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Page 12 for the beginning of the articles. That seems buried but it's actually the fold page for the Weekend edition, so it's the highest possible placement.
Two of the writers are sort of negative on it . . . it will probably hurt our ability to pull in new rides mildly. But the Editor Tittinger records the worst of the tickets, right there in newsprint . . . and that will make quite an impact at City Hall.
Even though the other two article, seem negative, it was there true feelings. The article showed, that we have something that makes it more comfortable to ride on their bikes, (minus the noise). Then it showed that the police scared them away. Thanks SMPD, you have been counterproductive, in a solution to Santa Monica's traffic and air pollution.
The only objective article (the first one) happens to be the best written and the most positive in favor of SMCM. He gives some history, describes the tickets, and records the encounter with SMPD very well. The two less-positive articles tell the story of how they got their bike, how they don't ride it, and their base opinons of the cops, ride and riders. Do these writers get paid? Really, I'm just asking.
I hope if this paper gets any earplay in the powers that be, they read it objectively as well.
Do you think the SMPD has something to do with my not being able to obtain my EuroPass exit? Your a motorcycle cop, you might know
What about Zach, he is with the FBI, can anybody ask him?
Melody Hanatani and Kevin Herrera come off somewhat dull-witted and lame in their articles. That said, I believe that those articles reflect their genuine reaction to CM rather than any attempt to sensationalize the story or whip up anti-CM sentiment. The two articles can be taken as indicative of the way that a typical out-of-shape, car-bound and not terribly bright person would react to the immediate experience of Critical Mass: not with hostility, but with trepidation and puzzlement. Not entirely useless, then. (One wonders, though, why the Santa Monica Daily Press doesn't employ journalists who are more than marginally literate and insightful. Isn't the point to have reporters who are at least as smart as the average reader?)
Tittinger's article, while a bit melodramatic for my taste, is more representative of the way the "old" Santa Monica--freewheeling, bohemian and instinctively suspicious of authority--might be assumed to react to Critical Mass. And he got the important details right regarding the harassment of the small group of riders by Officers Arnold and Rogozic, and he didn't hesitate to call the reader's attention to the patent absurdity of at least one of the citations they issued, which by the standards of today's risk-averse journalism makes him a regular Edward R. fucking Murrow.
All in all, yes, SMCM FTW. I think a lot of readers will be able to read between the lines of Herrera and Hanatani's articles. For crying out loud, they both whined about the whistles and the cheering. Has neither of these people ever attended a party, a sporting event, or a rock and roll concert? Tittinger's article is directly helpful to the cause; I would love to see somebody read parts of it into the record at the next Santa Monica City Council meeting. But why weren't there more pictures of Sexy?
Then there were the screams to "get off your bike",and "get on the sidewalk," or "get back on your bike," by Critical Mass veterans.
HuH?!?!?!? That doesn't sound like a seasoned CM veteran to me! Sounds like someone clueless to the fact that bikes have the same rights and responsibility as drivers do. I guess I had to be there to comprehend these orders.
Two out of three articles were from people in the community that I would bet my last dollar don't ride a bike regularly. Only Tittinger (what a cool name) seemed like he was a regular. He's article was the most accurate and complete too.
You get a writer out of their element and chances are you won't get a balanced report. Doesn't help that they are riding some cheap non functioning hand-me-down that you can bet wasn't tuned up. Shit even I would have a shitty experience riding that death trap!
the only problem i have with this coverage is that it has a ratio of two douche-bags to one journalist. i could handle a one to one ratio.
and by the way, i was in that pack of ten-or-so that stayed back with alex and santa while they got their citations. kind of trippy to think that Tittinger was there with us taking notes.
i love how the writers felt in was necessary to write about their own personal feelings and experiences during the ride rather than an objective look at the friction between Critical Mass participants and Santa Monica police officers. yeah, that's real journalism.
I did have a conversation quite awhile back with a rida that said he was a writer for a newspaper. I never asked him which, but these guys are not always trying to be clandestine or being some undercover spy. I didn't think too much about it since there were no problems happening at the time.
Anyone know what the readership is of this Newspaper? Is this one of the free papers you can just pick up at markets? Or is it like the Breeze, that costs some change and is a regional paper?
I wonder if the SM insanity has to do with the Xmas season.
