Critical Mass Ends via Police Brutality

Vince, 30.07.2005 03:30

This article is written as an eyewitness account of the absurd and abusive behavior of the Milwaukee Police Department at this July's Critical Mass. I'm not much of a serious writer, and I sincerely hope more people who were there articulate on the matter, but I was there, so were others, and we have to let some people know about it.

grouparrest foto from jolena's livejournal blog

Friday. July 29th. It was a great day for a Critical Mass. Good weather, good turn out, and even more exciting -- this was my first Critical Mass. Starting at Riverside Park, we made our way South. Starting at about roughly The 3rd Ward, cops were wailing their sirens and telling us to get into a single lane. Which we did.

We made our way up 2nd St. approaching National. Considering there were squad cars to our right on national, and a squad behind us, we didn't want to violate traffic violations. Half the group was able to turn left on to national, heading west, before a yellow light stopped me and the rest of the cyclists.

The light had turned green, but to our right, a squad car was parked on the corner of National and 2nd, and two cops got out, screaming and swearing. "Get the fuck off the bikes! Sit your fucking asses on the curb! Get off your fucking bikes!" etc. etc. Slowly we were complying. Despite the fact that we had all legally went into the left turn lane, the cops were still acting like we were common criminals. I was in the front of this group, located just before the beginning of the intersection, and on the right side of the left hand lane (i.e.: I was super, super close to the cops).

Immediately to my right, a father was cycling and he had a carriage which carried his infant boy attached to his bike. It was one of those very typical carriages you see, the kind that are completely obviously used for carrying a child. Coming from the back of the crowd, and seeing a green light, he assumed that it was just fine if he took a left hand turn. Wouldn't you?

However, seeing the cops approaching him aggressively, and screaming at him to stop he began a gradual descent in speed. The cops must have taken this gradual descent as some kind of escape attempt because one of the cops pushed the man over and halfway off his bike. Trying his hardest to swing his leg off of his bike, the officer pushed him further, and then another police officer ran closer to the man and his partner and completely took the bike out of the mans grasp, slammed it to the ground, and then, for "good measure", or something like that, he tipped over the baby-carriage, and he did so aggressively. And I was there. And so were about a jillion other people. We saw this happen.

In all fairness, the officer was not aware that a child was in the carriage. After my peers and myself had screamed about 4 times "What the fuck are you doing?! There's a fucking child in there!" the officer mumbled "There's a kid in there?" and then proceeded to pick up the carriage, briefly glance at the baby, and said in a voice dryer than a desert, "Sorry, buddy"

All of this occurred while the father was being wrestled to the ground by 4 cops. One of his tickets was for resisting arrest. The tickets fail to mention that he was resisting arrest because his child had just been assaulted. What needs no explanation, but I will articulate anyway, is that the actions these police officers took to stop a man from riding his damn bicycle were reckless and negligent. Had the police behaved rationally and according to how a sane human being would behave, they would not have almost severely injured a child. Fortunately, the carriage the baby was in seemed to be of such high quality that it could even withstand being assaulted by a full grown man--the baby was not hurt, but simply scared, which was fortunate and wonderful.

As the man was dragged off, a personal friend of mine picked up the baby and attempted to calm it down, which after a few minutes the baby seemed pretty peaceful. As we were instructed to "sit your ass down on the fucking curb" my friend was still standing, holding the baby, while the rest of us gave out information to the police.

The officer who had knocked over the baby carriage asked my friend, as if she had no right to nurture a scared child, what she was doing with the baby. She more or less snapped, demanding to know why he wouldn't assume a baby was in the carriage and that she wasn't just going to leave the kid in the sun, like the cops had. When asked if she knew the father, and saying she didn't have the right to carry someone else's child she brought up the painfully true fact that he had just arrested the man who would be, if he could be, taking care of his kid.

I am bad at html, and she has put her own 2 cents into it. So to see some pictures that she herself took, as well as a brief account of the situation, here's a link to her livejournal:  http://www.livejournal.com/users/jolenaxcore/214364.html The bottom one is the man and his baby. The cops allowed them to be together after quite a long time of being apart, probably close to a half an hour apart. It was a relief that he could be back with his kid, even if he had to hold his child in the back seat of a squad car. (and by the way, the last few sentences of her post, not her sisters quote, are dripping in sarcasm, just for those of you who are accustomed to non-sarcastic humor/satire/whatever I've rambled).

