Critical Mass Radio Broadcast Friday!!

Here is an article about the brave riders in the Los Angeles 2000 Democratic Nat'l Convention Critical Mass and how they were all arrested. The police were being testy and opened fire with rubber bullets at the Rage against the Machine audience the day before. A line of 15 police cars drove through the city randomly all day with sirens blaring to create tension:
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
http://www.ainfos.ca/
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It's pretty difficult right now finding minute-by-minute info from the
streets of L.A. L.A. Indymedia site has been hard to reahc this evening. I've
been in touch with an anarchist via a cell who is down there. That person
reported an hour ago that the cops were following anarchists and activists
who looked like anarchist, even as they just walked around.

Just a few minutes ago there was a flurry of traffic on the police scanner
about anarchists and a gay rights march that just started. The police said
that the march organizers were "trying to keep the anarchists separate from
the march." They went on to say that "if anarchists get near the march, that
march organizers wearing red armbands will keep them away."

Sounds like peace cops who are working with the cops. They don't realize that
anarchists are alreadyin the march. Not all of us wear black all the time!

There was a bunch of animal rights activists arrested earlier for "attempted
vandalism" of several fur stores.

There was a Critical Mass that started 2-3 hours ago. No word about what
happened.


Critical Mass Bicyclists Setup and Arrested

by A Pennsylvania Farmer 9:34pm Tue Aug 15 '00

Tuesday, 15 August 2000 - Los Angeles – At 6:20 P.M., PST, Police entrapped
and arrested about 40 Critical Mass bicyclists near the convention center.
Critical Mass is an event repeated across the world in which bikers get
together and bike around a city in support of bike friendly policies.

Critical Mass Bicyclists Setup and Arrested

Tuesday, 15 August 2000

Los Angeles – At 6:20 P.M., PST, Police entrapped and arrested about 40
Critical Mass bicyclists near the convention center. Critical Mass is an
event repeated across the world in which bikers get together and bike around
a city in support of bike friendly policies.

Police forced the bikers to head North on 18th Street against the one-way
sign. There was very little traffic on the street. The police had diagonally
barricaded the intersection at 18th and Washington forcing bikers to head
North on 18th Street. At the intersection of Flower and 18th, some of the
group tried to get on a sidewalk but bike police surrounded them. The police
corralled the bikers beneath the I-10 Freeway. This was very convenient for
the police because there were no East or West avenues of dispersal due to
large chain link fences on both sides. The police completely barricaded the
northern and southern ends of the street.

This was an ideal place to barricade people and arrest them – there were no
buildings around and almost no bypassers. A few bikers managed to head South
through a gate in the chain link fence but a brigade of 40 riot cops in
formation confronted them 40 yards away and forced them back to 18th street.
The riot cops did not just appear out of nowhere – they were obviously placed
strategically to seal off this avenue of dispersal.

After police completely surrounded the people, cops in tactical blue uniforms
threw them up against a chain link fence and starting throwing the bikes into
the roadway. The cops gave the bikers no opportunities to disperse. The cops
did not begin any dialogue in order to reach any level of understanding. Cops
with batons told them to get their hands on their heads.

About a dozen press and bystanders gathered on the corner coming from the
Independent Media Center one block away. Two cops, Officer Sandwell and
Officer Wilcox charged at the press and bystanders with batons out. Sandwell
threatened one man standing on the sidewalk, “You want to be a part of this?”
Sandwell was implying that if the man did not obey his “order” to get back
then Sandwell would arrest the man for whatever charge Sandwell found
appropriate. Sandwell pushed several people with the butt of his baton. One
officer yelled, “Put the camera down.” Some citizens tried to talk to the
cops and ask why they were being pushed back. The cops were surprised by this
and seemed dumbfounded when anyone questioned their authority. In any event,
the crowd of citizens had grown to about two dozen and they remained on the
sidewalk forced to be about 40 yards from the prisoners. Police tactical
teams came pouring into the area bringing total police numbers close to one
hundred. Four shotgunners and six cops with tear gas guns stood with their
hands close to their triggers ready to fire into the small quiet crowd. At
one point a woman asked, “What are they being arrested with?” The ranks of
police in dark uniforms just stared at the crowd. One cop in a black uniform
videotaped the crowd in an obvious attempt to get photos of everyone in the
area.

Police CHIP (California Highway Patrol) units started arriving and binding
the bikers with plastic handcuffs. One riot cop told the citizen crowd to
head south to the other side of the street. A line of riot cops began moving
down the street to enforce this order. Suddenly, six CHIP cops rushed the
crowd to grab a bicyclist that had not been surrounded by the other cops and
had been talking to the press about what had happened. The woman did not
resist and the cops took her away.

Some citizens sang songs about freedom and liberty (“My country ‘tis of thee”
and “This land is your land” while others chanted briefly (“Shame!,” “This is
a police state!,” “Whose streets? Our streets!”).

