{"article":{"id":3573,"heading":"Critical Mass Riders Exonerated","author":"Mike Benefield","created":"2000-09-01 17:16:19","modified":"2000-09-05 20:26:43","last_modified":"Wed, 06 Sep 2000 03:26:43","article":"<p>The City Attorney's office has announced that all charges against the Critical Mass bicycle riders will be dropped unconditionally.  This is the complete exoneration that we wanted.  It also demonstrates just how weak the case against us was.  We expect that the charges will be formally dropped on Friday September 1 at 8:30am at the Criminal Court Building, 5th floor Department 50.<\/p>\n","contact":"ben_fx@yahoo.com","link":"www.criticalmassmedia.org","address":"722 N Edgemont St","phone":"323 667 0171","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Charges against Critical Mass DNC riders are to be dropped","numcomment":5,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2000\/09\/3573.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":3576,"heading":"One small victory is a victory for all!","article":"This is fantastic news...wny didn't we believe this would happen?  because the \"authorities\" are just about insane enough to criminalize even bike riding.\r\n\r\nWill the riders get their bicycles back from impoundment?","author":"Nikita","parent_id":3573,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-09-01 18:05:25","modified":"2000-09-01 18:20:02","fileurl":""},{"id":3577,"heading":"One small victory is a victory for all!","article":"This is fantastic news...wny didn't we believe this would happen?  because the \"authorities\" are just about insane enough to criminalize even bike riding.\r\n\r\nWill the riders get their bicycles back from impoundment?","author":"Nikita","parent_id":3573,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-09-01 18:05:36","modified":"2000-09-01 18:20:02","fileurl":""},{"id":3610,"heading":"The Value of Critical Mass","article":"Besides the obvious benefit to everyone that Critical Mass brought, by highlighting the need for better transportation, the group has also been valuable in other ways.\r\n\r\nSome journalists have said that events in Philly and LA carried muddled messages.  Not true, overall, but if they were looking for clear messages they would have written long articles about groups like Critical Mass.\r\n\r\nThe police have pretended -- before and after -- that they were protecting citizens.  If that were true, puppet makers and bicyclists wouldn't have ended up in the klink. \r\n\r\nIt's been said too often -- both in the mass media and here -- that the \"protesters\" weren't prepared.  If that's an issue, where is the praise for groups like Critical Mass, who looked as well prepared as any professional theater company?\r\n\r\nJim Shackelford","author":"Jim Shackelford","parent_id":3573,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-09-02 09:10:50","modified":"2000-09-02 10:00:00","fileurl":""},{"id":3618,"heading":"Why Did Media Say We Weren't Prepared?","article":"That's an easy one.  The media wasn't prepared.\r\n","author":"Hugh Stegman","parent_id":3573,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-09-02 19:51:00","modified":"2000-09-02 20:39:16","fileurl":""},{"id":3665,"heading":"Frustrating . . .","article":"It's so frustrating that you can be arrested for no reason, spend time in jail, and then end up having the charges dropped without getting any kind of retribution.  You've just lost a portion of your life to the system without legitimate reason.  Guilty until proven innocent.  Not to say the whole thing didn't have any good results, but why can't we counter-charge the authorities with \"wrongful arrest\" or something like that?\r\n","author":"Sarah","parent_id":3573,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-09-05 20:26:43","modified":"2000-09-05 21:00:00","fileurl":""}]}