Penn police intervene at July Critical Mass in Philly

I was standing on the corner of 40th and Walnut near the end of Friday's CM in Philly in order to take a quick video of the Mass rolling by West Philly's miserably cramped excuse for Deconstructivism, the "Fresh Grocer" when I noticed some shouting. It seems that the someone is shouting at the driver of the dark blue truck to turn left onto 40th rather than follow the mass westbound on Walnut. I'm not sure if it was the cops who were sitting on the wall of the library who were doing that, but it might have been. The driver responds by cursing and saying something about paying taxes. Sorry, not professional mic... Anyway, next thing the bike cops are giving him a talking to!

Another reason Why Philly is better than NYC or Seattle

Both of the latter cities have gotten higher ratings from the League of American Bicyclists as Bicycle Friendly Cities, presumably because they hire more bureaucrats who are ostensibly on our side, but here in Philly Penn bike cops intervene to calm down an aggressive motorist who was harassing US. At least in situations that are not that serious, the Penn Police are a lot more inclined to attempt to diffuse situations.

Critical Mass is a civil disobedience; as long as it is in fact civil I'm all for it. There is no right under the constitution for people to continue to poison us all and maim and kill tens of thousands of us for very little reason every year.

So if you're in Philly on the last Friday of the month check out our CM at the west side of city hall at 6:00PM... and keep it mellow.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/seattle911/archives/144581.asp

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10001149-93.html

I'll post more of this ride after I've done June's video... sorry about the poor quality video and the delay. I don't have time or money, really. This is best viewed in "high quality"

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Critical
• Mass
• Philadelphia
• Philly
• Penn
• police
• Seattle
• NYC
• bicycle
• bike
• demonstration
• civil
• disobedience
• cops
• aggressive
• driver

[lakeadam]

Yeah, it was at Rittenhouse Square, and its the very end that I kind of want to see, so if you don't have all of it, that's fine.

I also think that its relevant to post this to the NYPD video, it just shows that not all critical mass rides are hatted on by cops. Chicago I hear that the cops actually ride along and block the traffic for them.

[HowardFair]

I was kind of grumpy that the dude didn't post my video as a reply for this reason, but now he has! Thanks for the heads up.

[lakeadam]

Hey, could you post the video (I think it was you who had the camera) where the two guys got out of the car and started hassling me. I don't know if the one guy flashed a weapon at me or not. He made a motion like he was... I don't know its really been bothering me and I know there's video out there too. Thanks for posting this too, its nice to see that guy getting hassled instead of us.

[HowardFair]

I'll try and find it. Where did that happen? I saw an incident at Rittenhouse square, but I think it was almost over when I got there. I am really busy and shouldn't even have done this but I wanted to reply to the NYC video. I don't think they'll accept this as relevant, though, because it shows cops being reasonable and professional...

[alegubert]

Look what happened in Porto Alegre, Brazil a couple days ago. The police there is "awaiting for the driver to turn himself in" Brazilian law dictates that after a short time the driver cannot be arrested without going to trial.

[jsbeerman]

this isnt NYC...it's west Philadelphia....40th and Walnut...and i see nothing here