Bikers are Awesome! The NYPD eats it's words, and donuts!
I am so happy to link to this article. Bikes are the best! Boo to the NYPD for sucking really hard. Basically, the deal is that the NYPD hates bikers and especially the Critical Mass rides, which are times at which bikers all over the world take a bike ride. The rides are not parades - there are no organizers, there are no leaders, there are no floats and no prizes. It is simply a time when bikers get out on the street to remind motorists that bikes are traffic too, and that we have a right to safely use the streets. The NYPD has repeatedly arrested people for biking lawfully during these times and has even resorted to calling bikers terrorists and employing undercover police officers to "infiltrate" the biking community.
Since the article will expire soon, here is an exerpt.
"The city had demanded that they [crit mass riders] be barred from assembling in Union Square Park, the customary gathering point before each month's ride, unless someone obtained a permit. The judge said that made little sense because anyone could turn up in the park and no permit was required for "casual use."
As a practical matter, Justice Stallman wrote, the city did not explain how it could tell the difference between people who were gathering for the Critical Mass rides from anyone else who happened to be in the park. The city's assumption that anyone with a bicycle could be barred "is simply guilt by association," he wrote.
The judge said the city had wrongly argued that the Critical Mass rides were a form of parade or procession that required a permit because the riders "travel en masse." Following the city's reasoning, the judge wrote, "New Yorkers commuting over the Brooklyn Bridge on bicycles during a transit strike could be considered as 'bicycling en masse.' " Such a restriction, he said, raised constitutional concerns.
"Riding a bicycle on city streets is lawful conduct, as long as one observes the applicable traffic laws and rules," he wrote.
See also here, here, and here for "biased" accounts.
Here is a link to an AWESOME group who is helping the poor bikers who got arrested. Kudos!
Since the article will expire soon, here is an exerpt.
"The city had demanded that they [crit mass riders] be barred from assembling in Union Square Park, the customary gathering point before each month's ride, unless someone obtained a permit. The judge said that made little sense because anyone could turn up in the park and no permit was required for "casual use."
As a practical matter, Justice Stallman wrote, the city did not explain how it could tell the difference between people who were gathering for the Critical Mass rides from anyone else who happened to be in the park. The city's assumption that anyone with a bicycle could be barred "is simply guilt by association," he wrote.
The judge said the city had wrongly argued that the Critical Mass rides were a form of parade or procession that required a permit because the riders "travel en masse." Following the city's reasoning, the judge wrote, "New Yorkers commuting over the Brooklyn Bridge on bicycles during a transit strike could be considered as 'bicycling en masse.' " Such a restriction, he said, raised constitutional concerns.
"Riding a bicycle on city streets is lawful conduct, as long as one observes the applicable traffic laws and rules," he wrote.
See also here, here, and here for "biased" accounts.
Here is a link to an AWESOME group who is helping the poor bikers who got arrested. Kudos!
posted by Kevin at 10:04 AM
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