BEFORE:  

Earlier this summer, the City Pages’ Peter “Snoopp Peete” Scholtes wrote about the Critical Mass bike rally:

What always strikes me about this parade is its quiet, a gap in rush-hour racket that absorbs even the clink of chains, the shouts to passersby. The effect might explain why participants prefer to joke with–rather than preach at–people they pass. On a previous ride, when the cyclists glided past a man looking under the hood of his overheated sedan, one rider couldn’t resist yelling: “Time to get a bike!”

That’s about as didactic as this roving protest gets. Though against automobile traffic in both the physical and philosophical sense, Critical Mass is a ride first and foremost, an exercise in guerrilla leisure conceived ten years ago in San Francisco and duplicated across the planet, from Tel Aviv to Sydney. The name was lifted from Ted White’s 1992 documentary Return of the Scorcher, in which one interviewee described the bike buildup and spontaneous group forays across the busy intersections of Beijing as “critical mass.”

Sounds peaceful.

Almost bucolic. 

Almost something I can get into. 

Indeed, an old friend turns up:

“It’s an exhilarating feeling to ride on some of the streets where we’re most vulnerable and feel absolutely safe,” says Jason Goray, a Web developer who joined the Mass in April. “I never realized how much tension I carry around when I ride; the feeling that a car could take you out at any point.”

This exorcism inevitably backs up traffic and irritates weary motorists, but Goray doesn’t like the word protest. Like many riders, he believes the movement’s civilly disobedient slogan–“We are not blocking traffic. We are traffic”–is an assertion, not a dare.

After a summer of biking to work – which, with a 17 year gap, followed a decade of serious biking, albeit most of it in the country – I can agree.

What could be wrong with that?

AFTER:

From WCCO on Friday:

Minneapolis Police arrested 17 adults and 2 juveniles during a monthly bicycle protest Friday night…The trouble started Friday night with one bicyclist.

“Somebody was driving straight at cars,” said Deputy Chief Allen.

Police tried to arrest that bicyclist on Hennepin Avenue, but were unsuccessful. In a videotape of the incident provided by a friend of one of the bicyclists, the crowd grew vocal and restless as officers tried to make the arrest. “What’s the charge? What’s the charge?” the group chanted.

According to Police, the bicyclist escaped back into the mass of riders. Officers made another attempt at an arrest on LaSalle Street, not far from Loring Park, at 7:15 p.m. Friday.

“There were individuals physically trying to pull officers off the individual under arrest,” said Deputy Chief Allen. That’s when the officers called for backup, and at least 50 squad cars responded to the scene.

On the videotape provided to WCCO-TV, an officer is seen spraying pepper spray at some of the bicyclists. According to Allen, that was warranted, because the bicyclists were being aggressive and refusing to back away from the arrest scene.

“They were set upon by a large group who started fighting with the officers,” he said.

The Strib article on the incident goes into more detail:

When officers tried to arrest a rider they felt had been trying to provoke them, a scuffle broke out, said Minneapolis Police Lt. Marie Przynski.

“When the officer went to arrest him, his buddy came up, and they started to struggle with the officer,” Przynski said.

A group surrounded the officers, and begin to chant “Let them go!”Then several people tried to prevent the officers from arresting these individuals,” she said, and a skirmish ensued.

Soon, the two officers were surrounded by about 30 people, and they issued the call “officer needs help.”

That brought 48 officers from six different law enforcement agencies racing to the scene, where the situation escalated and the officers used chemical Mace in an attempt to control the crowd, Przynski said.

And the Strib noted, almost as an afterthought:

The ride was also linked with weekend protests of next year’s Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities.

Hmm.

So what could have possible taken a peaceful (if typically, Minnesotan-ily passive-aggressive) protest and turned it into a riot?

A hysterical lefty site gives us a hint (and photos):

Police attack Minneapolis Critical Mass @ pReNC and arrest around 20 cyclists

The first day of the pReNC gathering in Minneapolis/St. Paul (in preparation for next year’s Republican National Convention) saw an utterly unprovoked attack by police on a non-confrontational Critical Mass ride. Around 20 people have been arrested, several from out of state.

A strong critical mass of around 400 or more cyclists were attacked by the police at the corners of LaSalle and Grand as the tail end of the Mass went under the bridge.

The site also asks, plaintively:

If you know these people and know that they were part of Critical Mass or the pReNC, let us know immediately so that jail support can work to help them. Many out-of-state Anarchists journeyed to the pReNC alone and it is our fear that they may not have written down the jail support number and now be languishing in jail without our knowledge. 

Huh.

According to this site, all but three of those arrested have been released:

Gus Ganley  (Henco jail record)
Paul Krisopovich  [Actually Kristapovich, of Prospect Park – and he’s been released]
David Renz [Henco jail record]
Alan Palazello   [Henco jail record]
Dohovan Lessard   [Henco jail record]
Joshua Nichols   [Henco jail record]
Alice Battey [posted bail]  [Henco jail record]
Julia Bates   [Henco jail record]
Isaac Peter (a minor)  
Alia Trindle   [Henco jail record]
Magdelena Kaluza (a minor)  
Luce Guillen-Givins  (She’s popped up before)  [Henco jail record]
Jeff Pemberton   [Henco jail record]
Joel Leders     [no Henco jail record on the website]
Daniel Barnett   [no Henco jail record on the website]
Mike Kirk [Henco jail record]
Jeff Fick  [Henco jail record]
Hunter Gsoell [Henco jail record]

…Those not listed are being charged with felonies and kept till at least Wednesday, bail set at $3,000.

So: heretofore peaceful local protest plus [possible] out-of-town anarchists (some of the names were just too common to Google) and thugs equals riot.

It’s going to be an interesting year.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Monday, September 3rd, 2007 at 5:24 am and is filed under Convention '08, Days of Adolescent Rage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.