Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 15:34:37 -0800 (PST)

From: Jeffrey Dantzler

For me, Critical Mass is an event that I feel deeply compelled to participate in. Aside from a pair of boots, I've been using bikes as my sole form of transportation since I was 17. The close calls with rude or oblivious drivers go unspoken. Feeling marginalized and invisible, eccentric or stupid because I refuse to buy into the auto-centric religion of america is again another experience that certainly you all share. That is why I am drawn in to partake in the Mass with other faceless members of our two-wheeled ilk...

Anger plagues me as it does you. From the blatent disregard of a hurried and stressed-out driver who almost T-boned me in haste yesterday, to the much more insidious notion that people in this country have a god-given right to cheap petroleum. Single occupancy vehicles and the the fact that you and I pay the difference between the real cost ofburning a gallon of gas and the pump price...

Critical Mass empowers us while simultaneously catapulting us as cyclists directly into the public eye. I am acutely aware of the negative (partly due to inaccurate reporting) light in which the last Mass was cast. I want to see us presented more positively so that the real message is clear ie cycling visibility and viability and our right to safe use of the roads we pay for vs. a rag-tag bunch of disgruntled messangers who beat up on the bringers of justice with our bike pumps (it really sucks that couriers are getting so much flak for last Friday).

I can't bring myself to say that we should follow all of the goddamn traffic laws but we should think of the image that we are presenting- especially this coming Friday. Furthermore, photos, accurate personal accounts, and video footage of what transpires at furture masses can only help our cause.

Above all we need a MASSIVE TURNOUT AT MASS THIS FRIDAY !!! (and at all future masses)

No more ranting, see you all at mass,
Jeff

From: Dan Murphy

Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 18:00:54 -0800 (PST)

[ * = Dan Murphy ; ** = Jeff Nachtigal ]

*This is a little story about what i was involved in this Friday night. This is from one of my buds from the cycling club who witnessed the madness with me....I am pretty disturbed that this had to happen, but i am planning on taking steps to clear it up. I added some stuff at the bottom too.

**I thought that I would write a small bit about the Critical Mass ride which occurred on Friday night downtown. Most of you have seen the paper or newscast, but as Dan, Sun, and myself can attest, they did not tell the whole story. This is my view of what happened as a participant in the ride, and having talked with someone who spent today with the arrested cyclists at the West Precinct.

**The ride started peacefully from Westlake about 5:30, 75 riders or so. We headed south on Second, then north into the Denny Regrade, then back south down Fifth towards Madison Street. The ride was one of the calmest I have ridden, almost no cars honked or were slowed down by us, we rolled through many stop lights, but no cops were to be seen. This part of the ride went about 30 minutes, I carried on several conversations with different people, things were cool.

**The ride turned up Marion St. off of Fifth, and there were shout of "to the freeway", but that didn't end up happening, we crossed the overpass and headed up Madison St. toward Capitol Hill. I was in back, last bike at this point, and one police car came up behind me- the first cop I had seen on the ride. He got on his loudspeaker and told us it was illegal to ride more than two abreast, and to pull to the right side of the road. Then he turned on his lights and siren and came up behind us, repeating the order to pull over. Then he singled out one guy and said "you in the green, pull over" The guy in the green took off up the street, into the middle of the ride. Later, that guy showed me a ticket he received later, for not having reflectors. The cop went off at this point, accelerating into oncoming traffic, cutting off three cars in the left lane headed up the hill, and into the middle of the group of bikes in the right lane of traffic.

**The next thing I see from the back is the cop on foot chasing another bike rider down Madison street on the other side of the road, in front of the Sorrento Hotel. I did not see why the cop was chasing this rider, it was a different person from the original "green" rider. The cop caught the bike and after the rider slammed into a tree on the sidewalk, the cop put him on the ground and started to handcuff him. The group of about 50 bikes in the ride moved across the street and surrounded the cop. I stood back a little bit and watched things happen, as most people did. Several riders got up the cop's face and shouted at him, "get his badge number", "take a picture of this", and "what are you doing this for" were things I heard. I did not see anyone hit the cop or in any way physically assault him the officer. I watched the cop reach for his shoulder mike, and realized things were really going to hit the fan in a few minutes when the backup arrived.

**A few minutes went by, people yelled at the cop, he yelled back, and sirens got closer. Then all at once about 10 cars pulled up and cops were chasing people and wrestling them to the ground, all under the spotlight of the circling helicopter. All I could think of was Rodney King, and not looking like I was going to fight. I stood in the middle of things, as most people did, until the cops pepper sprayed and told everyone to disperse in less than 1 minute or face arrest. I joined the crowd of well dressed people on the sidewalk and began to explain to onlookers that it was not a bomb scare, it was bikes and cops who stopped the ride. People were very upset that this was happening, four people I talked to expressed outrage that police were spending so much effort to subdue bike riders.

