Santa Barbara Critical Mass
Thread started by
mk4524 at 04.10.08 - 12:22 pm
This article was published in today's issue of the Santa Barbara Independent. Interesting compared with LACM a couple of weeks ago.
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Thou Shalt Have No False Dogs Before Me
Thursday, April 10, 2008
by NICK WELSH
DISTANT REPLAY: There are a million stories in the Naked City. But
because there are so many, some get lost in the shuffle. This particular story took place on February 29, otherwise known as Leap Day. It began in the evening with a group bike ride organized by a group of uppity, obstreperous, attitudinal, idealistic bike riders who aren¹t happy unless they¹re getting in someone¹s face. Known as Critical Mass, this group subscribes to the outlandish notion that the world would somehow be improved if more people got out of their cars and onto their bikes. Given the South Coast¹s climate, terrain, and poke-you-in-the-eye natural beauty, it¹s kind of pathetic that only 4 percent of Santa Barbara commuters cycle to and from work.
As low as this figure is, it¹s still much higher than most cities throughout the United States. Elsewhere, Critical Mass seeks to empower cyclists by hosting huge, raucous rides that completely shut down regular traffic. This being Santa Barbara, the rides usually draw only about 30 people, hardly enough to stop traffic but sufficient enough to constitute a minor nuisance.
The Leap Night ride in question started out at Alameda Park and snaked its way back and forth across town, eventually spilling out onto Milpas Street by the Cabrillo softball fields. Along the way, these radical velocipedes and velo-utionaries -- some wearing red clown noses because everyone knows clowns are scary -- blocked intersections by riding their two-wheelers in tight little circles as the lights changed from red to green to red again. Some got self-righteous and annoyed the nearby motorists; others remained sweet and calmed them back down. The idea was to educate drivers how it feels to be a second-class citizen of the road.
But making a car wait in traffic longer than normal doesn¹t really equate with a cyclist getting plowed under by a metal machine weighing thousands of pounds. Just ask the poor cyclist who was crunched by the Mission Street off ramp early Monday morning.
Although most motorists weren¹t inconvenienced for all that long during the Critical Mass ride, the action was still enough to generate complaints. Dispatched to the scene was Detective Jaycee Hunter, then driving an unmarked squad car while assigned to anti-gang surveillance with his partner, Officer Scott Klacking. Unbeknownst to the Critical Mass riders, Hunter considered himself an authority in their ways. And he did not like them, not one little bit. In his report of the night¹s showdown, Hunter describes Critical Mass in such terms it¹s a wonder Homeland Security was not called out. ³I have had extensive training and experience with this anarchist bicycle group,² Hunter wrote. ³I had received training of their terrorist-type behaviors with law enforcement and am aware that I must be extremely conscious of officer safety due to their radical, aggressive/violent attitudes toward law enforcement officers.²
Obnoxious maybe, but terrorists?
It¹s true that some dedicated, hard-working cycling activists worry that Critical Mass is setting back the cause of cyclists everywhere with a confrontational style that confuses hormones for ideology.
But terrorist?
Maybe if they had the numbers, they¹d be different. But here in Santa Barbara, Critical Mass riders are known to run red lights, block lanes, ride without lights, and execute concentric donuts at intersections. On one occasion, they repeatedly circled the roundabout at Milpas Street until almost falling over from dizziness. Such behavior actually sounds kind of fun. Liberating maybe. And depending on your distance, also irritating. But Hunter described it thusly: ³In the process of the ride, they will intentionally and maliciously commit numerous traffic violations, often endangering their lives and the lives of other citizens.²
With this mindset, it¹s a wonder things didn¹t get more out of hand. When Hunter observed a couple of Critical Mass stragglers run a red light, he drove after them. Pulling up alongside, he turned on his lights and sirens and yelled, ³Stop, police.² Hunter says the rider, Michael Howard Miller, sought to flee and crashed his cycle when trying to jump a curb. Even so, Miller kept fleeing. Hunter ran after him, pulled his Taser on the fly, and ordered Miller to the ground. At that point, Hunter recounted how Miller¹s fellow riders began circling back, in what he concluded was an effort to free him. ³I was in extreme danger. I was surrounded by a rapidly approaching, militant, anarchist group who were behaving in the exact manner that I was trained they would behave,² he wrote. He described how rider Carleigh Michelle O¹Donnell, a Celtic road warrior, emerged as the spokesperson for the group and began peppering him with questions. But Hunter said he saw O¹Donnell¹s questions for what they were. ³She attempted to engage me in discussion as a distraction technique,² he said, so the group could creep closer to him and snatch away his prisoner. After waving off the crowd with his Taser, Hunter called for backup. When it arrived, Miller, O¹Donnell, and fellow rider John Patrick Flannery would be arrested, either for resisting arrest or refusing to obey an officer¹s command to move back.
