultimately had to stop because there were metal posts or cones on the path,” he said.

Shortly after the motorcycle collision, on Jan. 27, Rebecca Heinegg, 23, arrived and recognized one of the injured officers. “He was my arresting officer last February, and was as nice as someone arresting you can be,” said Ms. Heinegg, a law student. “This incident is really sad, an entirely predictable result of the unsafe maneuvers.”

Mr. Browne said the Police Department had tried to make the ride safe. “If they provide their route in advance and want our assistance in expediting the ride each month, the Police Department will be happy to assist,” he said.

Copyright 2006The New York Times Company”