Nothing Sharper

Behold, a new letter from yours truly to Councilmember Steve Cohn, District 3 about Critical Mass. I haven’t heard from him in a while, so I figure it’s a good time to remind him that I exist, especially while the Mass is basking in the glow of some decent coverage in the News and Review and Midtown Monthly. I get too much a kick out of this sort of thing.

Councilmember Steve Cohn
915 I Street, 5th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814

Re: Police response to the Critical Mass bicycle demonstration

Councilmember Cohn,

I had previously communicated with you in November and December of last year with my concerns about the police presence at Critical Mass bicycle rides that occur on the last Friday of every month. At the time I last wrote, a police cruiser had struck a bicyclist and numerous other bicyclists had been cited for equipment infractions. I am writing to inform you of developments that have taken place in the interim and to ask you, as your constituent and as an organizer of Critical Mass, for your help.

As a reminder, Critical Mass is a monthly bicycle ride through midtown, lasting roughly an hour and a half, replicating the hugely successful Critical Mass rides that started in San Francisco fifteen years ago. There are no specific leaders, the participants spontaneously choose the route, and while everyone rides for his own reason, the overall goals are to have fun and enjoy the thrill of knowing once a month, bicyclists can gather in a large enough group to safely travel down even the most bicycle-unfriendly streets. This ride has become noteworthy enough to receive favorable news coverage this past month from both the Sacramento News and Review alternative newspaper and Midtown Monthly magazine, and is quickly on its way to becoming a cultural staple in midtown Sacramento.

Unfortunately, this friendly atmosphere is threatened by what has become a routine police presence at the ride, and the police have ironically become a greater disruptive force on afternoon traffic than the conglomeration of riders they attempt to keep in order. I intend to show you that this police presence is unnecessary, disruptive, dangerous, and features a deception that taints the morality of the Sacramento Police Department.

By my estimation, police officers have issued 16 citations to riders at Critical Mass rides since October. Of these, more than two-thirds have been for equipment violations such as insufficient lighting for twilight or night riding, a minor riding without a helmet, and in one case for having “no rear brake” (issued to a rider with a front brake only, even though the California Vehicle does not specify which wheel on a bicycle has a brake, only that one does). The other five citations have been for moving violations, such as failing to stop at a red signal, and includes one ticket issued for not riding close enough to the curb, though the Vehicle Code offers substantial exceptions for bicyclists to leave the curbside, any number of which (such as overtaking another bicyclist or avoiding a moving obstruction in the bicycle’s path) are active at any point during a Critical Mass ride. In all, these eight months of police scrutiny of fifty or more riders over roughly 90 minute intervals has yielded five citable moving violations. I think this is a surprising record that speaks to the ability of Critical Mass riders to police ourselves and adhere – as any good citizens will – to traffic regulations. A similar attempt to closely follow as many drivers over a similar period would likely offer enough citable offenses to balance the state budget.

That Critical Mass is self-policing is evident from our behavior. The other organizers and I have voluntarily moved the start time of Critical Mass back from 5:30 PM to 6:00 PM so as to lessen our effect on traffic through the central city. We have abolished the practice of “corking” – intentionally riding through intersections while one or two bicyclists dismount and stand in the path of oncoming traffic – in favor of adhering to predominant traffic guidelines. We riders have confined ourselves to the established bicycle lanes where they exist and to only one lane where there are no bicycle lanes. When police officers have taken a bicyclist aside to issue a citation, we have silences anti-police speech within our own ranks and given the officers ample room to write their citation, to show that we are not at all intending to present a threat to the officers.

While a group of as many as one hundred bicyclists can have a disruptive effect on local traffic patterns, this disruption is significantly amplified by the police presence, as officers in cruisers or on motorcycles close in pursuit frequently shut down multiple lanes along major central arteries as we bicyclists progress. Before these monthly escorts started, we riders rarely blocked more than one lane at a time from other traffic, and our obstruction was limited to the physical space we could occupy – often no more than one lane wide and one block long. With the police, this relatively small obstruction of bicyclists becomes a significant and unwieldy clot – two lanes wide and three blocks long in some cases. This greater traffic disruption also comes at a greater danger to riders’ health and safety, as well, as officers on motorcycles and in cruisers find themselves operating in very close proximity to bicyclists at speeds so low as to make movement jerky and maneuvering difficult. I believe this led to the impact between the officer and rider in November, and I have since witnessed many other dangerously close calls between motored officers and civilian bicyclists.

Finally, I want to address police deception, for it is a moral crime that I consider fundamentally more troubling than the problems mentioned above. Following the initial police responses to the October and November rides (which my earlier communications discussed), Brenda Meininger met with Sacramento Police Department representatives to discuss the department’s response to Critical Mass rides and what the riders could do to lessen the police response. She was directly told that the department had no policy regarding Critical Mass, but would only show up after receiving a complaint. At every ride since this meeting has taken place, police officers in cruisers, on motorcycles, and on bicycles have been stationed around Fremont Park, our designated meeting place, before the gathering time or join in a police pursuit immediately as the ride begins. It is hard to comprehend how the police can be responding to complaints related to Critical Mass if the police arrive at our location before we do. What’s more, most of the responding officers are there for each ride, suggesting that in direct opposition to what the department said at the good faith meeting with Ms. Meininger, they are adhering to a specific policy regarding Critical Mass.

I worry that a spontaneous and democratic gathering like this cannot continue with what seems to be glaringly bad faith on the part of the police department, especially when the police response carries such a distinct whiff of oppression. The Critical Mass ride is currently at a position to control itself and establish the behavior patterns that it will maintain for years to come. As I have shown, we organizers are shaping that behavior as best we can, but we need help from the city to do so, and giving us positive reinforcement and civic trust will help us much more than the negative pressure of constant police surveillance. I think I have made it clear above that this good-natured monthly ride has acquiesced to the needs of public safety and courtesy, but the response from the police has not matched that good faith. I am urging you, as my Councilmember, to discuss Critical Mass with the Sacramento Police Department to see if they can let us ride in peace and save them and the rest of the city the trouble and substantial cost of providing us an unwelcome escort. Additionally, I wish to let you know that I will be requesting whatever police reports and summaries of previous Critical Mass rides the department has as well as their current policies regarding the ride. If you can provide some additional pressure for them to respond quickly and fully with my request, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and your service as my Councilmember. If you are interested in participating in or witnessing the Critical Mass ride yourself, you would be as welcome as anyone. Our next ride is planned for Friday, June 27, 2008, at Fremont Park on 16th and P. We start gathering around 5:30 PM and the ride will usually get underway around 6:00 PM. Any bicycle is welcome and suitable, and the ride itself is not strenuous, covering only three miles on average in the hour and a half we ride.

Sincerely,

Ryan Sharpe

Personally, I’m a bit worried that publicly enumerating all of the ways that Critical Mass has “rolled over” to the police might agitate the wrong elements (it could happen: a couple of punks rode with us the last couple of months), but I’m willing to risk it. I’m pretty confident the ride will stay peaceful and fun, but if it starts throwing bricks, it’ll be fun to write a follow-up “I told you so” letter in between rock-hurling.