Another one of my friends flipped off the cops, and was wrestled to the ground and given a few tickets. For giving some people the bird. Ridiculous. This happened to a girl I don't know as well, although I didn't see it.

Me and my peers that were sitting down awaiting our citations were told by a police officer that we cannot talk or make phone calls. When asked if he could be quoted about it the illegality of making a phone call during a "citation investigation", he spat out a bunch of mumbo jumbo about common courtesy and obstructing with a police investigation. He started to shut up a little bit more when we mentioned that he was obstructing our constitutional rights. But this was just another act of improper conduct on the part of the police. We were lied to about our rights as citizens who weren't even under arrest. He also tried to tell us we needed permits to ride our bikes in such a manner. Which is asinine. If dozens of cars are on a street, do they need a permit?

The officer who tipped over the baby carriage has a long and Polish name, and the other officers refused to spell it out for us or say it too many times, so it was hard for us to remember or write down. But his badge number (someone correct me if I'm wrong) is 2197. Someone must have his name or a way of getting it and I strongly encourage anyone who knows anything about it to post it up.

Anyway, we are going to pursue legal action via sympathetic lawyers. Even while people were still giving tickets, a lawyer showed up to video tape what was happening and was arrested. We have a decent amount of connections, and none of us plan on sitting by passively and letting this sort of thing happen with out some serious repercussions.

I don't know the exact numbers, but about half the of the critical mass were given citations (about 30 or 40 of us) and 4 of us were arrested. We ride our bikes to protest car culture, and to encourage an environmentally and socially friendly means of transportation. Plus its just a good time. The traffic that we blocked was no different than the type of traffic jams that happen during rush hour, except this time it was with bikes. Obviously, while Milwaukee's murder rates are the highest they've been in years, the police just can't stand 60 people getting together and biking around.

Hopefully we can turn these negative events into something positive and rally together against police brutality and the intolerance of a bunch of people getting some exercise. With lawyers and eye-witnesses on our side, this will be a tough battle for the MPD. We're doing this all again on the last Friday of August (Critical Masses are scheduled on the last Friday of every month), and hopefully into the fall. Critical Mass has been happening in MKE for 3 years off an on, and police brutality is a fantastic reason to keep on doing it.