**The media reported that 7 officers were hurt, I know that one bike rider swung his bike around as cops trided to tackle him. One cop was cut on the cheek by a chainring, and released later that night from the hospital. The rider had his wrist broken when they took him down. I saw people running, and cops tackling them, but very little actual fighting other than the swinging bike incident. That guy is facing felony charges for asaulting an officer, as are at least one of the other of the four arrested.

**Personally, I am very sorry that a conflict arose at all. Critical Mass rides are about awareness, not confrontation or lawlessness. A ride I was on one summer friday during a Mariner game was escorted by police, as was the last ride I did three months ago in which three cars lead and followed with lights going- not stopping the ride, but escorting us. I believe that one cop decided to take control of things on Friday night and went way to far. His actions directly escalated a peaceful ride into a violent confrontation which was completely unnecessary. I am not advocating what the arrested riders did, but in this instance I think the cop was way out of line and was the starting point of the violence.

**I would like to reiterate that the critical mass ride started peacefully, and proceeded without incident until the police intervened. The purpose of the ride, and I believe that every rider who took part will say this, is to raise awareness for bikes on the road. It is not to confront police or cars, but to ride as a group and make people take notice that bikes have rights and are a growing part of the community. The next ride is the last friday of February, the 28th, 5:30 pm at Westlake Center.

**Jeff Nachtigal

*Just a couple things i would like to add here. First, i did see one girl push the first cop, but nothing serious. i heard on the news that 5 cops were reported injured but never saw them, and i did see some cops get out of hand, one of them throwing a bike towards some riders. In addition, there were 19 cop cars, three helicopters, and a paddy wagon. There's nothing quite like the blood-curdling sound of a guy who's being held on the ground in one of those fancy riot-control holds that is grinding his splintered wrist bones together. In case you wanted to know MY part in all of this, i was basically an awestruck bystander. i regret my decision to remain passive while one of my fellow riders was being brutalized, but i really did not know what to do. i am going to add my name to the list of complainants at the West Precinct downtown. there was no reason for this.

*cheers,

*dan

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 21:00:39 -0800 (PST)

From: Christine Petersen

here I am to fill your email boxes again. well, this critical mass had a lot of people. sorry, I couldn't get in contact Sharif. there were about 80 people, and 85% were bike messenger types. They were going a lot faster than the last one I was on, where we were just creeeping down the street and they had 'die ins' in the intersections, which I find unaesthetic because I envision some driver on crack stepping on it and running us all over. but anyway, the lights were turning green for us, there were few conflicts with cars, we went down 2nd, up 3rd by the zapatista rally people near the bon marche, then up 5th avenue, then the messengers all shot up this steep hill to go up capitol hill, sort of competing and showing off and going pretty fast. so our group was semi stretched out but pretty close. again, no incident so far. then one police car started following us and shouted out rules that we had to get to the right lane and ride only 2 abreast, and last time everyone went really slowly and smiled as though the police couldn't do anything, but this time people took off again like they were being pursued. then the cop singled out one guy 'you in the green bag, pull over, and he stood on the gas and drove ahead then quickly stopped his car and got out and lunged for green backpack guy who was Chris from ABC messengers (not short Chris though) and the biker quickly turned to spring the other way and the police ran and tackled him, striking the biker's head on a tree, ouch. then the biker just went limp etc. and didn't fight, but then all 80 of the rest of us surrounded the one police officer watching, and for 2 minutes there was absolutely no violence, and not much screaming, but the police was freaking out and called for backup and got out his mace can. then as 8 other units arrived, Lee P. asked for his badge number, to which he responded by spraying some mace, and a girl and some others shoved some police officers. and it's like, Dumb Asse. that one person turned the tables from us being the victims to us being the aggressors and so we will look very bad on TV. and so they arrested 3 people plus the green backpack guy. and within like 6 minutes flat all the TV stations were there, and a lot of the messengers were totally happy to get on TV but I didn't want to be. The king 5 person was doing a live promo 'two police officers were sent to the hospital tonight during 'critical mass', but honestly, I didn't see anything that violent happening to the police officers. But I was busy getting passersby on our side. there were people from yesler Terrace and some old people at the hospitals showing me pictures of their mobile home in gig harbor and they seemed to agree with us. the arrested people are probably toast. 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. Action news! There is no leader of critical mass but I think next time we should possibly consider getting everyone to agree to strict nonviolence, and possibly some other items of code, like staying in a group, not challenging belligerent drivers if it seems there is real possibility of injury etc.

Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 20:25:58 -0500 (EST)

From: "lee p."

ok, here's what i saw, police-wise. i hope it answers some of your questions.