"We don't want these protesters tying up our downtown and ruining our Xmas sales."
In any case I don't give a shit about SM. It's a little hick town full of rich pretentious wannabe liberals and in 15 years it's going to sink in the ocean thanks to global warming.
After getting a ticket in SM the other day, I am pretty much through with that city.
Sure, I ran a red light (on my bike), but the officer never bothered to run my license or ask if I had previous traffic violations before issuing the ticket. He just arbitrarily decided to write it based on logic that I was unable to grip.
And marino is right, SM is just a pseudo liberal town loaded with assholes with way too much money who think that "green" is just a fad they can wear like a badge to impress whomever it is that they are trying to impress.
With that said, it is a little sad that there isn't enough fight in the ride's participants to stand up to this petty bullying by the cops.
The whole law enforcement/ticket process is a punishment - so even if you end up not having to pay a ticket, it is a pain in the ass to fight some times, and I believe that cycling tickets are like regular traffic tickets when you try to pay for insurance, etc.
HOWEVER - there is a lot that can be done. A small trust fund to pay for tickets on the ride could be started. A few quick and dirty fund raisers, and a few thousand bucks could be pulled together to protect cyclists from dealing with this bullshit.
Some quasi-organized protest rides, photo ops and media friendly events would really get things changing.
The cops love to pull out the "law and order" shtick when their authority is challenged.
The only political option I can think of is to humiliate their department into backing down. What other options are there?
"With that said, it is a little sad that there isn't enough fight in the ride's participants to stand up to this petty bullying by the cops."
ubrayj02
This is too juicy to pass up - the opportunity of a lifetime - a Bikerowave vs Bike Oven beef!
Where the hell do you get the idea that we're not standing up to SM? You must be reading too much into these articles. We've been fighting them for 7 months. We turned out more riders in December than November, after getting 32 citations - probably more than 1 in 5 riders. And we brought 55 people to city council, with 36 speaking. You try weathering 60 tickets in 7 months. Give me a fu cking break.
Alex, I understand that those of you who live in SM do care if the city goes to the dogs.
I just don't think the politics of self victimization are effective politics.
You ride around the city and the cops give you tickets.
What should the reaction be?
Ride around the city even more and get more tickets?
That's their fucking game, you should not fall victim to that.
Did they silence you? Where they successful?
No. you should just not let them use your bicycle as a weapon against you anymore with all these frivolous tickets.
What else to do?
Protest without bicycles. On the street. On third street promenade where it hurts them the most. And to rub it in don't protest FOR bicycles, protest AGAINST bicycles.
WHAAAT????
Yes. Pretend you are the Police Loving Citizens of Santa Monica and start shouting that bicycles are dangerous and public transit is dangerous and Santa Monica needs more, bigger garages and Santa Monicans should drive even bigger SUVs .
Mock the hell out of them.
Become what they want you to be in the most absurd way, to really expose them.
"we can put one at the start of SM CM and set up time slots for people to releive each other like I have the 2am to 4 am shift and have a pc with a camera broadcasting it and uploading to you tube
getting media attention
if we get kicked out we can put it on a truck and park the truck on the street
I can roll for two hours with out stopping no sweat
it;s actually pretty fun
donuts for sure
I want donuts"
I love the truck idea. We could rent 20-30 or more U-Haul pick up trucks. They are only $19.95/day load them with bicycles and ride these around Santa Monica all evening.
We could have banners that say, "sorry, SMPD won't let us ride our bikes"
WHAAAT????
Yes. Pretend you are the Police Loving Citizens of Santa Monica and start shouting that bicycles are dangerous and public transit is dangerous and Santa Monica needs more, bigger garages and Santa Monicans should drive even bigger SUVs .
And maybe one person out of a thousand would get the joke. But on the upside, we could get some aerobic benefit from patting ourselves on the back for our own cleverness.
Or, follow the rules for one night and watch the SMPD scream as their own rules backfire on them.
Everyone stopping on time and blocking off traffic, flaring the tempers of irate motorists.
"Hey, we tried to do it your way and now half the city's a runnin' riot. Damned if you do, damned if you don't."
I'm if what I wrote came read like a put-down or an insult.
It just seems to me (as an outsider to the details of this issue) that there might be some better strategies that can be employed to prevent the SMPD from harassing the Critical Mass ride.
