Major Incident at Critical Mass bike rally
From:
Tony Webster
Date:
2007 Sep 01 02:34 UTC
Short link
Peter, I agree with your comments.
I am very upset about what happened at Critical Mass. I don't know
everything that did occur and I'm not going to point fingers at the bikers
or police, but this should be a peaceful event. From what I witnessed and
photographed, several people had red faces from being maced, and there were
many upset bikers -- yelling in rage and crying in fear near the
SuperAmerica in Loring Park. A police officer at Groveland and LaSalle in
squad #530 (maybe #540) was using their announcement system to demand that
the group of bikers split up, or they would be arrested. A group of
marching MPD and HCSO officers followed the group, some with mace in-hand.
On the 2400-block of Nicollet, several bikers were being searched and
arrested.
I've heard other rumors, which I am hesitant to repeat, but they ranged from
police officers being assaulted by bikers and police officers hitting bikers
with their squad cars. Of course, I don't know what's true.
Photos at http://flickr.com/photos/diversey/sets/72157601796064051/
I would love to hear from others at the event and learn what happened. This
can and should always be a peaceful rally in support of bicycling.
Tony Webster
University
On 8/31/07, Peter Vevang <<email obscured>> wrote:
>
> I just spoke with my brother via cell phone, apparently there has been a
> major incident at the Critical Mass bike rally, where a large group of bike
> riders, 100 to 200 strong, rides the city streets. This incident seems to
> have been sparked when a biker strayed across the yellow line and the police
> arrested him. I don't know the details yet, but there were dozens of police
> involved, people were maced, cuffed, and force was used to subdue
> individuals, and there were apparently several arrests. It seems there were
> some anarchists in the crowd, and the police may have been provoked, and
> there was a large overreaction in both the crowd and by the police. This is
> extremely unfortunate.
>
> I think the city government needs to react to this immediately. Up until
> now Critical Mass has largely been free of incidents and has gone on for
> many years peacefully. I have only been a bystander to these events and
> always found them amusing, and good natured as the bikers take an equal
> footing to automobiles on our city streets. These types of events happen
> frequently in the biking community, and there is the potential for long term
> escalation if steps are not taken to diffuse the situation due to the nature
> of the incident.
>
> If there are policy makers reading this, or members of the Peace
> Community, now would be a good time to step in and try to defuse the
> situation. At the next critical mass event, it would be good to see members
> of the peace community there, as well as people who can negotiate with the
> police in order to deal with disturbances, and to avoid
> misunderstandings. The last thing Minneapolis needs at this point is a
> Seattle style riot in the lead up to the GOP convention, and this has all
> the earmarks for creating an environment that is going to bring out a severe
> backlash. Also our police are overworked, working 60 hour weeks in some
> cases. We don't need to waste our resources on this.
>
> Peter Vevang
> NE, Minneapolis
> Info about Peter Vevang:
> http://forums.e-democracy.org/contacts/petervevang
>
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--
Tony Webster
612-669-9559 (c)
877-311-1700 (f)
.