Critical Mass in the Rainy City
NYC Critical Mass
26 May 2006
This months Critical Mass in New York City was the strangest one for me yet.
The helicopters seem to be missing as well as the SUVs being driven into the sidewalk and into crowds of people. The scooters were present as always – their numbers, although excessive, are difficult to pin down.
I’m very late writing this so there is no point to me just regurgitating what Mike Green has already posted as well as the other usual sources.
We know about the girl who was detained (arrested?) in Columbus Circle while standing on the sidewalk eating an ice cream. I think the reasoning was “she ran a red light 15 minutes ago”. She was carried off in cuffs to the precinct house and released later. 
And there were simultaneous tickets given for riding in the right, left and center of the street – there might have been one for not riding in the bike lane on a street with no bike lane. We can’t forget the girl who was doored by a cop and received a broken collarbone or something similar.
I noticed a theme … the NYPD only tickets girls and those who willingly stop instead of getting away. I ran into some riders from Atlanta (yea they were in NYC for the Critical Mass! – that’s serious) who were ticketed during the ride. They asked me if I had ever been summoned or detained.
“No, I’ve been lucky” I replied. We had a moment to chat while waiting for a red light or other riders or something.
He continued, “How did you get away”
“I didn’t stop when they asked” I replied trying not to sound like some kind of a rock star. “There was a ride a few months earlier when I saw a scooter weenie ride up to a small group and me – very close to me – and say ‘Get off the Bikes!’ … I just kept going around the corner”.
The NYPD doesn’t identify themselves. Not even the plain clothes cops who pretend to be Critical Mass riders. Not the cops who pretend to be in funeral processions for fallen riders, not the cops who illegally videotape and photograph the Critical Mass from “unmarked” SUVs. I’m sure they surveil other NYC cyclists as well.
One would think with the recent 40% slash in Anti Terrorism funds from the Department of Homeland Security (for not following protocol and sloppy for planning and performance), the NYPD would make more of an effort to be professional and stop crime instead of wasting their scarce resources on a few bike riders.
The ride seemed to fizzle out or disperse early. It could have been the rain or just the mood of the City. A few of the Critical Mass riders rode through Central Park after the meeting in Columbus Circle. We rode around the loop a couple of times. At one point, a NYPD car was parked in the road in Central Park and the Riders had congregated around it. I’m not sure of they thought they had to stop or what was going on. I think some of the riders were the Atlanta crew (who, by the way, were very paranoid and interested in turning the ride into a full-blown race for some reason.) and other miscellaneous cyclists I recognized from the hours earlier.
Tammy and I stopped for a moment with the congregation but after realizing nothing was happening, I rode past the cop car and continued on. Tammy was right behind me. She and I continued on the loop enjoying a quiet nocturnal ride through Central Park. A few times other riders passed us in groups whooping and yelling in the damp night air – they were experiencing a rare sort of darkened, high-speed freedom one rarely enjoys in NYC.
I felt good for them.
They had no one in front of them, no cars, no cops – no cops standing blocking the bike lane, no pedestrians, no storm grates or road debris. They were Champions and nothing anyone could do or say could change that. It was their Park, their City even of just for the time they were rocketing through the Park.
They were Champions and I felt good for them.
After the lovely Tammy and I parted ways for the evening, amid a fierce and bone-crushing rain, I headed back to Grand Central Terminal destroying my rear tire along the way.
Stacey was nice enough to pick me up at the Fairfield train station at a truly unholy hour of the rainy night. I greatly appreciated that since I would have had to walk the 2 or however many miles in the rain in bike shoes with a flat tire.
Who knows what next month will bring? Maybe another fire truck that just happens to show up on the same street at the same exact time the Critical Mass got under way? Maybe another cop hiding in the woods in Central Park photographing riders (Just Tammy and I after we were long separated from the Mass) as they go by?
Maybe the NYPD will stop screwing around and deploy tear gas and machine guns. Maybe they’ll use bombs or drive trucks through/over the riders. Maybe the City Council will jam through legislation making cycling in the City officially illegal instead of an (illegal) unwritten law. Maybe Fox News, NY Post and other propaganda networks will start an ad campaign portraying anyone not driving a car (no, a Hummer!) as Communist/Pinko/UnAmerican or whatever other rhetoric works on the sheep who actually fall for such stupidity.
Without regard to anything, we’ll be there again next month in Union Square.
We are the Champions – Still We Ride.
