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RR: March 2002 #11
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March 29 2002 600pm 3rd av / 7th st
forceful breakup of critical mass
alek cannan

twenty-some critical mass riders were just coming through the intersection of 3rd av and 7th st, riding along 3rd av. half of us had made it through the intersection when the light change. the rest of the group continued through so as to stay together. some of us passed through the red light, blocking traffic for a few seconds. it was at that point that the police responded. at least four squad cars turned on their lights and overtook the twenty or so bicyclists in our group. the police cars surrounded us, with three or four officers jumping out of their cars to push and pull bicyclists off of their bikes. one officer grabbed my front wheel and pulled the bike from under me. he threw the bike into a pile of two other bikes. as i looked around i saw police pulling bikes away from people and thrown to the street. one male critical mass rider had been pushed off of his bike and i saw a police officer on top of him with his knee on the man’s back pushing his face to the ground and putting handcuffs on him. i got closer and saw at least two cuts on the mans face with streams of blood running down them. the man was yelling for help. ten or so other bicycle riders, now without bikes, were circling the officer and the bleeding man at a distance of about fifteen feet. most of us were yelling to let the man go and not be hurting him any longer. at that point at least four other officers had formed a half circle around the officer and the man and were taunting the critical mass riders to come closer if they wanted to be arrested. some quotations are as follows: “get out of here, you want to be arrested next?” “you want a piece of me?” when asked for badge numbers the police responded by threatening arrest and stepping forward intimidatingly. one officer had his club out and was swinging it in the direction of the critical mass riders. it is worth noting that none of us critical mass riders had any weapons or were threatening the police. while this taunting was going on, one female bicyclist was being roughly directed toward a police car, as she had been arrested. she told the officer to stop pulling her hair, to which the officer responded by pulling out a can of mace and threatening to spray her for resisting arrest. she said she just wanted him to stop pulling her hair, and she tried to get away from the mace. he sprayed her and took her to a squad car. after breaking the rest of us up and throwing our bicycles onto a flat-bed truck, the police returned to their cars and drove off.