Copyright 1997 The University of Washington Daily

Feb. 6, 1997

Taking a critical look at Critical Mass

Violence broke out last week between Seattle Police and participants in Critical Mass, an anti-car protest group. Local media claimed that cyclists instigated the fight, but there's another side to the story

Cameron Chapman

Daily Staff

Last Friday, the disorganized monthly bike ride known as Critical Mass was the subject of a police crackdown. "Mass," a loose-knit protest against car culture, was confronted by Seattle’s finest on First Hill near I-5. Nineteen police cars, one misleading police report and five arrests later, the incident has turned into one of the most reprehensible media botch-ups in recent memory.

There is no one defined reason for participating in Mass. Lacking a centralized organization, Mass rides are generally not advertised, and riders show up independent of each other. Some are bike messengers, others are frequent cyclists or leisure riders.

Most feel marginalized in cities where car usage is paradigmatic and polluting, where few roads are safe for bikes, where auto congestion is exhausting. All of them feel that civil disobedience is an acceptable way of bringing attention to these issues.

But the non-confrontational essence of Mass was not discussed in TV accounts of the incident or Saturday's write-ups in The Seattle Times and the Post-Intelligencer.

For example, Saturday's Times stated, "The group turned uphill on Madison and some of them assaulted seven officers," and that "violence erupted." Without doubt, the diction employed in Saturday's newspapers set a definitive tone, one reporters wouldn't have thought appropriate had they done their jobs. In all of the immediate coverage, in fact, bikers were construed as having initiated the confrontation with police.

Earlier in the Saturday article, the Times stated the cyclists were arrested for "attacking" a group of officers. Such wording implies that the "attacks" were instigated by the bikers.

The TV news coverage set a similar mood. A helicopter rushed to the scene to get action shots which did not exist, although the atmosphere created by showing the nineteen squad cars on the scene implied a riot.

The Sunday Times presented a more favorable image of Mass and was careful to qualify Friday's events with words such as "allegedly," and "according to police reports." However, much of the story, the side of the ride's participants, was left out.

Though I didn't witness the confrontation, I participated in the ride and have spoken with numerous eyewitnesses. This is what really happened.

Friday's Mass included the usual running of red lights (though riders give people in cars time to react), yelling, hollering, grinning and slowly meandering through the city streets. As the group of nearly 100 riders rode east on Madison over the freeway, a police car started nipping at our heels, and the officer told us to pull over. Police have followed riders on previous rides and attempted to contain them, but have never acted in the way that Officer Chris Myers did on that day.

As we crossed 9th, Myers turned on his siren and began to bark over the loudspeaker. The auto traffic heading east on Madison was backed up in the left lane, so the pack squeezed through the open right hand lane. The police report stated that these vehicles "were deadlocked by the large group," when in fact the cars were already stopped there. As in the past, bikers were wary of the police presence, but ignored it. None of the Critical Mass riders was looking for confrontation.

Officer Chris Myers addressed a rider with green clothing over his loudspeaker, and moved recklessly through traffic to get his man. But according to witness Susanne Carlson, the man Myers eventually arrested for assault and resisting arrest, Christopher Heitmann, was not the man he originally addressed.

Myers may have confused his suspect in his disoriented rush to catch him. One witness, Jeff Nachtigal, stated what many other observers have corroborated: "The cop became overly aggressive at this point, accelerating into the oncoming traffic, cutting off three cars in the left lane up the hill and [pulling] into the middle of the group of bikes in the right lane." If the original reason for Heitmann's arrest was hazardous riding, Myers should have been cited, too.

The question of why the officer singled out this individual remains unanswered. The police report implies the he was commanded to stop for running a red light, while the Times wrote, "the violence erupted when an officer (Myers) tried to stop one bicyclist who was hitting a vehicle." If the police can't settle on the reason for Heitmann's arrest, why was there such urgency to stop him?

According to witnesses, Heitmann did not resist arrest. Police reports and news coverage suggest that Heitmann struggled, and that the other enraged cyclists surrounded the arresting officer, supposedly thirsty for SPD blood.

The temper of these bikers was reported by the media as it appeared in the police report: the group was "closing in on officer Myers. The group was very hostile and combative ... Myers directly ordered [the group] to leave the area and clear the street." What Myers faced was not a combative group, but one that knew it was legally entitled to watch the arrest.

Many did, however, "get in the cop's face and shout at him, saying 'Get his badge number,' 'Take a picture of this,' or 'What are you doing this for?'" stated Nachtigal.

At about this time, other police began to arrive. As I proceeded east, I saw several police, in cars and on bikes, speeding toward the intersection of Terry and Madison. I heard sirens approaching from other directions, descending upon the scene. A helicopter with spotlight circled overhead, and Mass was turned into a media event, a conveniently constructed riot.

The chaos created by the arriving troops caused many participants to move away from the scene. Others stayed despite warnings to disperse.

Many corroborated the story Nachtigal gave: "I saw people running, and cops tackling them, but no fighting except for the swinging bike incident," when one biker protected himself from police officers by holding his bike in front of him. Local news stated that the bicyclists had attacked the police, but of the eight witnesses I talked to, and the eight others whose accounts I have read, all disagreed.

The news media's glaring error was that of using unsubstantiated police reports in their account of Friday's events. Of course, this is a well-known practice in "spot" news, but those providing us with the news that inevitably form our opinions should take the time to get the other side of the story.

Christine (last name withheld), who witnessed the incident, commented, "The King 5 person was doing a live [spot], saying 'Two police officers were sent to the hospital tonight during critical Mass,' but honestly, I didn't see anything violent happening to the police officers. Then I heard the ambulance chaser from Channel 4 talking on his cell phone to his boss and they were talking about how they didn't have enough good live footage of violence, so they probably will can the story."

The story ran regardless. Did KOMO have no news more worthy than a massive police overreaction?

At any rate, the images on the TV and the words used in newspaper briefs set a mood that has been difficult to overcome. People whose exposure to Critical Mass is limited to these accounts will be fooled into thinking that it's a marauding biker gang, not a monthly act of nonviolent civil disobedience.

False impressions created by the news, when based on sensation instead of fact, are difficult to reclaim. As noted author and social critic Noam Chomsky has said, "It takes one minute to tell a lie, and ten minutes to refute it."

If you wish to see Critical Mass for yourself, or to participate in solidarity with other bike riders, come to 4th and Pine at 5:30 p.m. on Friday for an ad hoc Critical Mass, in response to the debacle created by Seattle's media and the police.

Copyright © 1996 The Daily of the University of Washington