back to report menu >

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2002 13:21:20 -0600 (CST)

From: David Shove

To: Undisclosed recipients: ;

Subject: Progressive Issue - Critical Mass 03.31

P R O G R E S S I V E I S S U E Critical Mass

he latest from online as of 3.31 1:10pm

1. Tim Hayes

2. Cam Gordon

3. Michael Libby

4. Jordan Kushner

5. Ken Avidor

6. Chris Allison

7. Jordan Kushner

8. Jenny Heiser

9. Linda Mann

10. Tamir Nolley

--------1 of 10--------

From: Tim Hayes

Subject: Critical Mass City Council Meeting

When: Friday 10am

Where: City Hall

What: City Council Meeting

As most of you are aware Critical Mass was broken up by the police in one of the most viscious attacks on a peaceful demonstration since I have been here in the cities. One person was sent to the hospital and couple of others were maced for riding their bikes on Minneapolis Streets to celebrate biking and helping to raise awareness of Bikers as people too.

In the past few weeks the Minneapolis Police Department has been treating bike riders with absolutely no respect, from tackling an innocent man off of his bike because of his failure to have a registered bike, to what appears to be a 'lost' police report in reguards to an incident were a driver of an automobile pushed a biker into an on coming car on the corner of Washington and 11th St. With that report being lost we lost all of the witness contacts, so therefor there is the possibility of nothing happening to the driver. Other events include the failure of the Minneapolis Police Department to know its own laws reguarding to the RIGHTS of bicyclists. We are asking for the support of ANYONE that has rode a bike and has felt unsafe because of cars. We are asking ANYONE that feels that the Minneapolis Police Department has gone too far with out anytype of punishment for its repressive actions.

We are meeting with the Mayor on Tuesday. We will be at the council meeting on Friday. WE WILL BE AT LORING PARK ON APRIL 26 at 5PM It is time to stand up for what is right!

We will post all updates. They want to end the Mass. They only made it Stronger!

www.minnesotacriticalmass.org (check for ride reports relating to Washington Ave. incident on the website!).

--------2 of 10--------

From: Cameron A. Gordon

Subject: Re: [Mpls] Police Arrest Bike Riders

I talked to two (of about 60) people today who were at the Critical Mass bike ride Friday.

It sounds like this was a carefully planned raid by the police. Several police cars were waiting. Once the ride got under way, riders were ordered to ride single file and then they were "pinched" off at the front.

A flatbed truck was there and bikes were taken by the police and loaded onto it. Some folks are very concerned because these are their only means of transit and they use them to get to work, school etc. Apparently those bikes without licenses and registration will be kept....at least this is the impression that the riders were left with. At least one bike with proper registration has been returned.

Does anyone else question if this is a useful or valuable use of our police resources?

It might be helpful if we could read what motivated this police action.

If there were concerns about safety or violations of law there must have been better, more productive and less costly alternatives to this approach. --Cam Gordon Seward

--------3 of 10--------

From: michael libby To: mpls@mnforum.org Subject: Re: [Mpls] Police Arrest Bike Riders

On Saturday 30 March 2002 07:40 pm, Cameron A. Gordon wrote: > Does anyone else question if this is a useful or valuable use of our > police resources?

I certainly do. I think it's an outrage. No, it doesn't quite reach the level of killing immigrants, or the way the recent khat raid was handled. This recent incident seems intended to promote a chilling of political speech and relatively peaceful protest, though.

This sort of police abuse is indicative of their "use as much force as possible" approach to any confrontation. They seem to be trained to escalate as much as necessary to prove to everyone involved that they (MPD) are "in control". They're not in control, they're out of control.

Hopefully the Mayor can look past his police endorsements during the election season and work for some change in the department. We all know there are good cops on the team: this isn't about the street cops. It's a management decision, and a poor one at that.

