Minnesota Critical Mass (MCM) does not want a permit, or the City to make Critical Mass an official ride. The City can do that and they can call it Critical Mass, but I can safely say that very few Critical Massers would ride. We would prefer to have our First Amendment Right to Peaceably Assemble recognized, respected and enforced. The Supreme Court has indicated that reasonable permits can be required by local ordinance; to me that would mean a once a year trip to City Hall to set up a permit for the last Friday of every month for Critical Mass to start in Loring Park on a route that is undetermined � ALL FEES WAIVED. Other than aggressive Police Actions of their own design, MCM hasn�t cost the City of Minneapolis a dime, so I don�t see where we should have to pay for a permit. I could live with this permit requirement and I�d try to sell that to the Mass.
This discussion and any resulting attention isn�t the kind of publicity we want. On my first MCM in August of 2000 I spent the night in jail, no not prison, just jail. The next month the MPD told every Masser that if they left Loring Park in groups of more than two they would be arrested. This past July another police action occurred at Lake and Lyndale � see the www.MinnesotaCriticalMass.org ride reports. While I consider these gross violations of a citizen�s civil rights, there was no outcry. I guess you can only feel it when you see it and you realize there is nothing, not one shred of protection, between you and a belligerent fully loaded urban assault officer. I'm perplexed by the running of the red lights commentary. That is very unusual behavior in my book. Sometimes the mass will be 60-100 people, which will span a city block with 3-5 abreast. So if the front half of the mass goes into a greenlight and it changes, typically the whole mass will go through the light. Most of the time the cars are very nderstanding and there isn't a problem, based on the smiles and friendly honks, I gather it�s free & enjoyable entertainment to them. Any reasonable person could count the bikes present and imagine if each rider were instead in a car � while we wouldn�t get our cars taken or be ticketed for �obstruction of traffic� or the like � it would be quite a traffic jam. And I�ve also heard that swerving cars are a problem. I guess that would be referring to impatient drivers speeding into oncoming traffic lanes and gunning it past the mass. A) We need to look at the driver�s irresponsibility in that situation, and B) There would be no hesitation to arrest that driver if it was a bunch of cars being driven around. The ride is a celebration, the time between the rides is when we lobby, prepare proposals, and remain involved in the city planning process for bike lanes, et al. Sure some folks just show up for the ride, but there's a decent core that works all the time on bike and transportation issues. I�ve tried to respond to posts I�ve seen the last couple days. For an update on where we stand, check out our website and the links to Indy Media�s coverage. There you can see what a citizen looks like after being ticketed and the police report says �No Force Used� and �No Medical Attention Required�. Stephen Eisenmenger Mpls, Ward 10 www.MinnesotaCriticalMass.org ------------------------------------------------- Don't just tell them where you are. Tell them who you are. Free email at www.newcity.com. _______________________________________ 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