e-mail:: refusenik13@sbcglobal.net

thank you 30.07.2005 - 13:12 thanks a lot for writing this post. good work vince. a herd of kittens> mass media? 30.07.2005 - 14:19 There is a reporter at the Journal Sentinel, Tom Held, that is a big bike supporter/commuter. I don't know how much good it would do to get in contact with him now since everything already happened, but it probably wouldn't hurt and im sure he would be interested. ellie> Great write-up 30.07.2005 - 14:22 Thanks for the write-up, Vince. A very accurate account of the horrifying abuse of authority took last night. Seeing the father's baby carriage get sent flying was one of the most shocking and disturbing images I've ever seen happen. We need work to make sure this abuse stops happening. nmc> good news! ACLU will back us up. 30.07.2005 - 16:18 I told a friend who works for the American Civil Liberties Union about last night's police disturbance. Patricia told me to send her a synopsis of what occurred in order, and then she will pass it to Donovan Lee of the ACLU who deals with shit like this. Should I send what Vince wrote, or does anyone else have something to add? Patricia's email:  pbriones@aclu-wi.org naomi> e-mail:: noenaami42@yahoo.com that's really great news 30.07.2005 - 17:06 i think you should send as many peoples accounts as you can find. There are more on the newswire. a herd of kittens> You're Welcome 30.07.2005 - 17:12 thanks for the encouragement with the article, dudes. And I was happy to do it. I've never felt so compelled to tell a story like I did at 2 in the morning last night. To the person with the ACLU friend, use all of our accounts if you want. I can't give permission for everyone else, but you're more than welcome to use my article as a synopsis. And if needed, I'll talk about what I saw to lawyers or judges or whomever. I wrote you an e-mail of this as well, just to make sure you get the message. -Vince Vince> e-mail:: refusenik13@sbcglobal.net Photos from July 2005 Critical Mass 01.08.2005 - 10:55 Here are some of my shots from July 2005 CM.  http://photo.theimagecafe.com/categories.php?cat_id=48 Scott Winklebleck> e-mail:: scott@bikemilwaukee.org Homepage:: http://photo.theimagecafe.com/ still we ride! 01.08.2005 - 14:41 So the arrests are beginning agian... I was on the NYC ride (just visiting the city) and 37 of us got arrested. The worst part of the incident is that my bike was stolen by the police. I really hope this repression doesn't continue to develop in Wisconsin, we need to make some serious noise on these illegal and politically repressive arrests. The cops had to lay off for a few months in New York because of all the press but now that ABC & NBC news don't show up to the mass anymore, they have been trying to make large scale arrests again. We must take action to stop this! STILL WE RIDE! scared...> e-mail:: madisonorg@gmail.com Cheers to the network to truth 02.08.2005 - 22:40 Cheers to the network to truth (may it spread and grow like caulerpa taxifolia algae) Thanks, Vince, for sharing what happened to us. Really helps to know someone was taking such lucid notes. My 17 mth old son Siris, who got knocked over, not being priority enough to recognize, is alright. He's an impecible warrior. I don't want it to happen to anyone else though. I'm going to fight it in court, but not many resorces are known to me. If anyone would like to contact me, please e-mail me. Thanks again for the support, everyone Sirisdaddy> e-mail:: Psycojose@yahoo.com Vital Source 03.08.2005 - 01:11 Everyone should check out www.vitalsourcemag.com Milwaukee's Critial Mass made August's cover as well as an update about the police harassment. Evan> e-mail:: esolochek@hotmail.com REGISTER YOU BIKE 05.08.2005 - 00:42 I'm glad they didn't give out tickets for not having bikes registered. This would be another 50$ Registration is free and easy at the Library. The police might give out tickets for this in the future if we're pulled over again. Sometimes they will be excused if you register by your court date, but dón't count on it. Aytan> lets not get ahead of ourselves 08.08.2005 - 18:47 {He also tried to tell us we needed permits to ride our bikes in such a manner. Which is asinine. If dozens of cars are on a street, do they need a permit?} ok, to be devil's advocate, its the law to have it registered. and that car thing...are you serious? DMV?!!?! License Plates?!!?! asinine, knee-jerk bullshit. adam> response to Adam 10.08.2005 - 12:49 To clarify what I believe is Vince's position based on what the police said, Vince was arguing that it is hypocritical that specifically groups of cars don't need permits to drive next to each other. If 10 people want to ride cars next to each other, why should they require a permit to do so? They shouldn't. But why should bicyclists? He wasn't talking about license plates or DMVs in general. Obviously there are forms of registration for vehicles. The cop said that bicyclists in groups need permits to ride together. So I don't think its either knee-jerk or bullshit, just a misunderstanding. So it raises the question: if cars aren't given tickets for being in a traffic jam, why are bicyclists arrested for "blocking traffic," despite thier legitimate contention that they constitute traffic as well? nmc> that was my point 10.08.2005 - 18:08 thanks for clearing that up for me! and i apologize for not writing something a bit less ambiguous. vince> City of Milwaukee Ordinance 06.11.2005 - 07:38 In accordance of Milwaukee City Ordinance, Chapter 102, under 102-8 Bicyle Regulations section 3--Every person when operating a bicyle upon a highway shall ride such bicyle in a single file only, and at no time shall bicyles be operated 2 of more abreast. Under Chapter 105 Public Safety--105-55.5 No person may hold a special event on the public right of way or public premises without obtaining a special event permit. Special event-any planned extraordinary occurence on the public right of way including bicyles processions. The Law Enforcement Officers in the City of Milwaukee make the world safe for tomorrow. Peace Officer> My similar encounter with the Milwaukee PD 11.01.2006 - 14:59 I’m a married art student at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design with no previous arrest records. This is my story of how the police treated me for helping them. It was October 16th, a Sunday night, when I heard a tire