Critical Mass Does Live!
Yesterday I met Peter at his office after work and we walked through downtown getting some things and then going to a friend of his’s place for dinner-snacks and video games. And there were all these bicyclists at Fourth and Pine inside that scary little plaza where all the smelly people congregate. Peter didn’t know what it was and I mused, “I wonder if it’s Critical Mass? Is that still going on? Although I thought it was the second-to-last Friday of the month…”
Power Line – Bicyclists gone wild
Today’s Star Tribune gives us a preview of the festitivities planned by radical groups for the Republican convention in St. Paul next summer: “19 bicyclists arrested after rally turns into melee.” The Star Tribune reports:
Police arrested 19 bicyclists, including three juveniles, after a protest ride took an ugly turn in downtown Minneapolis Friday night.
About 200 bicyclists were riding on La Salle Avenue, with two officers monitoring the protest that called for reduced reliance on automobile transportation. The ride was also linked with weekend protests of next year’s Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities.
You know, I took the bus downtown. I haven’t owned a car since I was 19. I should have joined them and become their god.
When officers tried to arrest a rider they felt had been trying to provoke them, a scuffle broke out, said Minneapolis Police Lt. Marie Przynski.
“When the officer went to arrest him, his buddy came up, and they started to struggle with the officer,” Przynski said.
A group surrounded the officers, and begin to chant “Let them go!”Then several people tried to prevent the officers from arresting these individuals,” she said, and a skirmish ensued.
Soon, the two officers were surrounded by about 30 people, and they issued the call “officer needs help.”
That brought 48 officers from six different law enforcement agencies racing to the scene, where the situation escalated and the officers used chemical Mace in an attempt to control the crowd, Przynski said.
Awesome!
September 2nd, 2007 at 3:43 am
I was in the smelly brigade at one time, and although never an “activist” came across plenty. With most of these types the cycling was incidental and I would always take the opportunity to look down my nose at their inferior equipment (everyone knows only Shimano will do – or Campagnolo, if you must) and show up their lacklustre cycling abilities by charging up hills at twice their pitiful pace. Tedious lot.
September 2nd, 2007 at 5:06 am
I know your type Brett, I take comfort in my Campy and my efficiency. :) And Lawz, Ima have purdy signal orange too.
September 2nd, 2007 at 6:03 am
Hehe! Sprung!
September 2nd, 2007 at 6:43 am
Regarding bikes with engines, I just watched the Italian round of the MotoGP (the Formula One of two-wheels). The result was Aussie(1)-Aussie(2)-American(3). That’s gotta hurt!
The 21 year old Casey Stoner – from Newcastle! (well, Kurri Kurri – about 12 miles from here) – has just about sealed the world title. Yay!
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:26 am
I hate bikes. I couldn’t wait to get into high school because it was just down the street from my house and I wouldn’t have to use my bike anymore. The first summer I visited Peter back in our salad days we went to Cape Cod for a week and one day rented bikes, and Peter was making fun of me that I didn’t know how the changing gears thing worked. What a jerk.
And I dunno how the bicyclists smelled, but the usual inhabitants of that plaza tend to smell for a different reason, and not because they’ve had any exercise within living memory.
September 3rd, 2007 at 2:18 am
Isn’t Seattle a bit hilly for bicycles?
September 3rd, 2007 at 6:04 am
Hills are good for you. I’ve fallen in love with cycling. It’s weird. Wish I’d figured this out sooner.
September 3rd, 2007 at 7:34 am
In that case come and live in Edinburgh, we’ve got all the hills a bicyclist could ever need.
September 3rd, 2007 at 10:52 am
Hills are awful.
The only good thing about bicycles is that there’s so little air in their skinny little tires that it’s entirely plausible that on a cold day they’d deflate on their own rather than you sneaking outside to let the air out of them so you can tell your mother they’ve gone flat so she has to drive you to school.
September 3rd, 2007 at 4:14 pm
it’s entirely plausible that on a cold day they’d deflate on their own rather than you sneaking outside to let the air out of them so you can tell your mother they’ve gone flat so she has to drive you to school.
We’re not really talking about cycling here. Ima feel they may be lunchbox issues herein. Thisn a private blog, but frankly Ima worried that the owner is maybe hold up teh thremoeter to the lightbulb and avoider the speaking. That said I’ma have the World Series Flue in 1967, 68 and felt poorly last year.