Pleonastic Ephemera

8.29.2004 posted by William 17:16 link

I rode in Critical Mass on Friday. I always enjoy Critical Mass and this one was no exception. It was the largest CM in New York City history because of the influx of protesters here for the Republican convention. Nonetheless, it went smoothly for 95% of the ride, which took us down Broadway from Union Square, over to Sixth Ave, up to midtown, past Penn Plaza and Madison Square Garden (where the convention is being held) and back down on the east side to the East Village. The mood was bouyant as it always is, and the chants this time included gems like "Fuck Bush!" and "No More Bush!" in addition to the usual "Whose streets? Our streets!" and "More bikes, less cars!" I enjoy Critical Mass more as an event to raise awareness of transportation alternatives than as a nakedly partisan protest, but I can make an exception. When a CM ends, there are thousands of bikers in the street, milling around for a while as people find friends and take a breather and then disperse. On Friday, the cops didn't seem to want to let it end that way, as they blocked 2nd Ave and marched in on 10th and 11th Streets and herded people together, making it difficult to leave the area. Christian (who has a story of his own about CM) and Kari and I were on 2nd, trying to get through the crowd to go over to 3rd when the first column of riot-gear clad officers marched by, preventing us from getting up onto the sidewalk. As I looked around, I realized that another line of officers were coming up behind us on 2nd and I could see flashing lights in every direction. At that point, I was pretty sure they were going to sweep in and start arresting whomever they could get their hands on, including us. It wasn't a pleasant feeling. I was happy that I had brought water and a snack in my bag, since after an arrest a protester can expect to spend 24 - 36 hours locked up with very little to eat or drink. Christian and I and others shouted for the people in front of us to keep moving, hoping to prod the mass back into motion to keep the police from wading in, but it wasn't working. Fortunately, the column that marched by us on the sidewalk ended and we took the opportunity to jump off the street. We walked a little ways off and watched riders lock their bikes onto the fence in front of St. Marks Church, took one look back at the mixed crowd of Massers and cops in the intersection, and rode away just as a chant of "Let them go!" rose up -- the arrests had begun. If you're interested in keeping tabs on what's going on this week during protests, here are two sources. One is a blog being kept by a Voice reporter, and the other is from reports being sent in in realtime to Indymedia. Here's someone else's write-up of their CM experience. Here's a page of photos of CM. And here's another one. Here's an image of the flyer that police were handing out in Union Square before the ride (I didn't see any myself).