cm ride story

greggery peccary .@. said:

i dont want to start a flame about CM (actually i havent gone to them and am
completely neutral on the issue) but this is an interesting story
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=bicyclearrests04m&date=20060704&query=critical+mass

I'm actually fairly well acquainted with the two cyclists involved.
They're both pretty mellow, nice individuals. [0] Considering the two
other cyclists accounts and some of the other motorists stuck at the
light account agree, and that the King County cops story doesn't agree
with anyone else's, I don't have too much sympathy with KC cops.

The Seattle PD isn't too happy about the situation either. They have a
fairly non-confrontational practical relationship with Seattle Mass.
They're also not happy about the KC cops infringing on their
jurisdiction. [1]

[0] If it had been some different people I know involved, I wouldn't
have any trouble believing they were instigators.
[1] There's evidently a mutual agreement that the KC fellows will only
police transit and related issues inside Seattle. Pretty much
everyone agrees they were out of line.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/276729_copsed.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/276914_metro08.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/horsey/print.asp?id=1424
http://www.seattlest.com/archives/2006/07/01/fact_or_hoax_alleged_incident_at_critical_mass.php

--
Dane Buson - [email hidden]
"Every morning, I get up and look through the 'Forbes' list of the
richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work"
-- Robert Orben

"Dane Buson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

greggery peccary .@. said:

i dont want to start a flame about CM (actually i havent gone to them

and am

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

completely neutral on the issue) but this is an interesting story

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=bicyclearrests04m&date=20060704&query=critical+mass

Quoted message said:

I'm actually fairly well acquainted with the two cyclists involved.
They're both pretty mellow, nice individuals. [0] Considering the two
other cyclists accounts and some of the other motorists stuck at the
light account agree, and that the King County cops story doesn't agree
with anyone else's, I don't have too much sympathy with KC cops.

The Seattle PD isn't too happy about the situation either. They have a
fairly non-confrontational practical relationship with Seattle Mass.
They're also not happy about the KC cops infringing on their
jurisdiction. [1]

[0] If it had been some different people I know involved, I wouldn't
have any trouble believing they were instigators.
[1] There's evidently a mutual agreement that the KC fellows will only
police transit and related issues inside Seattle. Pretty much
everyone agrees they were out of line.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/276729_copsed.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/276914_metro08.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/horsey/print.asp?id=1424

http://www.seattlest.com/archives/2006/07/01/fact_or_hoax_alleged_incident_at_critical_mass.php

Quoted message said:

--
Dane Buson - [email hidden]

i like sims take, but horsey's cartoon is kinda strange. ive seen both city
and county cops use excessive force on plenty occasion. sounds like the
typical entrapment used around here. i remember reading the time's first
account: "Critical Mass participants said the detectives, wearing plain
clothes and driving an unmarked van, appeared to be motorists with a case of
"road rage" over the traffic delay."

greggery peccary' .@. said:

Quoted message said:

[0] If it had been some different people I know involved, I wouldn't
have any trouble believing they were instigators.
[1] There's evidently a mutual agreement that the KC fellows will only
police transit and related issues inside Seattle. Pretty much
everyone agrees they were out of line.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/276729_copsed.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/276914_metro08.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/horsey/print.asp?id=1424

http://www.seattlest.com/archives/2006/07/01/fact_or_hoax_alleged_incident_at_critical_mass.php

Quoted message said:

--
Dane Buson - [email hidden]

i like sims take, but horsey's cartoon is kinda strange. ive seen both city
and county cops use excessive force on plenty occasion. sounds like the
typical entrapment used around here. i remember reading the time's first
account: "Critical Mass participants said the detectives, wearing plain
clothes and driving an unmarked van, appeared to be motorists with a case of
"road rage" over the traffic delay."

This article seemed well balanced and offers some good advice.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/276634_robert06x.html
--
zk

Zoot Katz said:

greggery peccary' .@. said:

i like sims take, but horsey's cartoon is kinda strange. ive seen both city
and county cops use excessive force on plenty occasion. sounds like the
typical entrapment used around here. i remember reading the time's first
account: "Critical Mass participants said the detectives, wearing plain
clothes and driving an unmarked van, appeared to be motorists with a case of
"road rage" over the traffic delay."

This article seemed well balanced and offers some good advice.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/276634_robert06x.html

It's not too bad, but it ignores the fact that there was no siren.
There are 20+ sworn statements, including non-CM people and drivers
stuck in mass traffic stating that. Nobody I've talked to had *any*
idea they were cops until after Zack tried to pull what appeared to be a
road rager off Jason. Unmarked car, no lights, no siren, badges got
pulled out after they'd already assaulted the cyclists, and they didn't
say anything about being cops until then either.

I'm kind of ambivalent about Critical Mass in general, but it really
seems to be a clear cut case of the KC cops being power tripping
asshats. Oh, did I mention that the KC Sheriff's department has had a
lot of investigations into abuse of power and other shenanigans lately?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/conductunbecoming/
http://eldan.co.uk/diary/2006_07_01_archive.html#115216767287684030

--
Dane Buson - [email hidden]
Houdini escaping from New Jersey!

Film at eleven.

Zoot Katz said:

This article seemed well balanced and offers some good advice.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/276634_robert06x.html

You better be sitting down, Zoot, because I'm about to agree with you.
The kid should not have challenged the cops. The cops should not have
accepted the challenge. Hopefully they all learned a lesson.
Whatever the whole truth is about what happened (I'd guess it's
somewhere in between the different verisions told by the cops and the
CMers), both sides agree that as soon as the deputies exited their van
the kid ran. In that case I think if it had been me it would have gone
something like-
I step out of my squad *alone*, identify myself as a cop, he runs away,
I move his bike to the curb, get back in my squad, and continue on to
my assignment. No muss, no fuss, a non-event.

Regards,
Bob Hunt

On Sun, 9 Jul 2006 04:15:07 -0700, Dane Buson <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I'm kind of ambivalent about Critical Mass in general, but it really
seems to be a clear cut case of the KC cops being power tripping
asshats. Oh, did I mention that the KC Sheriff's department has had a
lot of investigations into abuse of power and other shenanigans lately?

yeah, It didn't sound like a typical Seattle CM.
--
zk

Bob said:

You better be sitting down, Zoot, because I'm about to agree with you.
The kid should not have challenged the cops. The cops should not have
accepted the challenge. Hopefully they all learned a lesson.

Well Bob, I've got one that will floor you too.

I sent a "thank you" letter to the VPD after our June CM.

Then I encouraged ~250 other people to write one as well.

The VPD figured out early on that a "police incident" tied up traffic
far longer than a passing stream of bicycles.

Their presence at the last mass was minimal as opposed to
non-existant. At some intersections they were standing and talking
with the corkers. Their presence mainly served to defuse any of the
wanna-be ragers from doing anything regrettable. Their exemplary
conduct should be more widely imitated.
--
zk