Dan Azorbia
August 26th 04, 06:38 PM
Miami Critical Mass has run in with the Cops
09:32
Miami's monthly Critical Mass ride ended on a sour note today. Unlike our
first ride last month, which was cop free, this time we had an encounter
with the dreaded Miami Cops. The Critical Mass ride began on NE 23 ST and
Biscayne and took a slight detour to drop of a rider at the Metro Rail
Station. She later called us to tell us that the transit authorities had
someone escort her to her stop because they thought she was some "crazy"
protester who might try to do something to, or on, the trains. After that we
decided to ride to Little Havana because we heard there was some sort of
street fair going on.
This is where the Miami Authorities decided to rear their ugly head, and
ruin our festive and peaceful ride. He told us over some loud speaker that
we had to get off the road. When we decided to ignore him and continue our
ride through the streets, he threw his vehicle in front of the riders. After
a failed attempt to nab any of the riders, he repeated his technique, this
time he succeeded in stopping several riders, I guess someone he had singled
out as the leader of the ride. We immediately stopped to see why he was
arresting our friends and he wouldn't give us any details. I'm not even sure
if we where able to get his badge number, because he told us that, "he would
give it to us when he was good a ready." So after our friends were put in
the back of the police vehicle, we decided to simply ride back home.
On our way home it began to rain, and we decided to pull over momentarily.
The cops showed up again, this time telling everybody to stay where they
were. I was a little ahead of the ride and therefore was not rounded up with
that group. I had trouble seeing what was going on, and I didn't go back
because I had no idea of what was occurring at the moment. I didn't know if
they were getting arrested or what. It felt so helpless to watch from a far
as my friends were being harassed by these cops, but because of the uncanny
nature of this unreasonable detainment, I felt like there wasn't much I
could do.
Luckily, they were all release after about five hours, but not before the
cops took pictures of them. So five riders sits in jail tonight for who
knows what, and I sit in front of my computer, typing this and trying to
make sense of the whole incident.
09:32
Miami's monthly Critical Mass ride ended on a sour note today. Unlike our
first ride last month, which was cop free, this time we had an encounter
with the dreaded Miami Cops. The Critical Mass ride began on NE 23 ST and
Biscayne and took a slight detour to drop of a rider at the Metro Rail
Station. She later called us to tell us that the transit authorities had
someone escort her to her stop because they thought she was some "crazy"
protester who might try to do something to, or on, the trains. After that we
decided to ride to Little Havana because we heard there was some sort of
street fair going on.
This is where the Miami Authorities decided to rear their ugly head, and
ruin our festive and peaceful ride. He told us over some loud speaker that
we had to get off the road. When we decided to ignore him and continue our
ride through the streets, he threw his vehicle in front of the riders. After
a failed attempt to nab any of the riders, he repeated his technique, this
time he succeeded in stopping several riders, I guess someone he had singled
out as the leader of the ride. We immediately stopped to see why he was
arresting our friends and he wouldn't give us any details. I'm not even sure
if we where able to get his badge number, because he told us that, "he would
give it to us when he was good a ready." So after our friends were put in
the back of the police vehicle, we decided to simply ride back home.
On our way home it began to rain, and we decided to pull over momentarily.
The cops showed up again, this time telling everybody to stay where they
were. I was a little ahead of the ride and therefore was not rounded up with
that group. I had trouble seeing what was going on, and I didn't go back
because I had no idea of what was occurring at the moment. I didn't know if
they were getting arrested or what. It felt so helpless to watch from a far
as my friends were being harassed by these cops, but because of the uncanny
nature of this unreasonable detainment, I felt like there wasn't much I
could do.
Luckily, they were all release after about five hours, but not before the
cops took pictures of them. So five riders sits in jail tonight for who
knows what, and I sit in front of my computer, typing this and trying to
make sense of the whole incident.