- -Michael Libby (Cleveland/North Mpls)

--------4 of 10--------

From: Jordan Kushner To: Cameron A. Gordon , mpls@mnforum.org Subject: Re: [Mpls] Police Arrest Bike Riders

The police have been going through this routine of attacking and arresting critical mass riders for at least the past couple of years. I have personal questions about what the riders politically accomplish by knowingly riding into these futile confrontations, but that is really besides the point. The importance is the police deliberately reppressing people's expression.

The question now is what are the new elected officials who got elected on platforms that included addressing police abuse going to do about this? The "accomplishments" of the new administration so far include eliminating the Civilian Review Authority WITHOUT first setting up a replacement, so far just talk about exploring the string of police shootings, continuing the criminal prosecutions of the ISAG protesters arrested in July, 2000 because 831 paramilitary police wanted to justify their presence to combat 100-150 nonviolent protesters. --Jordan Kushner Powderhorn

--------5 of 10--------

From: ken avidor To: "mpls@mnforum.org" , "bicyclelane@yahoogroups.com" , mnbpa@aol.com, ccarlsson@shapingsf.org Subject: [Mpls] Our Folun Gong.

I'm sure many of you have read about the Chinese Government's brutal crackdown on the Folun Gong, a peaceful movement that practices a graceful form of group exercise. When I read about ordinary people being arrested , beaten and thrown into jail because of a little peaceful flexing of muscles I'm puzzled: what sort of crazy, repressive regime would fear a bunch of peaceful, health and exercise fanatics?

Then I think about the over-the-top, brutal harassment and repression of Critical Mass last Friday. Critical Mass is a ten year old movement that celebrates bike culture. Like Folun Gong , Critical Mass is non-violent and peaceful. The people who participate in CM are ordinary people, mostly young college kids who have very strong feelings about the environment, health and social justice. They suffer, as all bicyclists do, the daily frustration of sharing the road with noisy, polluting , life (and planet) threatening cars. Once a month, they peacefully come together, for the fellowship of other bicyclists and to say "we ARE the traffic". These people are not criminals any more than the Folun Gong are.

What I witnessed last Friday was a brutal suppression of a peaceful group of citizens not unlike the brutal suppression of the Folun Gong. We cannot say that the police were responsible for what happened at 3rd Avenue and 6th Street anymore than we should hold the Chinese police responsible for the crackdown on the Folun Gong. It is the responsibility of the government...our government to instruct the police on how it should treat citizens, not vice versa. The right of free speech and assembly is a right guaranteed by the Constitution...a political right our elected officials must protect against the authority of the police who's only interest is to keep order .

he police will justify their brutality by saying that the Critical Mass breaks traffic laws. The elected officials must step in to instruct the police that a certain amount of rule breaking is a part of public gatherings and as long as the intent of that rule breaking is peaceful and respects public and private property, the police should look the other way as they do when a sports team wins a championship and the fans celebrate by throwing confetti (littering) or running around naked except for purple and gold body paint(public indecency). Ritual rule breaking is a part of the celebration of urban life that takes the edge off of being an up-tight, law-abiding citizen all of the time...it's the safety valve that lets off a little steam to prevent the build up of explosive emotions.

There is a precedent for allowing the Critical Mass to ride without police harassment. In October of last year, Mayor Sharon Sayles-Belton sent this e-mail to the Critical Mass:

----Original Message Follows---- From: "Sayles-Belton, Sharon" To: "'automator3000@h...'" CC: "Johnson, Randall" Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 17:13:15 -0500 I am sorry that I can not ride with you today. I did speak to many people about Critical Mass since I spoke to you. And I am committed to helping you to get your message out. All I ask is that you obey the traffic laws and do not try to purposefully disrupt traffic. Promoting alternative forms of transportation should be encouraged. I am forwarding my message to Inspector Randy Johnson of the 5th Precinct.

....I was on that ride and it was peaceful and without incident. I would like to see the current Mayor and City Council be as forceful as the previous Mayor in protecting the right of the Critical Mass to ride without official harrasment .

