OT - London Critical Mass
Richard Papa
Well it's the last Friday of July and did you go to CM? I did and what a
great night it was. I hugged a FUZZ and met some new friends too. Even met
a guy who was at the last two CMs in Budapest. I watched the video of those
CMs and they IMO were the best show on earth. So it was great talking to
someone who was actually there (CM is special folks).
It started a bit late today but that seems to happen every CM now. Later
and later? But never mind. The spirit of Flocking Around (That's what I
call it) is truly liberating. Not sure of the route but we went down some
side roads and there was definitely no organizing. The FUZZ were great too.
Bitching any drivers that dare complain. I felt a bit sorry for some of the
motorists but this is just a monthly event promoting the joys of cycling.
And what a joy is was/is to ride around my great city.
The past few days I have ridden over sixty miles and feeling it as I write
this. So no Papa funny business tonight :( But I did take my Dual Saft VHD
modules and will report back in another thread with some exciting
observations.
Below are a few pictures. I was not on form today so not many good ones I'm
afraid. But I did capture some nice video and will Google that later, sorry
for anyone on dial up :9(
Cheers,
Rich
Btw, Gabriel, if you read this I wish you god speed on your adventure!!!
Take care my friend and see you next year.
Richard Papa
over? Very strange. But they did cheer the MASS as it pasted. I stopped
and educated them on the Joys of Electrickery but forgot I left my friend
Gabriel and had to shoot after him....
Richard Papa
were all the FUZZ (Cycle Police) this night. I tried to get a shot of this
guy as he seemed to go out of his way to make sure we were all alright. I
watch carefully as all the FUZZ did their thing and was quite impressed.
Shame I messed the photo up.
Also, I spent a bit of time up front. Would go off in the lead, stop and
take some shots as the MASS passed. It was nice up front and several riders
were very good at doing stunts (Wheelies ect..) and I was very impressed how
the FUZZ turned a blind eye. Especial the sprint race! Real fun (Sorry I
left everyone (Honest!). But we must try and not take advantage of a good
thing :) ( Again, Honest!) I did mess up several times trying to get my
Sony camera to focus. So I missed some great shots :( Especially as night
came and the rain started pouring. My damn camera shots were FUZZY (Stop
Laughing)
Richard Papa
The FUZZ soon came alone as he was block traffic on the other side of the
road. Silly boy.
He & the FUZZ had a friendly laugh and the guy was asked to move on. which
he did. All is well that ends well.
Richard Papa
"Marveling" at my machine. Did you see them Marvel?
As this is bad camera work I'm adding a small 250kb video of the guy
sleeping in the road. It was funny!
The Rest of the video I will try and work on tomorrow. I'll Google
something up.
Thanks for taking the time,
Rich
Tracy Talley
Artsy.
Nice compostion.
I would suggest saving it for posterity.
Tracy
Hi all,
Cheers,
Rich
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6:08 AM
Richard Papa
I'm just uploading the video now,
Rich
Richard Papa
remf
Thanks for the great report, super video (Police & Thieves, nice
choice of Music, I like Junior Marvin), for highlighting Critical Mass
and for all the photos of beautiful London. I lived in NW6 for a while
and long to return.
Critical Mass is an interesting organisation, and with up to 50,000
riders participating in a single ride (Budapest, April 22, 2007), they
can make people take notice. Being very pro-bike but not knowing a
whole lot about Critical Mass, apart from the fact they piss a lot of
motorists off, I decided to read...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass
OK I know Wikipedia entries are often far from impartial, but even by
Wikipedia's editors/moderators' standards, this one was so blatently
Anti-Mass that it described it as follows "While Critical Mass
represents its riders as victims of an urban car culture that treats
bicyclists as second-class vehicles, Critical Mass serves as a guise
for assault, battery, and vandalism....a semi-organized, spontaneous
riot...Critical Mass's criminal nature as a smokescreen for anarchists
and misanthropes..." !!!!!!
Another interesting part:
"In September 2005, Critical Mass in London found itself in conflict
with the law when the Metropolitan Police gave out notices announcing
a requirement that the organisers of the mass provide a route six days
before the event. In addition, they stated that the Mass may be
restricted in the future, and arrests would result if their orders
were not followed. The threat was quickly moderated when politicians
and cyclist groups voiced objections. The following ride, that of
October 2005, was tremendously well attended, with estimates
approaching the figure of 1200 participants. There was a long stop in
Parliament Square, part of the Government's exclusion area in the
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. However, this event also
led to a particularly slow and cumbersome ride which brought some
debate[citation needed] from London cycling groups.[attribution
needed]
Another consequence of the police notice was that a participant sought
a declaration from the High Court of England and Wales that there was
no requirement to notify police about the Critical Mass rides. After
what the judgment describes as a "friendly action" in which the
claimant and the police agreed not to seek damages, the Court
ruling[23] on June 27, 2006 agreed with the claimant that the Critical
Mass rides were exempt from notification under Section 11 of the
Public Order Act 1986.
On March 14, 2007 the issue was taken to the Court of Appeal by the
Metropolitan Police. On May 21, 2007 the court ruled in their
favour[24] by a majority of 2 to 1.[25] Friends of the Earth, who are
helping Critical Mass with the legal action, have now indicated that
the case will be going to England's highest legal authority, the House
of Lords."
So it appears, Rich, you ARE a misanthrope!!! And the FUZZ don't want
Critical Mass in London! Me, I will have to get to a local CM to see
what all the fuss is about.
Cheers
rem
Richard Papa
branded a misanthrope. It's kind a cute and very me :) and soooo pleased
you liked the tune. Very appropriate. I did this for the London CM list.
Last year a guy called Des Ray went to court and it was decided by a Judge
that CM had no organizer/s, so we (As individuals) did not need
permission/permit to Flock Around. This year the Police took it further and
won another court case where the judges concluded that CM was in fact a
Procession and that in it's very nature implies it's organized in a sense.
Nothing could be further from the truth. And the saga continues.
The real truth is a very small percentage of massers do indeed have a hidden
agenda and use CM as a vocal point. This is totally wrong and against the
original idea that CM is in fact a celebration of our right to ride freely
and the motto goes (As some people say your causing Traffic) "WE ARE THE
TRAFFIC!!!" . And of course a celebration of the bicycle. However, as CM
has no organizers, then the individual have their own interpretation of the
event. And therefore the spin goes on.
In reality you have 970 very good cycling enthusiasts who simply come for
the carnival effect and smile and ride and chat for a few hours. And 30 or
so who want to voice whatever opinions on whatever is their agenda, which is
fine. You have the right for no one to tell you what CM is all about. You
decide for yourself as there is no organizing. You really need to attend a
good CM to understand this. It is a bit weird.
Once the Judges announced this new revelation that CM was a procession. A
few politicians attended the follow2ing CM to monitor the Police. The FUZZ
were fine, same as they have been on every CM I have attended. I always
chat and joke about but try to let the do their job. All the cycle police I
have met are great people. Cyclists like you and me but they have to follow
orders from above. It's the chiefs that seem to screw up as far as the
London CM is concerned. We have a great Police Force in the UK, they're
pretty lame to most.
Cheers REM , I must get some sleep,
Rich
gabriel
> Take care my friend and see you next year.
Thanks!
Yesterday was great. Cheers !
Gabriel.
Richard Papa
I suspect you have now left or on your way so good luck and keep in touch if
you can.
Take care,
Rich
-----Original Message-----
From: Tidal...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Tidal...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of gabriel
Sent: 28 July 2007 14:20
To: TidalForce Forum
Subject: [TF] Re: OT - London Critical Mass
Richard Papa
:)
Rich