Apparently police hate cyclists…

Another incident of police brutality against cyclists in the fair city across the river. I had reasoned after the incident at the airport that perhaps the airport cops were a bit more on edge, since they’re confronted daily with the bogus color scheme that’s meant to help keep us safe from terrorism. But Minneapolis city police showed no more restraint than the two MSP officers in the previous incident. And this time, I witnessed part of it in person.

The monthly Critical Mass ride in Minneapolis has been going on for a while now, and I don’t think they’ve had any trouble from police on this scale before. Twenty people were arrested, by excessive force. The police claim that one of the riders deliberately veered into a police car, and they expect that to be satisfactory explanation for their actions: pulling people off their bikes, spraying mace indiscriminately into the crowd (and hitting bystanders), and punching riders. Some witnesses are also saying that at least one squad car was deliberately driven into cyclists.

But of course, a bicycle is much less danger to a squad car than the other way around, so—and I cannot stress this enough, because Americans and some of my previous commenters can’t quite seem to get it—in no way were the police actions justified. Even if a cyclist did in fact drive into a squad car, there is no call for punching people and spraying mace in their faces.

As a final note, if the officers’ goal was to promote traffic safety, why would they be riding at speed down Nicollet Avenue like this?

photo from http://www.tonywebster.com/criticalmass/, © Tony Webster. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.

photo from http://www.tonywebster.com/criticalmass/, © Tony Webster. Creative Commons license.

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Published:
9.4.07 / 3am
Category:
biking, politics
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