Critical Mass Arrests

The Critical Mass bike rally, of approximately 250 people left near the Public Library at 5:45pm today, August 15th, followed immediately by 36 bicycle police, and later joined by many more officers.

The group was later split up, and one mass arrest (the most common number I've heard was 23), was made at Pico and Hope.

The other group was arrested at 18th and Flower, at approximately 6:45pm. This group I have heard described as anywhere from 30 to 50 people, and while no one present got a strictly reliable headcount, and the police were anything but forthcoming with a number, my personal count puts the number at about 35.

At 7:34 there were 52 riot police barring off those arrested from the 60 or so protestors there in solidarity and to cover the event. A request was made for more information, to which some high-ranking person walked out and called one protestor forward to talk with him for about thirty seconds. The protestor returned with the information that those arrested were being charged with going the wrong way down a one way street, and failure to stop at a red light.

More riot police continued arriving, some on motorcycles, bringing the number of cops on the street up to 86 by 8:05pm. The number of protestors remained fairly constant at this time, with various chants, many pro-bike, many pro-peace, going on every few minutes.

There was quite a media turnout for this event, though most of it was middle-range media - not quite CNN and C-SPAN, but not solely IMC either - who were willing to talk with those protesting, and expressed their support.

The arrestees were moved across the police controlled 18th street around 8:05, and lined up against the wall where their pictures were taken - my theory is that they were expressing jail solidarity, and this was to be used as identification. The police also began swapping out their men for new ones in groups of 16 or so.

At one point, while a large Corporate Media camera-man had his camera trained on us, a legal observer stepped forward and asked the police why these people were being held on a crime that they should not legally be detained on. The cameraman promptly shut off his camera, and the police only responded to the LO with chuckles and sneers.

At 8:35, a group of police left rapidly on foot down Flower street, and a helicopter flew five or six passes over the street, its spotlight remaining constantly trained on us. We tensed, expecting some sort of push, but nothing came, and eventually (at around 9:35pm, almost 3 hours after initially being arrested), the last of the bikers were finished being processed, and the police retreated completely, leaving only two cars being.

Within five minutes, an ABC affiliate van came driving up, and a reporter and cameraman hopped out to do a ten second spot on the 'incident' which they had managed to miss completely.

From LA, this is Brendan McGuigan.

Hmmm, given recent precedent, I'd imagine bail for the horrible crime of running a red light would be around 0,000.

i applaud those of us in LA who are doing what we were prevented from doing here in Philly. as for bail, i'm sure that the LA district attorney will realize what a threat to public safety the bike riders were and will give them an appropriate bail of ROR no 1 million dollars as was bail for one activist here in PA for 4 misdemeanor charges

freedom for the people.

as for the black blocks and the bad press given to anarchists, i say keep on doin what you're doin. freedom doesn't come cheaply, without effort, or "disturbance". case in point: the birth of a baby. many would say it is too violent who have no idea of life and nature. our movement is a natural thing, which can not be defeated.

as on of the 60 in the crowd, I wish to commend brendan on his accuracy and wish to add that (as one might expect) that there was a noticible "attitude" given off by the police towards the on lookers. although difficult to accurately put in writing, the following words and phrases may relay some of the police attitude: disrespectful,

arrogant, itching for physical confrontation, intimidating, photragraphing the crowed in an itimitating manor, centering the police camera for extended lengths of time on preceived leaders. police in holland and canada (the only countries with which I've had direct ecperience) don't treat their citizen/protestors with tihis attitude. why should our police be so contemptous of american citizen/ptotestors ?

The plice, of this nation, are playing with the United States Constitution, our civil liberties, the Bill of Rights, and they seem to be enjoying themselves. Call it the Goon Game,which, of course, is what politics is all about. Both take no brains, just brass, to play this game unconstitutional to DEMOCRACY. I would love to see a scenne, right out of the movie, National Lampoon, the one where the frat pledge pukes on Dean Wormer(?), but in this new movie, all the protesters puking on all the cops, or the mayor, or anybody from the Federal Bureau of Idiots.

Fred,

To whom it may concern:

I was at the head of the Critical Mass group that was ambushed on 18th and Flower. No one seems to be reporting that at Grand and 18th (a southbound one way street) the group was blocked off by two squad cars who came racing up toward us. They screeched to stop and several intimidating riot cops ran out to confront (and who knows what else) the group. Everyone was in a panic and made a hasty turn where clear, i.e., against traffic, west, on 18th street.

If the officers weren't so aggressive this may not have happened. More importantly, when the group made that fateful right onto 18th, they were further blocked off at Flower. At Flower and 18th there is a MTA blue line train crossing -- there was a MTA blue line train coming less than half a mile away. The officers did absolutely nothing to try and stop the bicyclists from crossing this very dangerous section. In fact, I had to instruct the bicyclists to stay back, while the officers stood around at a safe distance from the rails.

So. The cops forced that particular group to do something illegal, arrested them over it, and have nothing to say about it. Welcome to L.A.

Also noteworthy, we were pretty much legal up until the very last moments when the officers aggressed and forced those panicky illegal reactions.

El Jimmy

The police have been overreacting the whole time. But let's not forget who they're working for---the Democrats. The Dems have totally shut out our issues from their "convention". And they've used the police to do the dirty work so they can be insulated. We need to make sure that long after the convention is over the Dems learn a lesson about shutting people out. I'm not sure the best way to do that but I'd like to hear some ideas.

after being cleared for media credentials from the senate press gallery my credentials were recsinded.

what role does wackenhut have in this process?

If you have any information on this area please forward.

Thank you,

Rose