Question on Critical Mass Arrests still not answered
From:
Michelle Gross
Date:
Sep 02 15:31 UTC
Short link
Hugh,
As someone who visited the arrestees in jail on both Friday night and Saturday
morning and saw a lot of film footage taken at the event, I think I can at
least partially answer your questions.
I'm not sure why it matters what the person "did"--but for the record that
person doesn't appear to have done anything illegal. The cops reached in and
grabbed someone who was in the middle of the group and toward the front of the
ride. The second person was arrested for merely asking why the first person
was arrested--and he did that from such a distance that the cops had to run in
to grab him. At no time were the bicyclists a threat to the cops--it was quite
the other way around.
To answer your second question, as far as I could tell from meeting the
arrestees, they were mostly regulars from CM. One guy was a bystander who
happened to get swept up in the incident. There were maybe one or two first
timers with CM. All were completely shocked by the cops' conduct and the fact
that they had a helicopter hovering overhead from the very beginning.
Michelle Gross
CUAPB