One cop with a shotgun “made” a man standing on the corner with a scarf over
his face. By this, I mean that the cop selected the man with the scarf,
tracked him, told other cops about him, and perceived him as a threat “to be
neutralized.” Quickly, a squad of 12 riot cops formed into a two by six
formation and prepared to bum-rush the citizens to grab this man standing on
the corner with a scarf on his face. A citizen alerted this man to what was
about to happen and told him to split. He began to walk west on Flower Street
towards Figouera Street. The police tactical commander moved up the street
and followed the man with the scarf to the edge of the police ranks. The
tactical squad waited to be given the order to run at the citizens and grab
the man with the scarf. Eventually, the man with the scarf was too far from
the edge of the police line for them to attack him in strength.


Then, the same cop with the shotgun made two other men with blue bandanas on
their face half way up the block and the tactical team prepared to attack
these two men. Again, a citizen told them what was going to happen and they
beat it down the street.

By the time this reporter left the scene, it was not clear what the cops were
going to do with the bikers that they had setup and taken into custody
ostensibly for the safety of the citizenry of Los Angeles.
A CHRONOLOGY OF THE AUGUST 15 CRITICAL MASS ARRESTS FOR BIKE RIDING IN LOS ANGELES

by Jim Smith
L.A. Labor News

(as told by Adam Schell, who rode and was arrested)

Evening of Aug. 14:

Schell attends the Shadow Convention at Patriotic Hall. While there, he notices an announcement of tomorrow’s Critical Mass ride in the L.A. Weekly. He had never been on a Critical Mass ride before, but believes in their advocacy of bike riding as an alternative to smog-belching automobiles that clog our streets and freeways.

August 15

5:30 pm: About 150 cyclists assemble at 5th and Flower. There are also about 30 bike cops nearby. They were “really mellow,” says Schell.

5:30 - 6:10 pm: The riders cruise through downtown streets with the cops usually riding behind them. The 150 riders grew to more than 200 as more bike riders see the procession and join them (including bike messengers).
Schell says at least 25 percent of the riders had no idea what Critical Mass was, including one visitor from Holland who was on a bike and joined in.

There was very little auto traffic downtown because of the convention and the protests, but from time to time, the bike cops waved the riders through intersections. At other times, some of the cyclists acted as traffic guards at intersections while the procession passed.

6:10 pm: The Critical Mass riders approach 19th and Flower. Suddenly a large group of California Highway Patrol motorcycle cops appear and “herd” the bikes to a Santa Monica Freeway underpass where LAPD riot police are waiting. About two-thirds of the cyclists see the trap and escape. Schell and 69 other cyclists are not so lucky. Some of the “mellow” bike cops are now taking their batons out and approaching the cornered cyclists. A police captain has to restrain them.

6:15 pm: Schell is one of 70 riders who is arrested and handcuffed. No cease or disperse order had been given prior to the sudden arrests. None of the ever-present cops had warned them to break it up or told them that they were doing anything illegal.

6:15 - 11:30 pm: All 70 cyclists are kept handcuffed at the arrest scene for five hours.

11:30 pm: They are taken by bus to the county jail. Two journalists - from the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune - identify themselves and are released at their booking.

August 16

3:30 am: Schell is fingerprinted, photographed and relieved of his personal property. He finishes the booking process and is taken to his cell.

7:30 am: Jail clothes (blues) are issued.

8:30 am: Schell and the others are taken to an arraignment room where they are kept for 12 hours. It is a small, hot room with no windows. Repeated requests by prisoners to use a phone are denied.

Art Goldberg, an attorney and legal observer, is allowed in to talk with them. He gets names and numbers and calls their parents and loved ones after he leaves.

Just before their arraignment they are allow to see a public defender. Schell says she tried to do her best, but was overwhelmed with the volume of cases.

In the courtroom there are four prosecutors up against their lone public defender. Schell is arraigned and begins the long process of release from custody. He is again fingerprinted.

5:30 - 8:30 pm: Processing out continues for most of the cyclists. Schell is among the first to walk out of jail, a “free” man.

The 17 women who were among those arrested did not have it so easy. They were subjected to body cavity strip searches twice. They were told to “bend over, spread their vaginas and cough.” The women were taken the long way around to their cells and were “paraded” before male inmates on the way.

The arrests and treatment of the bike riders was a gross example of police overreaction and misconduct. The Critical Mass arrests were the largest single group of arrests during the convention protests. Most cyclists were charged with “reckless driving,” for which a citation is usually issued. Not one of the 70 who was arrested had a prior criminal record, says Schell.

Critical Mass has been having monthly bike rides around Los Angeles for several years now and has never had trouble with the police before. Of course, Adam Schell and 64 of the other cyclists who were arrested wouldn’t know that from first hand experience since none of them had ever been on a Critical Mass ride before. But they did have many hours to sit and talk with the five who had ridden on one.

Schell is out on bail now but his bike is still in jail. It will be held as evidence until his court date on Sept. 1. The final insult was when the judge most likely violated the cyclists constitutional rights by ordering all of them, including the bike messengers, not to ride a bike before the trial or “they would be rearrested.”