I hope the Mayor and other former activists on the City Council will recall their own leadership and participation in demonstrations and act to protect the rights of citizens to gather peacefully without official harassment. Perhaps elected officials will join the Critical Mass next month to make sure that the brutal events of last Friday are not repeated.

I would also like to add that our Twin City has a once a year event called The Saint Paul Bike Classic where the police cooperate with bicycle activists in closing streets to cars for an entire morning ( http://www.spnec.org ) . --Ken Avidor Kingfield

--------6 of 10--------

From: chris d allison Subject: GPM: GP Direct Action Caucus & Cops Attack Critical Mass

I've been talking to people about the idea of a Green Party Direct Action Caucus for several months now. I had actually been talking specifically about participation in Critical Mass. I am absolutely disgusted with the Minneapolis Police right now: this is the second time in less than a year that Critical Masss riders have been beaten by the cops & I am growing afraid that they may begin to show these nonviolent protesters as much sympathy as they have been showing the people they have unfairly killed. I think it's time we start a Green Party Nonviolent Direct Action Caucus & our first action can be to start boosting the attendance of and showing our solidarity with other monthly Critical Mass riders.

Anyone interested in coming to the first meeting of the Green Party Nonviolent Direct Action Caucus can send me an email & I will schedule a location for the first meeting -- those who show up can decide where we go from there.

-Chris Allison www.chrisallison.siteblast.com

--------7 of 10--------

From: Jordan S. Kushner Subject: [M5DGP] [Mpls] Police Arrest Bike Riders

http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/2002-March/011814.html

--------8 of 10--------

>From jennyh@mn.rr.com Sun Mar 31 12:46:02 2002 Cc: Zimmerperson , Natalie Collins , Ken Avidor Subject: Re: GPM: GP Direct Action Caucus & Cops Attack Critical Mass

chris d allison wrote:

> I've been talking to people about the idea of a Green Party Direct Action > Caucus for several months now. I had actually been talking specifically > about participation in Critical Mass . . .

Fellow Greens,

Taking non-violent direct action is an important step to raising the broader public's consciousness about any issue. Thus I am in agreement with what Chris states here. While there have been individual Greens involved with Critical Mass from its inception in Mpls. obviously a lot more of us need to take that next step from talking about the value of the work Critical Mass is doing -- by modeling behavior that should be the norm not the exception -- to actually hopping on our bikes and joining the CM riders.

Next month's CM ride will be Friday, April 26th -- as always, on the last Friday of any month. Dean Zimmermann, Ward 6 Council Member-Green Party, was at Friday night's meeting at Caffetto's and assured the CM riders who were there that he would join them on this date and that he would recruit as many City Hall staffers and officials as possible to join him. He has contacted RT Rybak to speak with the Mayor about the wrongness of this chilling, on-going harassment by agents of the state (i.e., the MPD) of peaceful (for the most part) bike riders and to invite Mayor Rybak to join him for April's ride.

[As an aside, CM Zimmermann's Council Aide, GP member Natalie Collins, was already on the scene at Caffetto's when DZ arrived. She is an outstanding asset not only to Dean's City Hall office but to the GP in general!]

Ken Avidor shared with me this morning that David Brauer, editor, The Skyway News, is preparing an article on Critical Mass. David's e-mail address is: Contacting David might be a good idea if you have information and/or an opinion to share about this subject.

Though our Mpls. newspaper, The S'trib, chose not to cover what happened during Friday night's CM ride, there was a reporter from the S'trib assigned to do a story on it: Bill Crumm (sp?). Why no story has appeared in either Saturday or Sunday's paper is a mystery (NOT!). As an FYI: Dean Zimmermann contacted several reporters from the S'trib including Steve Brandt and Doug Grow (voicemail message left) about this latest incident involving CM. In addition, Dean contacted Scott Russell of The Southwest Journal (leaving a voicemail message).

Anyone interested in coming to the first meeting of the Green Party > Nonviolent Direct Action Caucus can send me an email & I will schedule a > location for the first meeting -- those who show up can decide where we > go from there.

