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Editor's Note: Cops "escorted" Austin Critical Mass for its first year or so (circa 11/93-12/94), and videotaped most of the rides. They also made dozens of bogus arrests and handed out dozens of bogus tickets. To prepare for their court cases, CM'ers filed a Freedom of Information Request to get copies of the cops' videotapes. The cops stalled and tried to pull various excuses to keep from giving us the tapes, but they finally gave them to us -- with their worst misconduct edited out. One way in which this is painfully obvious is that on one of the tapes, the last five minutes repeats itself. That means after dubbing the tape, the cops dubbed over it, editing out about five minutes' worth of footage, but they were too stupid to erase the extra five minutes at the end from the first time they'd copied it! Duh!

There are many places on the tapes where you can hear the cops planning on who they're going to arrest or ticket next, even before the individuals had done anything questionable. Another funny thing is to hear the cops scrambling to try to figure out who the "leaders" are! They just don't get it.

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From: Reed Murray

Date: Wed, Dec 21, 1994 8:11 PM

Subject: Re: Police videos

 

Latest update on police videos; I HAVE THEM IN MY GRUBBY LITTLE HANDS!

 

But the story gets stranger and stranger. In our last installment, Mr.Rose (police legal advisor) informed me that he had "made a mistake" when he said the cost was limited to the cost of the blank tape and that the "real" cost was - $2.50 per tape for 12 tapes (remember this number!) PLUS $12.72 per hour for 12 hours labor (remember THIS number also) for dubbing the tapes PLUS $30 "overhead" charge. This was last Friday.

 

Monday, Rose called me and asked, rather impatiently, if I was going to pay for the tapes or not. I said that I was but that I wanted to get all the information I could about the Open Records Act and this particular transaction 'cause recent events had my bullshit dectector lights flashing. I didn't want to pay the $200+ and find out later I'd been scammed. He sounded hurt and asked if I thought he was trying to "mess" with me. I said yes I do, to which he responded "Why don't you just come down and view the tapes here?" I said I wasn't interested in spending 12 hours at the police station, why doesn't he let me "borrow" 'em for the week and I'll just view 'em at my house. He said OK!! I asked if he was gonna let me borrow the copies or THE ORIGINALS. He said "What!? Do you think they've been edited?" blah, blah, blah I asked for his superior's name and then called a guy in the city managers office who's been very helpful and told him my story. This morning there was a note on my desk that the tapes were waiting for me at so-and-so's desk at the police station and would I please leave a check for $25 made out to the City of Austin. When I got there, there were 10 tapes. No one knew anything about 12 tapes; all the principal players are out for the holidays. I made the secretary give me a signed receipt, gave her my check and left.

 

I finally got to look at some of them and was surprised at how little there is. I've watched 6 of the 10 and MAYBE there's 2 hours total if you count the color bars at the front of every tape. Maybe there's gonna be 4 hours max in all 10 tapes. What's the deal on the 12 hours labor?

 

Somebody check the sensor logs and tell me how many rides had ANY police presence. These tapes start with 11/93 and end with 12/94 with a 4 month gap in the summer.

 

I'll bring 'em Friday. Somebody set up a viewing. There's gotta be a beer hall around campus with a big screen tv and VCR.

 

There's one scene in one tape where someone looks up, sees the camera and says "how do we get a copy of that?" The cameraman answers "you have to have it subpoenaed." Yeah, right!

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From: Bikinfred@aol.com

Date: Mar 14, 1995

 

Here are some of the bits and pieces I transcribed from the APD videos.

 

This one is from 9/30/94 and is Raines and Shaun just before Reed, Shaun and I all got tickets for riding three-abreast.

 

Lt. Raines: "You have to ride single file as close as you can to the curb."

 

Cyclist: in mid conversation, "You're driving the car, I'm not threatening anybody's life. You are threatening my life."

 

Raines: "You stay over where you belong."

 

Cyclist: "You're threatening my life."

 

Raines: "You can not impede traffic going by you. Now if you want to go to jail we can arrange that."

 

Cyclist: "Don't threaten my life!"

 

Raines: "Nobody is threatening your life."

 

Cyclist: "That's a big car man and not me."

 

Raines: "Then you need to move over to the right curb which is what the law requires you to do sir."

 

Cyclist: mumbles something and shakes his head.