The critical mass riders were on Madison, crossing the I-5 overpass between 6th and 7th ave. I was near the front of the pack at that point. We hesitated crossing the I-5 off-ramp due to the large amount of fast traffic. But then there was a lull and we continued with the ride. As we began heading uphill again, I realized that there was a police car behind us - there was an officer's voice coming from the car's PA system - just the normal "you must be two abreast" and "move to the right" type of stuff. I wasn't too disturbed by this as I've ridden in other critical masses in which a police car will follow the ride. In fact, this happened in the seattle critical mass in October - but during that ride the police eventually became bored with following us and moved on to some other "problem" in the city.

So there the mass was, riding up Madison, past 8th, past 9th, and the front part of the group was making a right onto Terry Ave when it became apparent that the cop had done something. We then turned our bikes around to check it out. I expected to see a few people getting tickets - for this tactic (giving out tickets) seems to dampen the "fun" of a critical mass ride and more or less puts an end to the group ride, at least as i have witnessed it in places like Columbus and Portland. But in Seattle, when I rode back to the center of attention, I saw one cop hovering over some male on the ground. The cop was telling the kid that he was under arrest but the kid was passively resisting arrest (just staying limp, etc.). The rest of the riders formed a semi-circle around the cop, trying to see what was happening. I looked around and saw the cops car in the street (blocking traffic) and realized that he was the only cop there. Much later, I would be only one of many to call the cop inexperienced - for there he was, alone, nearly surrounded by a group of 50-100 people, trying to arrest someone on the ground, trying to call for backup, and then threatening to mace people. Those of us witnessing the arrest attempted to ask the officer (whose name is C.S. Myers) why the person was under arrest and we also asked him for his badge number. The officer never replied to these questions, although it was obvious that he heard them. People got a bit closer to him to yell at him (and ask him the above questions) and the officer reached for the mace he had and threatened several people with it ("get back!"). He was still trying to put cuffs (the good ole kind, not the riot cuffs!) on the arrestee. One wrist was in the handcuffs and the cop seemed to be trying to flip the guy over so that he could cuff the other hand (for the person was on their back and the cop wanted to cuff behind the back). The person on the ground had troubles getting his other arm around and was yelling something like "I can't, I can't!" During this whole time, I kept looking around to survey the scene - checking out the bus the was attempting to go around the mass of people, seeing if other cops were there attacking people yet (no), etc. I looked back at the cop in the center of the circle and saw a female reach forward and attempt to push him a little. I do not know if she (or anyone else) had just been maced by him. He moved back when she reached out and so I don't even know if she actually touched him. This may have been the female who was later arrested for assaulting an officer. The person on the ground under arrest moved around a little. It was around this point that things got confusing.

Suddenly there were a lot more cops on the scene. The original cop was chasing someone, perhaps the female mentioned above, perhaps someone else. The person on the ground (Chris Heitmenn) _did_ get fully arrested though - I asked Chris for his name as two cops took him off the street. I looked around and saw at least nine cop cars in the area between 9th and Terry, blocking traffic (and witnesses) from the area. The city bus, however, was still stuck in the middle of all of this. I also saw some cops running around and chasing people. I never saw a bike thrown so I dont know if that happened or not. Oh, right after the backup cops arrived, nearly everyone moved themselves and their bikes onto the sidewalk. So anyhow - cops were running around, one pushed me from behind so that he could continue to chase someone. I went over to an area in which two people were getting cuffed. I attempted to get their names, but could not hear them. The cops kept telling me to move away and I kept asking them if I was interfering with the arrest. Everyone then heard a cop state that we had one minute to disperse from the area (or the sidewalk, as the case may be). One cop displayed a tank of pepper spray to us. By this time, some critical mass people had scattered far away, others were trying to locate their bikes, others were trying to locate the bikes of the arrested people, and others were simply standing around, confused at what all was going on. I saw some rider try to ask something of a cop, the cop simply yelled you now have 45 seconds! I looked around and saw cops scattered everywhere - for this was a strange site - I am used to seeing cops very organized (i.e. anti-klan rallies, various demos, etc.) but in that seattle street they had absolutely no idea what was going on. I started to move up the sidewalk (and out of the area) when I looked at the city bus and noticed a woman sitting near the back of it, looking out at all of the proceedings. Right outside her window was a cop with a tank of pepper spray, threatening us with it. He was facing us, the sidewalk people, and he was around 15 feet away from me. Seeing as how I wanted to find out exactly who it was that was about to splash chemicals on people, I yelled out to him, asking for his badge number. He looked over to me and turned on the spray. He then sprayed the crowd of people to my right, many of which were leaving the area. It is very possible that his manner of spraying caused several cops near him to get hit by the chemical. This may explain why a few cops had to go to the hospital. Most of us riders then proceeded to go up to the Terry/Madison intersection where the police seemed to allow us to gather. The cop who sprayed us seemingly disappeared, for I could not locate him the rest of the evening.

During the next 30 or so minutes, the media showed up, the cops stood around talking to each other, the riders exchanged information and talked to people watching the whole event, and people just generally tried to get a better idea of what went on. People are still trying to do that.

-lee p.

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