It's Critical

Well I haven't posted for quite a while. The next Critical Mass is happening this friday and I think it's more important that people show up to this one than ever. First off it's the tenth anniversary ride of CM in Chicago - that is an event worth celebrating. The weather has been awesome in September thus far and with any luck it'll be a wonderful day for a ride. Another reason is to protest the events of the last CM ride (August) and to ensure that the police aren't allowed to intimidate the bicyclists of Chicago into a more abject role on our already dangerous streets, and aren't allowed to infringe on our right to gather, as guaranteed by the constitution.

Last month's ride started off really well, like most of the other rides I've been on. People were peaceful, at least the riders I saw around me, and everyone was having the usual good time biking, chatting, and shouting the CM greeting 'Happy friday!' to waving pedestrians along the way. After a small foray to lower Wacker and the roads near the Illinois Center we proceeded on a generally southerly route. Most people that have ridden before find it's friendlier, less crowded and more trouble-free when the rides go south. One ride through Streeterville that Erich, Yishai and I did was intolerably slow, hostile and generally not with the usual light spirit of the ride. A lot of that has to do with the congestion on the road, as well as the militant and entitled drivers of the North side. They tend to bring the militancy out of the bicyclists as well.

So we're all riding south and west in a looping route that's eventually meant to take us down Indiana past the mayor's house and then to the beach on 19th street. There was a police presence throughout the ride starting in Daley Plaza and throughout. I heard the police were leading the ride with other CMers (described as 'leaders of CM' by my friend Nick from LMNOP, though by philosophy CM has no leaders), cooperating and guiding the mass through the route. Citing crowds on the lakefront the cops at the front of the line told the CMers at the front that they would not be able to go down Indiana, and would not be able to go to the 19th street beach, and started steering the ride via roadblocks toward the south and west.

Let me say this in fairness before I proceed: people were drinking on the ride. I was sipping on some beers myself while cruising through the streets. I never saw anyone drunk, disorderly or abusive, but rather a crowd of chilled out people sipping a beer or two on a leisurely CM ride after a long week's work. This, strictly speaking, is illegal, but has heretofore been overlooked by the police. To my knowledge this was never cited by the police as a reason the harassment started, but I want to put that out there and let you judge for yourself.

So as roads kept getting blocked off the mass got more and more compressed and slowed down, and rumors started circulating through the crowds as people wondered why we weren't following the original route. I witnessed police cruisers start to ride through the mass in a threatening manner, exceeding the safe idle speeds of a street jammed with bikers and using their siren chirps to force people out of their way. The mood was getting dour. There were murmurs of confusion through the crowd. Newbies were saying, 'Are all the rides like this.' The old hats were baffled at this new harassment, especially because Hizzonor is supposed to be an avid bicyclist and supporter of the Mass specifically.

At Canal and Roosevelt road things came to a head. I later heard reports from people on the ride, reports on the CM website, and in the newspaper that defiant groups of bicyclists began to break through the police's roadblocks, attempting to complete the ride as planned. Police frustration reached a boiling point at the aforementioned streets and my friends and I found ourselves stopped at the intersection with hundreds of other confused cyclists. It had turned dark by this point and there were police cars and Paddy wagons blocking off the south and east ways out of the intersection, and a logjam of bicyclists prevented the rest of us from moving. The police were yelling and chirping their sirens attempting to break up the crowd, but were answered by mock chirps from the CMers, and chants of 'Who's road? OUR ROAD!'

The rumors heard swirling of Hawaiin shirt-clad undercover police infiltrating the ride (poorly) were confirmed, as several of the police standing in the road block were dressed in this silly fashion. The CMers made no violent motions, threw nothing, and by and large refrained from even chanting anything incendiary to the police. We waited nervously, some of us chanting, most of us wondering what the hell we did. More paddy wagons started to show up and I saw one officer, looking like he was heading to a luau, with fistfuls of zip tie riot handcuffs. They started grabbing the nearest people to them, throwing their bikes on the ground in some cases, and then into trucks. They were arresting people seemingly arbitrarily. Linda's friend Becca saw a man standing next to her grabbed and arrested for no apparent reason.

I believe nine people were arrested in all, and after the arrests at Canal and Roosevelt the police apparently decided they couldn't take us all into custody, and opted to blast many police sirens as loud as possible at us. Still not moving as fast as they wanted us to, police started driving ATVs through the crowd aggressively bumping into cyclists with no apparent regard for their safety, or the disparity between the two vehicle sizes. Out of our friends Jenn was the one who got bumped.

I left the whole thing feeling thoroughly sad and disgusted at the heavy handed tactics of the police. Let me preemptively take on some criticism of the Mass and tell you why I think it is so important and moreover fun. First, we DO NOT need a permit to gather because CM is not a cohesive political unit. It has no leaders and represents no cause, and is something different to each person. From anarchists to businessmen it is nothing but people riding their bikes. Bicyclists have an equal right to the road. The police abridged our right to use the city streets, streets that are there for our use if we choose to use them. Automobiles are ALWAYS at critical mass on the streets of Chicago. CM is something like carnivale, where the roles are reversed and we become the dominant power on the roads. If you do the ride and experience the peaceful, friendly, diverse and non-confrontational nature of the bicyclists (not to mention non-polluting and quiet) you might wonder whether we should question the hegemony of autos on our roads.

As a matter of practicality the CM ride is not going away, police harassment or not. The police would be well advised to resume their old peaceful non-intervening policy with CM riders if they wish to have the ride continue to be about fun. Nothing will turn people militant like having their rights abridged and being harassed. August's CM caused a massive traffic quagmire at Canal and Roosevelt because the police did not let it run its natural course. They created a demonstration in place of a bike ride by stopping the ride, and I don't think the automobile drivers of Chicago appreciate that either. If they'd let us proceed as usual we would have wrapped up at about half past 8 at the beach, with most people home and gone by 9:30. Instead there were still angry protests and a slow dispersing crowd at that intersection past 9:30. The intersection itself must have been completely blocked for at least two hours.

The most important point that I can't reiterate enough is that Critical Mass is FUN! Critical Mass is as political or apolitical as you want it to be - and personally I'm sick to hell of politics so it doesn't mean that to me at all. It is a demonstration of a sustainable human-powered alternative way of thinking, but if you drive your car all week you're more than welcome to ride in the Mass too! Everyone should come out and give it a try.

This Friday September 28th at Daley Plaza. If you want to meet up with me I'll be by the fountain in the southwest corner of the plaza. MASS UP!