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Int'l Critical Mass round-up

by medley-cp
What happened on the different branches of the San Francisco halloween critical mass of 10/29/05? There were several thousand people in costumes, for a traditionally big ride. After the broadway tunnel, the group of people around me went to the mousetrap. I heard others went towards the Castro. If you have photos, upload them.
The ride was a lot of fun with several elaborate art bikes, and a very long route, and police were effective at halting side streets for a couple minutes as the parade went by.
Supposedly Lawrence Kansas is having a ride. No KC indy report yet
"The Lawrence ride takes off around town the fourth Friday of each month, and on Friday, Kaberline planned for riders to wear Halloween costumes. When he realized that he was the only one dressed in theme, he removed his mummy costume.
After eight bikers arrived, including four riding with the group for the first time, Critical Mass left South Park and rode north on Massachusetts Street."
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/oct/29/cyclists_promote_way_two_wheels/?city_local

Seattle - holding the flagship indymedia, was supposed to have a ride too, but I don't see anything yet. Chicago held one with no reports yet. Instead they're arguing over whether the anarchists should be seen at a protest the RCP is dominating. Philly announced a ride but there is no news yet.

Thunder Bay Ontario - there was a ride http://thunderbay.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/21412.php
There was also an interesting standoff between police and students in Quebec involving an interesting poison gas gun shown in the photo here, although they look like generic anarchists rather than all students. They are demanding no tuition. Why does quebec seem european? Even the most radical americans never outwardly demonstrate for free college education.
http://thunderbay.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/21428.php

Oost Vlaanderen is holding their ride next week, but they have a neat story you can follow with photos of taking air out of tires of SUVS - although anyone who knows anything about traffic in europe realizes there aren't very many SUVs, or even those roundish Buick Vibe looking SUVs that pretend to be station wagons, in Europe.
http://ovl.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/7202.php


Goeteburg, Sverige had a ride - no photos
english description at
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/10/326688.html
"Har länge tänkt på critical mass i sverige. Bra jobbat. Hoppas det kommer många som fan! Uppsalabor som läser detta: vi borde verkligen styra upp oss själva också. Här cyklar ju alla men lik förbannat ska det köras bil i de trevligaste delarna av stan."
http://sweden.indymedia.org/newswire/display/67386/index.php

Brussels had a ride (in french)
click on october photos here
http://placeovelo.collectifs.net/

It looks like Budapest, Hungary is having one, and their indymedia site has a very full and active newswire too.
http://www.criticalmass.hu/ (some photos here)
photo here http://www.indymedia.hu/cikk.shtml?x=25400&all_ids=1#disc


In New York City, dozens of police went sent out the previous day to ticket each cyclist they could find for riding to the far right of the road, not having a bell, and various arcane and nonexistent rules that aren't applied to drivers and pedestrians.
"New York's Finest are swarming Sixth Avenue today handing out tickets to bikes. They'll get you for going the wrong way, riding without a bell, riding without reflectors, and their favorite, not riding in the bike lane.

Higest concentration is in the 20s, 30s and 40s. Every damn block, there they are. Bike cops and regular beefy beat cops. I saw at least 10 different groups of cops pulling people over.

I got a $30 citation for riding on the right side of the street and while I was waiting for my ticket, they pulled over two other guys. The cop told me it's an operation running through tomorrow (Friday).

If possible, stay the hell off Sixth Ave. If you must, be careful. Riding the wrong way is $150.

One cop made some cryptic comment about how if I didn't like a ticket, I should think about who to vote for next month. "I'm not telling you who to vote for, I'm just saying," the cop said. What, is Ferrer some big bike advocate? Strange.

Anyhow, BE CAREFUL. It's a WAR ZONE.

Bikes against Bloomberg!"
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2005/10/59246.html

London: Bike cops outnumbered 100:1 at first mass since attempted criminalisation

The Halloween mass was the first since cops attempted to criminalise the mass. "
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2005/10/59306.html
photos
https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/10/326638.html
There are lots of photo collections coming on on the indymedia.org.uk website.

at german.indymedia Leute tanzen in der Straße vor dem House of Parliament. soweit das Auge blickte...
http://germany.indymedia.org/2005/10/130845.shtml


London ride successful despite warnings
"These cycle protests are not lawful because no organiser has provided police the with the necessary notification. Your participation in this event could render you liable to prosecution.Police policy in facilitating these events is currently under review.

If you intend to organise a future similar event please refer to the Metropolitan Police website, http://www.met.police.uk for details. It is preferable for all parties if a lawful event can be safely facilitated, rather than the Police having to enforce legislation.

signed]

Super intendent Gomm,
New Scotland Yard”

So, full of anticipation, our October ride was very much bigger than usual with the expectation of arrests and goodness knows what else.

Surprise, surprise, the cops backed down and we had a very successful ride. Despite recent government legislation, which bans any unauthorised demonstration and the use of sound systems within 1km of Parliament Square, we even had music and dancing right outside Parliament.

See the video at: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/10/326686.html
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2005/10/59316.html

Critical Mass Santa Cruz!
Has photo of independently constructed trail next to railroad tracks, plus a sea lion they found
"About 50 cyclists took to the streets of Santa Cruz for this year's Halloween Critical Mass at around 5:30pm. The Critical Mass has been growing in the last few months and this mass would have been larger if there was not a confusion (see: "unorganized coincidence") about what time people were meeting at and leaving from the clock tower. Still, numerous riders were able to find the mass in streets and joined in the fun!
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/18886/index.php

Vancouver had a ride- no photos yet
http://www.velolove.bc.ca/

Madison Wisconsin had a ride - this isn't a report
http://madison.indymedia.org/newswire/display/26934/index.php
Portland, no real report yet, but here is on bicycle story\
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/10/327534.shtml
and here is another Portland violent road rage story where the officer outrageously refused to enforce the law, leading to vigilante discussion
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/10/327421.shtml

Los Angeles had a ride. No reports yet, but this announcement
http://www.cicle.org/cm/criticalmass.html
Santa Monica mass next week http://santamonicacriticalmass.org/
Pasadena mass yesterday http://www.criticalmass.pasadena4all.org/

Lille has their velorution next week
http://lille.indymedia.org/breve.php3?id_breve=439

In Bulgaria, it's hard to tell, but in the english version, they did have this event promoting alternative energy throughout eastern europe,
http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/feature/display/4596/index.php
and police arrested some anarchists on a campaign of cleaning off posters left by politicians for an election as part of their 'boycott the election' initiative- last June
http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/feature/display/3465/index.php

and in Greece, the police were angry when protesters stormed the station of the riot police unit, yet again. It sounds more intense than the recent incident in Toledo Ohio http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/newswire/display/5170/index.php

There was a world bank meeting in DC where a crazed SUV driver drove over a protester at high speed: http://lasvegas.staughton.indypgh.org/news/2005/09/3102.php
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jedi
Sun, Oct 30, 2005 6:06AM
urbanbicyclist
Sat, Oct 29, 2005 9:39PM
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