A flatbed with cyclists on stationary bikes is a funny idea that can get a point across if it is filmed and photographed and distributed on the web.
Holding a ride that completely gums up traffic in an area of Santa Monica, with all of the riders participating trying to obey traffic laws, might be an effective strategy.
Walking bicycles through 3rd Street, or through the ground floor level of parking structures, to break up police tailing the ride, or taking the ride in and out of Santa Monica and L.A. to confuse the police are also methods to frustrate the cops and help keep the ride fun and strange.
My first group ride, ever, in my life, was the Santa Monica Critical Mass in August of 2005. It changed the trajectory of my life. I really hope that we can come up with ways to keep this ride going strong, and keep the cops away.
I am all for sarcasm, and the U-Haul idea has simply outshined all the other options thrown around so far. Hmm, maybe we could use the trucks as "escort" for the ride... or better yet, for corking....
Also, since disruptive and repeated crosswalk usage has been brought up so many times, it's worth scouting some crosswalk locations in Santa Monica, maybe across Wilshire or Montana. (howcome we never venture up to Montana?)
The stationary bike idea came up in a discussion I was having on SMCM situation with dannyzuko. I started to think wouldn't it be hilarious to stage a fake critical mass done theatre style, with a group of stationary cyclists, and people manipulating props and fake backgrounds to simulate that we are actually going somewhere, but just stay at the pier the whole time. We could talk and pretend as though it was a real ride, and call out things like car back, and fake police can cite us for things like lack of forward facing lights when we have two of them, or riding too far to the left. We could film the entire thing as well, and it can be made into a mockery of Santa Monica's government and police.
I really like the idea, and I would like to help and participate if there are enough people interested in doing this together. How could the police site us for doing some guerrilla theater like this? We would just be asked to move along. At which point perhaps the real ride may begin?
For guerrilla theater idea, was thinking it would be best if we got a non-profit filming permit to shoot video/photography at the spot, and then if cops tried to break it up, we could whip out filming permit and tell them this is part of our production. Was thinking this might be best as a separate thing from SMCM ride it self, so as to not compete for attention.
Good idea but Santa Monica charges a lot for a film permit and i don't think they offer a special break for Non-profit organizations. And you'd need a 593C status to prove we were a non-profit org if there was one. I'd expect the permit would run around $900 or so. But i could confirm tomorrow morning. However, at least in the city of LA, its possible to film without a permit if your crew size is 3 or less. I don't think that will work in SM though.
Getting a film permit doesn't solve anything. Essentially you would be paying the cops $50/hour to babysit you and not allow you do anything that's not explicitly mentioned in the permit.
You do have free speech rights and the right to demonstrate. You don't need a permit to yell; "SMPD sucks"
In Portland one of the supposedly most bike friendly cities in the US it looks like the cops have ticketed CM out of existence.
The main takeaway from the BikePortland article is that we need more figureheads. It makes sense that they'll go after the leader, so we should have people rotating to do the speeches at the beginning of each CM. That ought to slightly confuse the police robots.
From the article: As new riders, they had no idea how to deal with the police, like which streets to avoid during the ride (for instance, streets with bike lanes allowed the cops to ticket everyone outside of the bike lane, so it’s best to avoid those streets)
I would say the main takeaway from all articles is that journalism just isn't that good anymore . . . don't rely on one source or even many sources. Don't assume articles are right.
To help you out with that we're working on a SMCM wiki right now. I'm the only one editing right now but we should have more editors soon. This is another source you can check facts against. I'll post it soon.
An example of an area where articles give you the wrong idea - a lot of articles recently painted December as the do or die ride for us. That just ain't the case. This was a misconstrual of the situation. For instance, Ms Hsu asked me what I thought would happen if the Police continued to act as in November. I said I thought it would effectively kill the ride - I believe in being honest with reporters and that was what I thought.
I also thought that if the SMPD managed to break up the ride for a few months we would reorganize in LA . . . and come back with a 1000 riders.
I like some of the suggestions here. The uhaul is great. It's a matter of money and organization.
Right now there's a bunch of people working behind the scenes on new tactics. We want to show SM a many headed beast so they know that we will expand the scope of conflict in a way they won't like.
