Fact or Hoax? Alleged Incident at Critical Mass

I have lived in Chicago for almost 10 years and I have never heard of nor been victim to this thing called "critical mass." Today as I was driving to my destination I came across what seemed to be hundreds/thousands of riders. Several cars were pissed off, as the bikers were blatantly/illegally tying up the intersection, disobeying traffic signals etc.. After about 15 minutes of this I called 911 and the cops came immediately to allow traffic to resume. I'm an avid biker and I'm all for protesting and etc, but only if it abides by the laws. I am surprised that they haven't thrown most of you in jail yet.

By all reasonable accounts, it appears that after the undercover officers made some sort of noise (they say sirens, riders say they simply honked their horn) Jace Brien goaded the officers by throwing down his bike and making gestures towards them.

This is peaceful civil disobedience?

While I'm certianly not going to jump out of my car and attack a bike rider for this, I'm not naive enough to think that other people won't.

If you don't want to get in a fight, don't ask someone to step outside. I see what he did as the equivalent of that. Unfortunately for him, he challenged three King County Sheriffs.

None of this means he deserved this. What it means is if you put yourself in that position and you challenge another party, that other party may not act in a very civil manner. He provoked a reaction. He got beat up and arrested. Maybe next time he'll simply stay on his bike and continue riding.

Drrew, if you purport to be engaging in a rational debate, you really must acknowledge that the statement, "if you challenge someone, whether it's a cop or not, don't be surprised if that challenge is reciprocated" expresses a completely inappropriate and indefensible sentiment. The implicit statement is that Zack Treisman and Jace Brien deserved this treatment, but police brutality is neither lawful nor necessary. Furthermore, regardless of whether these men were cops or not, their assault was beyond what can reasonably be called "reciprocation."

The point of view that peaceful civil disobedience deserves a violent physical response is draconian. There are plenty of bloody examples of this notion carried to its logical conclusion; Tiananmen Square is one.

Drrew, if you purport to be engaging in a rational debate, you really must acknowledge that the statement, "if you challenge someone, whether it's a cop or not, don't be surprised if that challenge is reciprocated" expresses a completely inappropriate and indefensible sentiment. The implicit statement is that Zack Treisman and Jace Brien deserved this treatment, but police brutality is neither lawful nor necessary. Furthermore, regardless of whether these men were cops or not, their assault was beyond what can reasonably be called "reciprocation."

The point of view that peaceful civil disobedience deserves a violent physical response is draconian. There are plenty of bloody examples of this notion carried to its logical conclusion; Tiananmen Square is one.

I would just like to point out that 98% of all drivers break the law. That's my made-up statistic counting the fraction of drivers who drive over the speed limit regularly.

Tell me why these same people who come out of the woodwork to whine about "those horrible law-breaking bikers" aren't whining about all those law-breaking drivers?

Courtesy encourages courtesy, and being an asshole encourages the same. By breaking laws and pissing off drivers, Critical Mass makes the road less safe for all cyclists. As a cyclist, I have no thanks for them.

I read with interest the incident that occurred at the June Critical mass ride and just wanted to comment briefly. I am new to cycling having discovered that I could run errands, get in a workout and spend time with my family all at the same time. So I took an interest in the story of two of the participants getting arrested during the ride last month in Seattle. Turns out that the Seattle Police are just a pissed off as cyclists about the whole thing. The officers that created this problem were King County Sheriff’s Detectives working for Metro Transit and were not only clueless about the monthly ride but were pretty much not trained in dealing with large crowds. As a result they took what they believed to be a problem and actually made it much worse. Seattle police on the other hand, are of the opinion that the critical mass rides don’t cause any real issues in downtown and really don’t require and enforcement action. You guys ride at the same time of month every month like clockwork and the police know about it and are content to live and let live. Makes good sense to me. Then along comes these Sheriff’s Office bozo’s who don’t police the area, don’t know the people and the problems associated with the neighborhood and instead of getting on the phone and maybe asking SPD if what they are witnessing is a problem or not, decide to jump out of their van and start jumping on people. Whether or not they identified themselves as cops and when they did it to me is beside the point. They really shouldn’t have “stepped in it” to begin with. Not only is it not their city to police (concurrent jurisdictional issues aside) but what does a group of cyclists have anything to do with Metro Transit anyway? Turns out at the time, nothing at all.

Calling me names really helps to get your point across so good on ya for that.

I did read the Seattle Times story, I also read the stories in the PI(http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/... and the Stranger (http://www.thestranger.com/sea.... It comes across as a he said/she said type of story which almost always is the case when alleged police brutality is involved. I didn't witness the event, I'm not making a judgement as to whether the event happened as described by the sheriff's office or that of the bike riders. I would suspect that what really happened is somewhere in between what's been written.

I also thought I'd point out at least one factually incorrect piece of your little diatribe.

