Critical Mass Panic

My previous, minimally-completed post reproduced an e-mail sent to a Brooklyn cyclist regarding the 78th Precinct's approach to "Operation Safe Cycle". I posted it here on this blog in the effort to comply with the request made by the Community Affairs Police Officer. Last night at the Community Board 6 meeting on the Prospect Park West Bike Lane's incredible success at making a safer street, the Community Affairs Officers of the 78th Precinct, Mitch and Jerry, approached me. They expressed frustration that I had posted their phone number online as they were now experiencing a backlog of phone messages on their shared answering machine, regarding bicycle complaints. In fact, Jerry explicit threatened me. In hopes of ensuring justice is met in the case of my untimely death, the below e-mails, reproduced in full w/o the offending contact information, tell the story: Wed, January 5, 2011 8:37:49 AM Bicycle Safety Enforcement From: "KIRSHY, MITCHELL" To: XXXX@X...

Please Forward! Dear New York City Bicycling Community There is a growing movement for safer streets taking shape in Brooklyn, involving new legislation, motorist education and a call for cycling community input by NYPD. The death of cylcist Jasmine Herron on September 11th profoundly affected those involved on the scene that night, including 77th NYPD precinct Community Council President James Caldwell. Caldwell has mobilized elected officials from Brooklyn , including Council Member Letitia James , State Senator Eric Adams , and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, with the 77th Precinct to the cause for safer streets for cyclists and pedestrians. This started several weeks ago with a prayer vigil for Jasmine, and has continued through community meetings. These politicians have all spoken eloquently, recognizing that bicycles are a viable and growing form of transportation in NYC, and that the culture of our streets desperately needs an overhaul, starting with motorists. I ...

Mr. Conners (Prosecutor) Q: How many times have you viewed this video ? Mr. Pogan (Defendant) A: Too many times. Last Tuesday, April 20th, the NYPD deftly executed a humiliating blow to the good reputation of an anti-authoritarian, veteran, pot-smoking, deadly-driver but merely-reckless cyclist in the guise of a "criminal" trial against the doe-eyed Patrick Pogan. This case has had wide coverage in the media due to sensational aspects of the case and the above-mentioned, apparently not-so-damning video footage. What most reportage is missing is the clear case the defense has made that a larger conspiracy against the NYPD is being played out. The proof of anarchist-infiltrations of Critical Mass has at last been laid bare by the vocal maneuvering of slick, archetypical lawyer for former-officer Patrick Pogan, Mr. Stuart London. A quick aside: As a human being, I occasionally suffer bouts of empathy and compassion. Just as all who view the video of the inertial-halting-vector-...

Friday's "!st fR!deay" was immensely successful! Thank you to all who came out and made the streets a little more fun and kind. A few auto-automatons called riders harmless names, while a few used their motor-boxes to threaten fellow road users in a not-so-harmless way. Other than this, the reception on the streets from the car-free street-users was warm and friendly, especially thanks to the radio transmitter that kept the funky tunes flowing from several radios that riders strapped on to their bikes. "Tune your radio to 106.3!" became the ride's rallying cry. !st fR!deay did, however, experience a bit of token police harassment. While traveling with traffic eastward through the Chelsea district, riders were joined by a lone NYPD Interceptor vehicle. At ninth avenue, the group stopped at a red light. The physically-separated bicycle lane running down the avenue creates a marked bike-box beyond the pedestrian crosswalk. Most of the riders stopp...