"I would say the main takeaway from all articles is that journalism just isn't that good anymore . . ."
Anymore? Since when was journalism anything but a subjective, biased, mouthpiece for some specific person or agenda? "Don't believe everything you read" isn't just a cliché, it's also violently and absurdly true.
Anyway, I just want to say that I am an east-sider, (really a north east-sider, way the fuck far away from santa monica and way uphill) but I plan on showing up for the mass and just BE there. I don't get much into political debates or even political activism. I let my pedaling be my politics. And I plan on pedaling Santa Monica with ya'll and doing my measly little almost-but-not-quite worthless part.
I got a couple awesome journalists in the family so I'm a little biased. I do think more was expected of journalists in the era before the present "news releases are journailism" environment.
This route has been proposed enough that it's time to burst the bubble. I like the concept but . . . it is illegal to make a left from the top of the pier to go North on Ocean. Instant ticket even when the light is green. Ocean has a bike lane and they ticketed many riders in November for riding outside of it. Again - too easy for the cops. Ocean = bike lane = suck.
BTW - this route is also probably part of the reason we're getting so much shit = it supposedly pissed off business owners there. Me, I think they've expressed a lot of reasons that they don't like SMCM . . . but it seems more like a convenient way to obstruct negotiation.
Why do we HAVE to start on Colorado? We could start at the Wilshire/Ocean intersection and start up north to do our right turns on 4th. Or mabey Santa Monica. C'mon, lets get 'guerilla here.
AT writes: "Ocean has a bike lane and they ticketed many riders in November for riding outside of it. Again - too easy for the cops. Ocean = bike lane = suck."
Here is the basis for a complaint:
The law does not require cyclists to use a bike lane simply because a bike lane is present.
The law requires cyclists NOT traveling at the speed of traffic to use the bike lane and even then gives exceptions including OVERTAKING!
If Ocean is experiencing gridlock, what is the speed of traffic? If cyclists are traveling at the speed of traffic and overtaking then they are not bound to the bike lane.
CVC 21208 (snipped)
21208. (a) ...any person operating a bicycle upon the roadway at a speed LESS than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time shall ride within the bicycle lane, except that the person may move out of the lane under any of the following situations:
(1) When overtaking...
(2) When preparing for a left turn...
(3) ...hazardous conditions.
(4) When approaching a place where a right turn is authorized.
It would seem that if we are to bang away at any of the weak SMPD interpretation of the law, this would be one of the easiest to challenge.
I believe onethirtynine is challenging on this basis. I think one other rider as well.
This isn't exactly a covert event . . . how do you move the start without the police learning of it? We send out an email to 671 people announcing the ride each month . . . kind of hard to keep the word from spreading. Based on communication with police and city officials in the past a plurality of people within the city receive these emails.
The best tactics are those that work even when known = open source. That's the aspect of the conflict that is asymmetric which doesn't benefit us. Those also happen to be the tactics which are most in keeping with the concept of CM.
And I'm willing to take a ticket for the cause...as long as PC is my lawyer, DJ Chickenleather is there to document the moment and Enci is allowed to swear in Hungarian at the oppressing authorities!
I think that the Santa Monica Police are also aware of the general tactics of the SMCM. The ride usually goes down Colorado and eventually makes their way towards the Promenande or around the mall. Then usually an escape to Venice. A predominately west end ride. This seems to be when SMPD issues the most tickets.
To paraphrase Carl Von Claueswitz, "your enemy will learn your tactics and weaknesses and strike you at his convenience."
So let's not make it so convenient for them.
Just a suggestion, but what if the ride quickly exited Santa Monica after the pier, rode through Venice and came back around east of Lincoln around Bundy/Centinela. Then approaching Santa Monica from the East, coming back down through Santa Monica Blvd or Wilshire.
This way we can still ride through Santa Monica, but just change the tactics and route approach.
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Ridazz Roulette!
I thought I was leaving yesterday, having troubles in customs, with my bike, and the sticker that signifies, "that my bike is a pipe bomb."
If we can't impress kyber, then there is no point to it all.
I really like the idea, and I would like to help and participate if there are enough people interested in doing this together. How could the police site us for doing some guerrilla theater like this? We would just be asked to move along. At which point perhaps the real ride may begin?
O ya.