Critical Mass Panic

Okay, so I am finally posting. I was having trouble expressing myself on in 140-or-less on my Twitter account (@critmasspanic). Also my pathetic plea to my facebook "friends" to accompany an "invite" for "F*ck Ur Cliques & Ur Scenes - Lets ride!" (Critical Mass, obviously) just was not coming together right. Lastly, I promised myself I would at least drop a mass e-mail to let folks know the cool shit going down. Or potentially going down, with a little participation in creating the world we want to see, from you, dear readers. So without further ado, a brief rant, and some suggested events you might attend. The NYPD have been in the hot seat a lot lately, especially following last week's city council hearing on the utter failure to hold anyone accountable for traffic "accidents." I tried (but mostly failed) to speak eloquently on the record about the utter waste of resources, the (further) corruption of police culture, and the failure o...

Manhattan South - May 25th, 2014 - 18 Rogue Cyclists Rounded Up by NYPD at Anarchist GroupRide! NYPD, through amazing feats of derring-do, collared 18 dangerous, rogue cyclists last Friday night at the Astor Place Cube Bloomburg Pop-Up Club. The un-licensed, un-insured riders were using un-registered bicyles for blocking legal traffic outside of designated bike zones. The group stunned the clubgoers, but fortunately for those held hostage by the noisy miscreants, a pair Mike's Bikers in a nearby bike zone heard the commotion and contacted the NYPD's Bicycle Control Unit. Helicopters and quarantine nets were deployed to contain the cyclists circumventing the City Bike Fees. A police spokesperson stated 4 rouge riders critically injured themselves attempting to evade the law enforcement pursuing in the new electric-powered "Mega-Interceptors." No confirmation yet as to how many members of the now-banned "TA" BikeGroup were apprehended in response to the noise ...

Now I know I promised a deluge of video this week, but first, in an effort to organize my life and out myself as an incompetent human being, I am going through and putting up many half-assed, un-edited, ranting blog posts. Not unlike this one. Anyhow, if anyone cares, you might find some nuggets of wisdom, just as infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters could create the entirety of our corporate/legal/bureaucracy which we now live in. But really the only thing that this proves is that I love the sound of my fingers typing a tirade as much as I love the sound of my voice (proven by the forthcoming video). Speaking of said video, if you watched the teasers, you are probably asking yourself "how did I get tricked into wasting another 30 seconds of my life in front of a screen?" Well I assure you it is time well spent. Too often we've seen NYC Critical Mass either edited into music videos or cop-watch footage. Mainstream media typically only shows at the start and asks som...

Today I am grateful to the fact that major media outlets are covering some of the issues in a reasonable, balanced manner. I commend the Wall Street Journal at reading the pulse of capitalism and realizing that if the elite do not do something to mitigate all the problems of auto and oil addiction, the profits to be squeezed from the masses will run dry. Meanwhile the New York Times ran a piece more favorable of the vocal minority, believing that if you tell a story and make stuff up no matter how little sense it makes, it can come true! They initially headed it with a photo of the 1st Ave bike lane "protest", of which this man was one of three protestors. Big Props to Team Spider for this awesome footage.

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! (RANT WARNING) Bicycles are taking over! They are getting in the way of cars! Cyclists are scaring pedestrians! It is a United Nations conspiracy! A blight on our beautiful and efficient roadways! They are killing themselves! A small sampling of fear-mongering and slander against Critical Mass can be found at these links. http://thevillager.com/villager_392/talkingpoint2.html http://www.thevillager.com/villager_387/anticritical.html http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_16390626?source=most_emailed&nclick_check=1 http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_16487931 It probably just an effect of the election season. The bike-hate has been flying in the media the last few months, both on the local and national levels. It seems pretty clear that the Tea Party and the GOP have sought to use bicycles as another spectre of terror that threatens us somehow, to divide the people from each other and distract us from what really matters. And what really matters? Well, havin...