But at the March 18 City Council meeting, Miller and a handful of Critical Massers showed up to tell another story. As they described it, Hunter scared the hell out of them, appearing out of nowhere in an unmarked car and executing the classic, sudden, swerving Adam-12 stop way too close for comfort. They thought he was going to crash into them. Miller tried to jump the curb, they said, so he wouldn¹t get run over. They complained that Hunter gave them next to no warning; the lights and sirens sounded about the same instant Hunter jumped out of the car. To have a cop pull a Taser on someone for running a red light, they said, was just plain nuts. If anyone was out of control, they said, it was the cops. Sure they demanded the officers¹ names and badge numbers, they said, but denied trying to snatch Miller away. Hunter was not at the meeting to defend himself. But if he were, I bet he¹d say that¹s exactly what he¹d expect them to say. At least that¹s what I¹d expect.
This story is far from over. Someday soon?‹maybe this week even?‹?the three defendants will appear before Judge Brian Hill on misdemeanor charges. I don¹t pretend to know what will happen. But when it does, there won¹t be just one million stories in the Naked City; there will be one million-and-one. In the meantime, don¹t run over people riding bicycles. Better yet, try becoming one. It¹s a lot more fun.
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Nick,
I have seen these bicyclists riding; they are a great annoyance and try to strike fear into people in cars, not just the trivial protest that you write about. While you touch on some of the more antagonistic ones they are really more of the norm and not the obscure. They wear hoods and masks, not just the “clown noses”. I would assume they were wearing their disguise to hide their faces to appear even more intimidating or to be free from identification in their criminal endeavors.
While I have seen them on two occasions I have not been a target of theirs. But my friend was not so lucky. When they pulled one of their stunts of blocking an intersection she was afraid since she had her 3 year old son in the back seat. When she tried to leave by making a right hand turn the group attacked her by pounding on her car. She was frantic, thinking she was about to be carjacked or whatever was the group’s will. They yelled at her an accused her of trying to run them over, much like the tactic that you wrote about that they accused that officer of doing. I would guess that is their plan, to be antagonistic and then when confronted or find someone unwilling to watch their demonstration they attack or fight back claiming that they were the ones in fear. Anyhow my friend was able to keep her doors locked but she said one of the bicyclists (again wearing a hood) tried to open her passenger door. She keep honking her horn and finally was able to get out of there. She was a mess crying and her son was too. Later she discovered a large dent on her fender, which cost her almost $600 to repair. She filed a police report but they told her that without being able to identify someone then it would be hard to catch anyone for the crime, so she out the $600 and in the name of what?
You seem to attack the officer’s report because you find the word “terrorist” to be too strong for us here in Santa Barbara.
Webster dictionary defines Terrorist as the “systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion”
Wikipedia defines terrorist as “a term used to describe violence or other harmful acts committed (or threatened) against civilians by groups or persons for political or ideological goals”
I would think that that term terrorist fits what these people do to a tee and I thank that officer and his partner for protecting us. This Critical Mass group is nothing but an extreme group of bullies!!! Your article attacking that officer is way off base.
StephanWhite (anonymous profile)
April 10, 2008 at 10:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
ruinedbyidiots04.10.08 - 2:49 pm
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