Critical Mass in Vancouver is a very mellow affair. Although there are sometimes incidents, it is predominantly peaceful and generally treated with equanimity. Not so in New York City, where a police officer assaulted a cyclist on Friday:
Contrast this with Vancouver, where Critical Mass is escorted by two police motorcycles who pace the rear of the pack, keeping cars from crowding the cyclists. The police even block traffic to allow the riders to congregate briefly on the bridges:
Obviously a single officer does not represent the entire NYPD, nor indeed his region or country, but the contrast is as striking as the assault. These attitudes and actions do not exist in a vacuum: they reflect the direction and values of the leadership and the society at large. The relationship between Critical Mass and the police is fairly representative of impressionistic differences between the East and West coasts of North America, and of the North and South divide between Canada and the US: senseless repression and harassment vs tolerance. I consider myself rather fortunate at times to live in the North and the West.
3 comments:
I saw this. My take on this is that it's an isolated incident. I know you'll probably disagree with that, but I took heart that the NYPD quickly suspended the officer. (Would they have done it if there were no YouTube footage? Who knows.)
But then, there are cases both in the US and in Canada (Vancouver, even) of police misusing their authority.
Although the VPD would have to work hard to match the brutality record of the NYPD, we certainly have our fair share (though I note that the recent tasing murder here was by the RCMP, not the VPD).
The officer's statement would certainly have been the last word if the incident hadn't been caught on camera. It's no surprise that cops don't like video except when it's theirs.
I absolutely agree it's an isolated incident, I'm happy to say – my point is that civil & police leadership decides whether these types of events are something they should "tolerate/protect" or "harass/intimidate", and the rank & file carries out those directions very effectively. None of this happens in a vacuum.
I'm not so sure how isolated this incident is - except if you mean it was caught on tape and became popular on youtube. From what I hear from NY they have been dealing with nearly constant harassement since the 2005 RNC CM with 5000 people. The police were very repressive then (they were fined millions of dollars by their own courts for unlawfully holding people in deplorable conditions) they were apparently not able to stop the big CM ride though they stopped most every other protest. So maybe it's a point of pride or control for them? There are some movies about it - one in particular called Still we Ride is especially poignant. I think that even other incidents have been caught on camera but none so youtube worthy. Also, before 2005 I also heard about massive police presense when the ride was small. 200 motorcycle police formed a nose-to-tail line and through co-ordinated riding literally forced about 100 odd CMers into a tiny bike lane...
Which goes to prove your point about East Coast/North West Coast senseless repression/tolerance. In 1999 at SF Bikesummer I witnessed SF Police pointlessly ramming their large Harley motorcycles into CM cyclists... I was astounded not just by the brutality of it - but that it wasn't even really objected to by anyone (partly because by sheer luck no damage was done) and people were constantly saying how much more relaxed and cool the SF cops were compared to those on the East Coast. Anyway, makes me appreciate Canada.
It is good to give credit where it is due and the VPD have been impressively sensible (to start fighting cyclists they would actually end up delaying and inconveniencing motorists more anyway) and tolerant over the years and mostly just let us alone. My only worry is about the idea of a regular escort where CMers come to expect and rely on this presense rather that doing the corking and talking to motorists. It's important for us to take responsibility for our presence on the road and not leave it to higher authorities. As well it brings up symbolic and actual questions about the place of cycling on the road (that we are not a special event parade but that bikes ARE traffic) Granted, on the big big summer rides things can get pretty directionless at times - and the constant police presence is understandable. Yet we should always keep ride responsibility on our own shoulders.
nice blog!
~rusl
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