You said "when CM bikers block a car as these guys were doing, it's because the car has already tried to ram into the hordes of bikers,"

That is 100% categorically incorrect. I know this because I was one car from an intersection on Friday evening, not one person in the lane I was in nor in the lane next to me made any threatening moves with their automobile, nor did they honk their horn, nor did they yell at anyone, yet four riders stopped in front of the two lanes of cars. In no way are they responding to threatening automobiles. They actually seemed to be provoking the cars as far as I could tell.

I also liked how you compare a bike ride to important issues facing this city and country such as protecting the rights of immigrants and to gay pride and gay rights.

Maybe your priorities are a little out of whack.

Drrew, you're an asshole.

You *didn't* read the STimes story, or you would have realized many, many things.

Number one, the cops as a whole basically support Critical Mass. They consider it a planned event and they don't try to stop it. It's the equivalent of a monthly parade. It's been going on for years. Did you get out of your car and slam to the ground one of the 14 year old kids I took to the immigration marches? Did you feel the need to beat the shit out of a queen at Pride? Do you think anyone would have been on your side if you did? I doubt it.

Secondly, when CM bikers block a car as these guys were doing, it's because the car has already tried to ram into the hordes of bikers, potentially injuring numerous peaceful riders. So these cops already tried to run kids over. And you know what? I dont care if the kid was mooning the van and telling the cops yo momma jokes, the person in it has *no right* to tackle someone. That is what we call assault.

Finally, these cops *never* identified themselves as such until the the first kid was on the ground, pinned by quite a large goon, at which point, naturally, Treisman stepped in to save his *eighteen year old friend* from getting the shit beat out of him.

So basically what we have here are 3 huge undercover cops in an unmarked van assaulting a skinny 18 year old on a bike who was protecting his friends from getting run over in a monthly scheduled, police sanctioned event.

Yeah, the cops were totally in the right here.

Asshole.

As I said previously "if you challenge someone, whether it's a cop or not, don't be surprised if that challenge is reciprocated."

Do you really believe that they just came flying out of the van and tackled the bike rider for no reason other than he was standing there? Do you believe the bike rider didn't say anything? Do you believe the bike rider didn't make any gestures?

I don't care if they didn't realize it was a cop, you shouldn't challenge an ordinary citizen and then be surprised about what happens. If you're an asshole to the wrong person simply getting arrested could be the least of your problems.

I have no problem with bike riders who at least attempt to be civil, who don't run intersections, who don't ride through crosswalks, who don't ride on sidewalks, etc etc etc. Can you honestly say you see cars run through intersections at a higher rate than you do bicycles?

I have a problem with this group deciding that their time is more important than mine. In the grand scheme of things did those few minutes matter? Of course not. Am I delighted that these hoons received a well deserved comeuppance? Most definately.

Drivers' ignoring of pedestrian crossings has plenty to do with me on foot. It puts me in danger, unlike people (cars or bikes) blocking intersections, which is merely annoying.

Did you read the actual story? If so, you would have noticed that the cyclists didn't know the random road-rage motorist assaulting one of their number was a cop.

I've broken plenty of laws in my life, however, If I happened to do it in front of a cop and then was a prick about it, I wouldn't expect it to end well.

Eldan, please explain to me what a driver sitting in a pedestrian crossing has to do with you on a bike? The biggest problem I have with riders in this city is that they want to be treated as any other vehicle on the road except when it suits them and then they want to be treated as a pedestrian and ride on the sidewalk or through pedestrian areas.

Anyway, I have no empathy towards these guys, if you challenge someone, whether it's a cop or not, don't be surprised if that challenge is reciprocated.

drrew: I'll bear that in mind the next time a driver cuts me up, blows across a pedestrian crossing, stops in an intersection or runs a light. Sadly, I don't have the energy to batter all these people. Could you give me a hand?

drrew (sp?), next time you cut someone off in traffic, do you expect to be dragged from your car and beat?

lighten up and stop taking your precious minutes behind the wheel so seriously.

have you never broken ANY laws in your life?

I think Seattle cops are as crooked as they come but as someone who got stuck at an intersection while these fuckers held up traffic, I have no problem with the fact that he got his ass beat and ended up in jail.

If you want to ride your bike, there are traffic laws, if you feel that those traffic laws don't apply to you, don't start whining when you find yourself face down on the pavement with a knee in your back.

I dunno... I just found the assumption that it must be a hoax, together with the dismissal of us as "bike fetishists" a tad offensive. I hadn't realised it was an in-joke, but that's the risk of writing for the public: a lot of us won't get your in-jokes.

All the same, thanks for giving the story some coverage, and posting the legal defence fund info.

Eldan, I'm friends with one of your number so there was no disrespect. John, I didnt shit on anyone except DMX, no clue if that qualifies as journalism, I wish I was smart enough to sell candybars and I have no idea if you're watching television. God speed, champ.

Is it too much to ask that you treat us with just a little respect, especially after something this shitty happened to one of our number?

take a shit on everyone and call it journalism, pundit. Then sell some candy bars. Am I watching television?