Chris, I would like to suggest that your group be in touch with Stephen Eisenmenger as he has been involved with CM for some time and would be a good resource at your first meeting. But you probably already know that. Stephen will also know about any Critical Mass direct actions that may be in the planning process, to happen before the next CM ride.

I also want to publicly thank Holle Brian whose quick action in contacting CM Zimmerperson helped in getting a Green public servant involved with Critical Mass riders on Friday night at a very worthwhile meeting.

Yours in solidarity, Jenny Heiser Minneapolis/5th District GP Local SD 60

--------9 of 10-------- From: Gypsycurse7@cs.com Subject: Re: GPM: GP Direct Action Caucus & Cops Attack Critical Mass Chris

I am a little concerned with the phrase direct action. It usually connotes civil disobedience and such actions are, as a rule, pretty small and narrow. When I spoke of a responsive demonstration I meant a legal peaceful action designed to mobilize as many people as possible.

Such a demonstration could still be attacked but such an attack would be the result of unlawful action by the police. The large, broad based nature of our demonstration should act as an insurance policy against police violence. Such quibbling aside, I am definitely in favor of your plan. I have never heard of this group or the fact that they had been ambushed once before. It sounds like they need to broaden their appeal if they are going to protect their constitutional rights to assembly. But then that is the challenge we all face. --Linda Mann

--------10 of 10--------

From: Tamir Nolley Subject: GPM: Re: [M5DGP] Minneapolis Police

First, I hope that others don't mind that I'm also sending this to the state list, because I see police brutality as a state issue as well.

Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUABP) has been working on a proposal to restructure civilian review so that it will be a system that works for residents. The short version of the proposal is that members be elected (two per precinct, one at- large, 11 members total) that the board have the power to subpoena, prosecute and discipline out of control officers (which I'm my opinion are most of them,) engage in criminal proceedings if necessary, and that this board serve as a search committee hiring a new police chief. We've met with four city council members, including Dean Z and Natalie Johnson Lee, and have sought representation on the city task force that will be restructuring civilian review. We've met with fairly positive results.

We also hope to get some sort of process started in Richfield, where police severely beat Maria Hernandez Xochiplicatl, who was nine months pregnant, during a nine year old's birthday party; St. Paul, where a man who was trying to defend his employer from an attempted robbery was shot by police, and a teenager was beaten by police during the Rhondo Days celebration; as well as the entire state of Minnesota, where there have been many instances of police brutality.

Back to Minneapolis, I don't know if a strong civilian review process would have prevented either the murder of Abu Jelani, the macing and harassment by an off duty officer of an Ethiopian woman at Karmel Square, the tragic death of the elderly man this week during the high speed chase, or the beating of critical mass bike riders (all within six months.) Many of these cops are tasting power and authority for the first time, and others are notorious thumpers with powerful friends (ie, Sauro, Chaplin (the officer involved in the Karmel incident)).

As I said last year, when the people who are supposed to ensure your safety are thumpers and killers, they're not really afraid of any political "teeth." Still, with enough pressure, they will be prosecuted like any other violent criminal. Pressure also needs to come from the County, the Legislature, anyone running for office, and of course all of you. One easy thing to do would be to attend as many public forums as you can and make sure that questions about police misconduct get addressed by everyone on a statewide and even federal level. (Tim, you really get to hit Norm with this one, and you get to force Paul to talk about it.) Remember, it's an election year and candidates are going to have to deal with any issue that gets enough attention.

I'm intrigued by the proposal of a certain state senate candidate to include some types of police brutality in hate crimes legislation, as I believe that most of these incidents (with one exception being critical mass, which is still bias) are racist acts. Chris's direct action caucus is another good start.

I ultimately think that only massive public outcry, more than we have already seen will change the nature of the police. So let's all cry out, and get our neighbors to join us!

Tamir Nolley SD 61 Member, CUAPB Turner for Senate Time for some Action!