Too harsh on the mass ride?
Perhaps I was a little harsh on the ride and failed to focus on the good times: Here is what one Time's up Volunteer had to say about Friday's success story...
"i love our ability to take one event, and turn it into 4. . .
everything went smooth as silk on friday (except the 34 arrests). the
speak out was great, thanks to ben and everyone who made that
wonderful event go off.
the ride was interesting. im told we have excellent video of riders
stopping at multiple red lights. . . breaking into several mini masses
. . . and then the cops corraling the folks who were waiting at the
lights. . . lawyers tell me this is a good thing. . .
the party was excellent. . . i counted 40 bikes at one point which is
kind of amazing for the small space in there. . . tabling went great
we raised a little money. . . and then the party moved downtown a
little bit to the 7th precinct. . . with a jail support party hosted
by freewheels. . .
way to go us. . . after a year of this harrassment we are still here,
we are still riding, and we are going to win this. . .
love to you all
-later"
Lots of love to all that made the speak-out happen.
all those that attempted to be good bike riders and got arrested for it...may your charges be dismissed.
Thanks to the people who pointed out the Magarita joint which I hadn't known about in the 15 years I've been here and yet every one else has been going there for years.
Thanks to Freewheels
Thanks to all those that worked the table in front of ABC no Rio.
Thanks to the guy who showed me the camera phone video of the sheets of acid he found in a book at the salvation army.
thanks to Jim for taking a picture of me on the ride.
Thanks to bad ass biker for attempting the footdown on Rivington.
Thanks to all those that made tunes with loud boomboxes and ipods.
I hope the August Critical Mass is massive and festive. The theme is supposed to be Aliens vs Robots so warm up those glue guns and carboard costumes...
Rock it.
"i love our ability to take one event, and turn it into 4. . .
everything went smooth as silk on friday (except the 34 arrests). the
speak out was great, thanks to ben and everyone who made that
wonderful event go off.
the ride was interesting. im told we have excellent video of riders
stopping at multiple red lights. . . breaking into several mini masses
. . . and then the cops corraling the folks who were waiting at the
lights. . . lawyers tell me this is a good thing. . .
the party was excellent. . . i counted 40 bikes at one point which is
kind of amazing for the small space in there. . . tabling went great
we raised a little money. . . and then the party moved downtown a
little bit to the 7th precinct. . . with a jail support party hosted
by freewheels. . .
way to go us. . . after a year of this harrassment we are still here,
we are still riding, and we are going to win this. . .
love to you all
-later"
Lots of love to all that made the speak-out happen.
all those that attempted to be good bike riders and got arrested for it...may your charges be dismissed.
Thanks to the people who pointed out the Magarita joint which I hadn't known about in the 15 years I've been here and yet every one else has been going there for years.
Thanks to Freewheels
Thanks to all those that worked the table in front of ABC no Rio.
Thanks to the guy who showed me the camera phone video of the sheets of acid he found in a book at the salvation army.
thanks to Jim for taking a picture of me on the ride.
Thanks to bad ass biker for attempting the footdown on Rivington.
Thanks to all those that made tunes with loud boomboxes and ipods.
I hope the August Critical Mass is massive and festive. The theme is supposed to be Aliens vs Robots so warm up those glue guns and carboard costumes...
Rock it.
posted by Michael Green at 9:05 PM
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4 Comments:
i dont know if you remember or not, but i posted a few weeks ago asking for suggestions. we're in columbus, ga. we did our first critical mass a week ago. we did it on monday, mainly so our bike shop employees could go (monday is our short day). we only had 25 people or so, and our ride only lasted about thirty minutes, but we got two news stations and our local newspaper out there and got noticed. i just wanted to let you know that what you all are doing is spreading and we're trying to tell people what is up. if youre ever in columbus ga on the last monday of the month, come by our shop. haha. pedal hard.
-joseph grimes
the idea to stop at the lights was a bad one and one that seemed to be pushed on people from freewheels or whoever.
everytime i asked why we were stopping, people said 'oh i got this flyer saying we should'. thank you freewheels for doing what you do but in terms of strategy, that flyer sucked. bad strategy. if you want to advocate that as individuals in the mass, fine. but putting it out there as freewheels is too much.
Did you see a flyer that said Freewheels on it and encoraged this tactic? I would really appreciate a response.
I got a response, from within my own organization, and it was us and Times Up who put out those Flyers. The idea was because of the Judge's statements saying don't break the law and you cops don't arrest. So I think we have certainly figured out that the police brass in charge of the presence at the ride are lying and breaking the laws they swore to uphold- for nearly a year now. They say we won't arrest you if you don't break the law, and when you don't break the law, you get arrested. It is simple and stupid. It seems with the letters from the Bloomy supporters and proof of people stopping and still being arrested will work for our cause. Let's just not do to it too often.
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