 

Raines: "State law sir, you get it changed if you like but you can't block traffic from going past you."

 

Shaun rides off and this is where Reed says he can hear Raines quietly say, "He's going down." or words to that effect.

 

Here is a bunch of the stuff. There are spaces between some of it but you get the idea.

 

On 12/2/93 CM ride - Conversations within the cruiser containing the videocamera.

 

V#1: "He was just vocal but can we say he was the leader?"

 

V#2: "Yeah, I heard him say, 'Let's go!'"

 

V#3: (videocamera operator) "Oh that guy (as Tommy Eden rides through the camera's field of view). Yeah, he was screaming at us last time we were doing this. He was up on the sidewalk saying, 'I can talk about it if I want to. We don't have to show our licenses to anybody.' He's just some screwball hothead but he probably is one of the leaders.

 

Raines: "I need that guy in the gold shirt and the white helmet (Tommy Eden is the only one in view meeting that description)."

 

V#2: "You want to write him a ticket for violation of parade permit?"

 

Raines: "I want to take him to jail."

 

V#3: "You see that tall blonde with the dress on?"

 

Raines to cyclists out window: "Y'all keep movin' or you're goin' to jail. No questions asked. Keep moving or you're going to jail.

 

Later at 27th and Guadalupe

 

Raines: "The guy with the gold shirt is up there at the front of the group on the other side of the street."

 

Raines over the radio: "Get the guy in the white helmet and the red straps with the gold shirt for violation of the parade permit."

 

As the car pulls up and a cop is grabbing Tommy Eden, Raines leans out the window and addresses the arresting officer: "Bobby, he goes down. Take him down for the show up." (indicating Tommy Eden.)

 

Later,

 

Raines to officer outside the car: "Hey Sam, that gal in front of you was one of the leaders last week. She was a problem so if you get her doing something..."

 

Sam: "That's what I'm doing, I'm pointin' 'em out. I'm getting one for doing a handstand."

 

Later, on Guadalupe

 

Raines out window to Polo and another rider: "If you don't pick up the pace you will be issued a citation for impeding traffic. You'd better move on. You'd better move on.

 

Polo: "I'm moving."

 

Raines: "You're not fast enough. You'd better move on. You're impeding traffic.

 

Polo: "I have an injury." Polo reaches for his left knee.

 

Raines: "Then get out of the ride."

 

Polo: "You can't tell me how to ride my bike if I have an injury."

 

Raines: "You'll find out."

 

This is one of several places where it is noticable that Lt. Raines does not always wear his seatbelt when the car is moving.

 

Later, the cruiser is stopped and the cameraman is scanning the cyclists in a parking lot across the street. They are looking for leaders. When someone shouts a slogan, they all try to find out where it came from.

 

V#1: "Not the tall guys but somewhere in the middle of the group."

 

V#2: "Let's watch real close and see who directs them off here."

 

On 2/25/94 CM ride - Conversation in the cruiser with the videotape rolling.

 

"I don't see the girl with the tits." [This one's not as bad as it sounds. Emily was, in fact, riding without a shirt.]

 

"This dude was taken out before."

 

"Let's call the motors in. We'll start writing up for not signaling intent. LT 81 to motor units ..."

 

On 3/25/94 CM ride - Three voices.

 

V#1 "Westbound on 24th Street approaching Lamar. It appears they're going

to make a x stand by, I think they're maybe making a left turn."

 

V#2 "They better not, a left turn is illegal."

 

V#3 "Oh boy, I hope so."

 

Later.

 

V#? "That guy's giving orders. Is he one of the regulars too? This student

here with the blue shirt on. He sure is."

 

V#? "We don't really give a shit what they do but when they block traffic

and won't let traffic pass.

 

V#? "This guy with the "Pork" shirt on is another one of the ringleaders.

It's incredible. They want to block up streets so cars can't get by."

 

V#? "That guy in the green shirt's a jerk."

 

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I took down more but it's still in the yellow tablet stage and I don't know where I put it. This is the stuff that I wanted to use in my court case though. The other stuff is usually just more of their stupid conversation. There is a place where CM is doing a U-turn in front of the patrol car and everybody is signaling a turn. The driver says something like, "forget the fucking signals already and make the damn turn." He says it under his breath though.

 

I hope this helps.