screech and looked outside. I saw a man running from a vehicle, then shortly afterwords I saw two squad cars come onto my street. My window in my apartment was open, and I heard the officers yell if anybody had seen the guy. I replied I had, and told them that he ran the direction I saw him run. They apprehended him, and brought him back to the squad near my window. He then asked what address this was, and I told him it was 222 South Third Street. In about 15 minutes, there were over 4 police cars, 2 police SUVs, 2 police harleys, and lots of officers on my street. I was excited to have helped them, as up until this point in my life I have held police officers in high regard and looked towards them as people who help make places safe to live. Eager to share my excitement, in about 30 minutes I went downstairs with my digital camera to take some pictures of all the squad cars and police action on my street. I’m an art student, and the repetition of red and blue lights with all the exciting vehicles was visually appealing to me, and I wanted to document it in order to email to my friends and family, along with the story of how I helped. I took a few photos from the sidewalk towards the end of the street, careful to avoid getting in anybody’s way. The car that the suspect was in was behind me, and it wasn’t a police car, only squad car, and it wasn’t near the other vehicles so I didn’t take pictures of it. I was not being ‘sneaky’ about taking pictures because I am under the impression that taking pictures of police cars from a public area (sidewalk) is not illegal, nor immoral, especially given my intentions. Just as I was about to go back inside, a black man was coming towards my building. The officer in charge yelled to get him, and quite a few cops quickly grabbed him. I don’t know what he did wrong, but then the officer in charge told them not him, him, and pointed to me. Suddenly all the police officers who had just violently grabbed the black man were coming towards me. They started yelling “FREEZE” and “PUT YOUR HANDS UP!”. I didn’t know what was going on, and asked what the heck was going on. I was then grabbed violently by the police officers, and the lead officer came over and accused me of taking pictures of minors. I didn’t know what he was talking about, as I had not been taking pictures of ANYBODY, only vehicles. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about, and then he SCREAMED at me that the minor was in the squad car and I had been taking pictures of him. I yelled back that I had not been taking pictures of that car, I had been taking pictures of all the police cars because I was the one that helped the officers find the guy. They demanded my camera, and I said “why!?” at which point he yelled “resisting arrest” and the officers threw me onto the ground so violently that my kneecap was badly bleeding and bruised, and then they cuffed me so tightly that my radius was bruised for the next week. They then all left me cuffed, sitting on the side of the street, with the officer who originally appeared on the scene and who I helped. He refused to call my wife who was still upstairs and had no idea what was going on. He would not ring our apartment, or call her on his phone, as he said I might ‘run away’ (with so many cops everywhere? Yeah. Sure.) My right hand started throbbing, and I asked him if he could loosen it one click because I am an art student and I need the use of my hand for what I do. He told me “I should start crying, Nancy” using Nancy as a sexist deragtory term. He told me that the lead officer was going to have a word with me about what happened, but that never happened. After waiting around with my knee still bleeding badly and sticking to my pantleg, two other officers came and grabbed both my arms and started taking me to the squad car. Before they could shove me in, I yelled up to my wife, who heard me through the window. This was the only way they notified her, otherwise she would have thought I was abducted til about 2am, as she would have no idea where I went. The officers who got in the squad car started the engine, and I was still under the impression that I would get to talk to somebody. I said “Excuse me, offic-“ but before I could ask what where we were going or what was going on, the driver screamed “WHAT”D YOU DO WRONG?!”. I still had no idea what I did wrong, so I said “I don’t know!” He then said very sarcastically, “People only say excuse me if they did something wrong!”. So much for being polite to our ‘civil servants’ as so far they’d injured me, cuffed me, called me Nancy, and acted like jerks. I was thrown in jail til about 2am, and then they gave me my camera back saying they had reviewed the pictures, and that I had not taken pictures of minors and that I could have it back. They released me without a citation. I had to go back inside and get it. Basically, I did not resist arrest, I did not obstruct anything, I just didn’t know what was happening so I kept asking what was happening. The lead officer was not interested in telling me, it seems he was only interested in escalating the situation so he could have another arrest that night. Rob> e-mail:: wanker__@hotmail.com How about April 2006? 01.05.2006 - 00:11 Good writeup. I, too just went on my first critical mass recently, which ended in similar events over by the Veteran's Memorial. I was given a ticket for "unlicensed bicycle", which I will not have to pay because I know the law. I'm waiting to see an article on that as well. Don Wyllie> e-mail:: mwyllie4@hotmail.com buy norvasc 14.08.2007 - 20:11 nice news thanks!Lorazepam buy norvasc> e-mail:: hf@joke.com Homepage:: http://esgic buy planum-temazepam 14.08.2007 - 20:53 nice news thanks!Zithromax buy planum-temazepam> e-mail:: hf@joke.com Homepage:: http://cyclobenzaprine critical mass is terrible 27.07.2008 - 20:15 I still can't believe that a bunch of people hell bent on breaking the system for a day get upset when the system fights back. I've seen critical massers do the same thing you are complaining about, surrounding vehicles and shaking cars with terrified mothers and children inside. The answer is always the same "a few do the bad things" well you ride with em you are responsible for them and when the cops try to maintain order you take the bad part of that WITH them. find another group to join if you don't want to be a part of this. driver>