It was 5:30p.m. Friday night, the sun was just
beginning to set. A group of locals meet down by the
River at the Java Jungle in order to prepare for the
monthly critical mass bicycle ride. We wait until about
ten till six so that all the people who were racing
through traffic had plenty of time to join the party. We
encourage the use of bicycles as an alternative to the
gas guzzling and polluting vehicles that currently
dominate the space of the roadway. This is basically a
geographic movement that we taking a part of. We are
fighting for space in a place which is inhabited by
machines (cars). We are concerned about the future of a
world in which people can make safe and healthy
alternatives to transportation, this is our angle.
So we set off towards downtown. We rode to Virginia
Street were we then headed south taking up both lanes
with about 40- 50 people on bicycles. It was awesome,
people patiently waited as we meandered through the
streets. People were honking and shouting in both
acceptance and encouragement in our mission. We proceeded
south until we came to the Convention center where we
made a complete u-turn to head back in the north bound
direction on Virginia. There is no bicycle lane on either
side of the road at this location. We were traveling past
the Peppermill, when a white off-road vehicle approached
the rear of our "mass" in a very aggressive manner. It
was if he was going to knock someone off their bicycle of
something. At this same moment a police vehicle headed in
the opposite direction flipped a u-turn. Everyone
thought that he was going to pull the motorist over for
attempted murder or something, when all he did was
proceed in following the group of bicyclists who by this
time had moved to the far right of the road. I was
proceeding to move to the right as well thinking that the
officer was just going to pass us all by when he said
that I was still in the road. I then told him that no one
told us that we couldn't ride in the road, so... how
should I know that we aren't able to be there. This was
the point when he told me to pull over. I was hesitant at
first because I was near the head of the group and I
couldn't just stop and have everyone crash into the back
of me, plus I still didn't think that I had done anything
which would give him any reason to stop me. I went no
more than ten to fifteen yard before the officer used his
vehicle as a shield to guide the bicycle off the road- I
felt like he was going to hit me, and this was the point
when it became serious.
After getting me off my bicycle he immediately
handcuffed me and told me that I was going to jail for
being a smart ass, and that they would impound my
bicycle. By this time the rest of the group had pulled
off to the side of the road to see what was going on. He
then told everyone that he would call the paddy wagon and
start arresting all of us. No one moved, in fact one of
the riders asked him for his name and badge number which
clearly disturbed him, judging by the way his voice was
inflected. He was clearly in anger and definitely enraged
and fired up. I was still wondering what the hell I could
have done differently. By this time more cops showed up,
and the officer clearly could be seen as a different
person than he was two minutes ago (his behavior was
under the scrutiny of other officers now). I thought I
was going to jail for sure, but that wasn't the end of
their targeting. There was another bicyclist in the
parking lot of the Parklane Mall and he was shouting
something at the officers from a distance. At this point,
one of the officers who just showed up asked the first
officer if he wanted him to cuff him--which they did. Now
they had two of us, and more officers kept showing up (I
would say in all there were maybe ten officers of the law
there as well as what appeared to be a university
student--judging by his "n" hat and UNR sweatshirt--who
was on a ride along--just great-watch your fellow
students being harassed by the people you intend to work
for). At this point another officer approached me and
asked me what went wrong. I could tell that this officer
was going to listen, because when i was trying to talk to
the first officer, he kept trying to tell me I was being
a smart ass. So, anyway I proceed in telling this officer
the same story I have just recited here as he listed with
patience and ease, now why couldn't this be the guy we
dealt with in the first place. He then told me to just
hang tight and that they would have the cuffs off in no
time. Finally some hope! I remained silent, and shortly
hereafter this same "nice" officer took the cuffs off. I
sat down next to the other apprehended subject whom I
have never met previous to this engagement. During the
forty five minutes to an hour that we sat there it became
apparent that this was something that officers don't do
every day. They even said "What should we charge them
with?" I still had hope at this point because all of this
just seemed a little too bizarre for me.
During this time I would just like to note the
derogatory statements that were being said by officers at
the scene. One of them made a remark saying, "You need to
go back to Berkeley or wherever you came from." Another
officer moved me away from the group and after doing so
said, "Those hippies smell rank, I got to move away from
there."
But not all of the officers were rude. The one who was
giving the ride along was asking the other detained
bicycler how he gets onto his bike (it is a custom made
double stack--where two frames are welded on top of each
other). It seemed as if he was entertained by the fact
that this guy was riding a bike that is out of the
ordinary.
At this point the female officer who was writing my
ticket approached the two of us who were detained (she
was holding my identification), but she was asking the
other detainee what his phone number is. I then corrected
her telling her that she had my ID and I said, "Doesn't
it look like me", and she responded by saying, "I
couldn't tell." Just another prime example of how
information can be confused or misinterpreted.
Finally, after all of this the officer who made the
stop approached me one last time. he kept acting like I
wasn't listening by saying, "Are you paying attention,
are you paying attention, cause if you're not I'll throw
you in jail right now." I assure him that during this
time I hadn't stopped paying attention. He asked me where
I worked at, to which i said, "UNR". This seemed to
confuse him a little bit, because I wasn't specific as to
where at UNR. I could tell that he were scared that I
might have some sort of influence or something there.
Then he asked me to get more specific to which I didn't
hesitate in telling him that I worked at the ASUN
bookstore. His response to this was, "How would you feel
if I reported this little incident to the campus police
up there." I felt like he was trying to threaten me into
being scared about losing my job or getting kicked out
of school (I could feel his bluff though). I said, "I
would encourage you to do so." He knew that this didn't
scare me. Then he said, "Make sure you get all of these
witnesses to come down and testify for you, I've got all
of these officers that saw what happened." To which i
said, "That's what it's all about, they'll be there." I
could tell that he was scared about all of these
bicyclists who just witnessed his anger and confusion. He
then tried to intimidate me again by saying, "you know
what you did was wrong." To which I said, " I choose not
to respond" (seeing that he was trying to get me to admit
to something), and I left.
Meanwhile all of the bicyclists (whom were also in
jeopardy being threatened with the paddy wagon), still
remained to see my fate. They could have easily left me
there to take responsibility for my actions, but
obviously they felt some sort sympathy. They were in just
as much confusion as I was about the whole situation and
all wanted to know the verdict. I told them it was a $680
charge for-non compliant-traffic light red-and failure to
ride in the right hand lane. Everyone then agreed that we
would meet next month with the media present and try and
get our story told, to hopefully shed light on the
issue.
In the meantime I plan on acquiring legal advice in
order to fight against the charges.
Critical-Mass.info
