NYC Critical Mass March 2009 - The Immersive Experience

This immersive short was shot with a 180 degree lens that takes the viewer along on the March 2009 NYC Critical Mass ride.

Critical Mass is a leaderless bike ride that takes place in 100s of cities all over the world on the last Friday of every month.
The New York Police Department has had a very confrontational relationship with the ride since 2004. From 2004 2007, hundreds of police officers were dispatched each month to stop the ride and arrest the participants, deploying helicopters, blimps and undercover officers with video cameras to monitor the ride and engage in the violent take down of the cyclists. After much embarrassing media attention and several losses in court, the NYPD were forced to retreat from these tactics. The arrests have stopped, but the police continue to harass riders by giving out tickets to cyclists who do not have lights or bells on their bikes.

This selective targeting is currently being challenged in federal court in the Five Borough Bike Club vs NYC . See http://5bbc.org/parade

Additional videos:
youtube.com/watch?v=oUkiyBVytRQ
glassbeadcollective.org/CriticalMass_3-07.htm

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Critical
• Mass
• NYC
• newyork
• nypd
• gbc
• txup
• criticalmass
• bike
• immersive
• glassbeadcollective

[urbanmanc]

Massers in the US get more abuse and hassle from their local police force than any other country in the world.

Land of the free ?

[glassbeadian]

I think the problem in the US is that the authorities are very concerned with things that they dont controll. so if its an un-organized, leaderless event they want to try to shut it down. In NYC it really came down to police basically saying that as long as you dont go through the permitting process (which is very difficult btw) we will harass the riders.

[glassbeadian]

No one got arrested during NYC Critical Mass since August of 2008. Back then an officer in times square threw a biker off his bike and made up charges that he ran into him. The video that was released on youtube about the incident cause a huge scandal and forced the police to better behave. Right now NYPD is giving out tickets to people on the ride for things like not having a light or being outside the bike lane very often on streets with no bike lanes.

[crator007]

I live in lithuania, its a small country in europe. It's far less rich than usa , but police never stopped us, in fact they help us to get thru intersections etc... I dont understand whats wrong with nyc police.

[SRHawk24]

LOL "Why did you guys stop him? Riding while black?"

Awesome vid. Have u ever gotten arrested for taking video?? Ive been meaning to go down there with my camera one day,

[wwood14]

Do you carry a Driver's Liscense when you ride? If so, why??

[joeb0]

Just follow the rules of the road. there's bike lanes for a reason!

[NickG66]

yup. This is way different from a critical mass ride in Vancouver. BC. Its ridiculous how much the police hassled you guys.

[FluxRostrum]

The next NYC critical mass is this Friday 5/29 at 7pm starting at union square north.

[urbanmanc]

One part of CM is to cause disruption, to take back the streets.

It's not there as a benign ride around the city.

[OHT53]

C.M is outstanding just follow the traffic laws.