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Greens Defend Critical Mass: 'Bikers are not criminals' Tuesday, April 5, 2005 Contacts: WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green leaders spoke out against efforts by law enforcement to target Critical Mass, defending cyclists' right to assemble. Critical Mass, which holds mass bicycle rides to celebrate the bicycle as a healthy alternative to the automobile, has been the target of recent mass arrests and confiscation of bicycles. "Police could easily allow Critical Mass rides to proceed without incident, instead of disrupting them and arresting riders," said Henry Lawrence, past President of the Florida Bicycle Association and Florida Green Party candidate for Bay County Commissioner in 2004. "Cities should make every attempt to accommodate bikes. Cities face increasing traffic demands, the effects of car exhaust such as asthma epidemics among children, and global warming. Bicycles represent one of the best hopes for clean urban transportation." At least 37 Critical Mass participants were arrested in New York City on Friday, March 25; riders claim frequent harassment by police and city officials in New York and other cities. More than 250 riders were arrested and at least 338 bicycles were confiscated during the Republican National Convention in August 2004. "If bikers need a permit in order to gather in a public space, why isn't a similar permit required for cars?", asked Hank Chapot, archivist for the Green Party of California who has participated in Critical Mass rides in San Francisco, Berkeley, and London. "The permit requirement allows arbitrary arrest of bicyclists, including those who aren't involved in Critical Mass events but happen to be nearby." "When you consider the double-edged permit requirement -- one from the Parks Department for cyclists gathering on a paved part of Union Square Park, and the second because the NYPD believes it to be a procession or parade -- add the two and what you have is zero public space for free association and expression," said Peter Meitzler, a registered Green and regular "masser" from New York City. Greens called the suppression of Critical Mass and a recent New York City lawsuit to gag Times Up, a nonprofit organization that has mentored Critical Mass, part of a larger campaign to criminalize protest. "We see a pattern in the increasing police suppression of public protest, the removal of anyone considered a protest risk from President Bush's public appearances, and efforts by public officials to vilify various groups, from Critical Mass to unions to AARP, that disagree with administration policy," said Jody Grage Haug, Washington State Green and co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "People have been banned from the President's 'town hall' meetings for wearing the wrong tee shirt or the wrong bumper sticker on their fenders or merely publishing their opposition to ideas like Mr. Bush's plan to privatize of Social Security." MORE INFORMATION
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