A few more thoughts following the excellent posts earlier today on the police behavior at Critical Mass on Friday.
Minneapolis Critical Mass is just one of hundreds of Critical Mass bike rides that occur across the country and internationally--in Australia, Europe and many places around the globe. What this is all about is a bunch of people concerned about the impacts cars are having on our society and environment. So they try to take action to raise awareness about the impacts of cars and the positive alternative of biking. They have what should be just a fun monthly get-together to ride in a large group around the city. When they become a large enough group (a "critical mass") they basically take over the street for a few minutes as the mass passes along from place to place. Sure the ride is a little boisterous at times, but it is also very peaceful and respectful. What is the harm? Maybe a few commuters in their cars get delayed five or ten minutes. Does this deserve much police attention at all, much less the brutal violent suppression of the ride? I've been delayed in my car, riding the bus, and on my bike many times during traffic jams (mostly involving one person per one big SUV) on streets and freeways near downtown Minneapolis but I don't see the police coming out and attacking those commuters. Nor do I see them attacking those coming out of the Target Center or Metrodome and (illegally) blocking traffic after a sporting event. So what is the big deal about Critical Mass? It basically relates to the paranoia that has been running through the FBI and police departments across the country over "anarchists" and direct action ever since the WTO demonstrations in Seattle in 1999. Much of this paranoid police response is unwilling or unable to distinguish between the concept of peaceful protest (that, yes, may inconvenience a few people for a few minutes at times and break a few technicalities of traffic law) and violent insurrection. And from where does the Minneapolis Police Department get its mandate to make this a priority? I don't think it is from the vast majority of the citizens of Minneapolis or even our current elected officials. They are instead responding to the information they are getting at national police conferences, exchanges with other police departments, training videos, and from the FBI and other federal security agencies obsessed about putting a stop to any expression of direct action by young people and with little or no concern over our constitutional rights to freedom of expression and assembly. This raises the question: to whom is the Minneapolis Police Department really accountable? The citizens of Minneapolis and their elected officials? Or something else? Bruce Shoemaker Holland Neighborhood Northeast Minneapolis _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
