July 2010 CCM

Planning thread for July 30th 2010 Chicago Critical Mass.

In the recent "Critical Mass Strategy" discussion, Barbra mentioned hints of her desire to do a map for July's CCM, with an underwear theme. She's certainly capable, having participated in WNBR-C and CCM for several years, and the theme is certainly appropriate for hot weather.

So with just a few weeks to go, I'm proactively seeding this thread for discussion and planning.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! on July 31, 2010 at 9:47am

Probably would have been better to end in Montrose Harbor like originally planned. Different District.

Permalink Reply by Paul Gurns on July 31, 2010 at 10:13am

It's pretty sad when the police hassle us at the beach but don't do anything when I being threatened by 3 dudes in a car when I was corking an intersection. First they bump me with their car and try and push me out of their way and then the driver got a bat out of the trunk and comne at me with it. The whole time their were 2 cops 100 feet away and they just kinda pretended not to see.

Permalink Reply by Paul Gurns on July 31, 2010 at 10:14am

Howard, I made it their just in time to leave the plaza yesterday

Permalink Reply by Barbra Mann on July 31, 2010 at 5:52pm

Thanks for your help EVERYONE! I made mistakes, learned a lot, and am willing to help anyone flank the front for half of a mass in the future and/or cork (first or second half of the mass-your choice-I just can't do the whole thing again this time).

Permalink Reply by h' 1.0 on July 31, 2010 at 6:26pm

On your first mass, ouch . . .
Can I assume you were not beat with the baseball bat then?

Paul Gurns said:

It's pretty sad when the police hassle us at the beach but don't do anything when I being threatened by 3 dudes in a car when I was corking an intersection. First they bump me with their car and try and push me out of their way and then the driver got a bat out of the trunk and comne at me with it. The whole time their were 2 cops 100 feet away and they just kinda pretended not to see.

Permalink Reply by h' 1.0 on July 31, 2010 at 6:27pm

I thought maybe you were just shy :-)
Was it fun for you in any way? Sounds like a lot of stress from the trip down to what you describe above.

Paul Gurns said:

Howard, I made it their just in time to leave the plaza yesterday

Permalink Reply by h' 1.0 on July 31, 2010 at 6:29pm

Any definitive info on who was arrested, what their status is, etc.?

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on August 1, 2010 at 12:34am

Great ride Barbra, top flight in most respects. Unusually high media coverage, including some photos on the Sun Times site and a brief story and video on CBS2.
I posted a low res full mass video on YouTube, given only 4:02 I'd guestimate over 1600 riders.

About the cops at Montrose, I did mention personally to just a few (can't remember exactly, Barbra? Spencer?), that we northsiders had noticed BIZARRELY aggressive behavior by the Montrose park police, but only at closing time. Sorry if we didn't take this seriously enough.

An incident on July 13th with car 7599 after "Annie" movies in the park on Cricket Hill, was so abusive that we seriously discussed reporting it (and I've never seriously considered reporting a cop before), but haven't yet. I've tried to be forgiving, given the huge thankless challenge they have with emptying the soccer fields. But other then that I haven't seen much trouble (such as gangs) that they should be so freaking (and overstaffed) about, and I've biked/skated here over a decade.

As to whether they knew and lay in wait, I'd venture that it's a certainty they knew the destination. It was specifically mentioned on CBS.
Their behavior reached new lows this year, but my hunch is that it's not necessarily top down, but rather could be a few power mad freaks on the beat.

Permalink Reply by Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! on August 1, 2010 at 1:13pm

Luckily from what we know no one was arrested for trying to take LSD or any other bike related offense. It seems, or rather, it is conjecture, that people were only arrested for possession. Though we, here anyway, certainly don't want to see anyone get arrested we cannot possibly mitigate arrest when there is smoking or drinking in public.

How hard is it to put your booze in a water bottle for fucks sake. And if you want to get high in public... Make brownies! Don't create a giant puff of smoke with a distinct aroma. Jeeze.

Permalink Reply by h' 1.0 on August 1, 2010 at 1:23pm

Andrew Bedno said:

but my hunch is that it's not necessarily top down, but rather could be a few power mad freaks on the beat.

I agree. Now and again the police show brief hints of some sort of centralized coordination, but most of the time I think we give them too much credit for being anything more than very minimally organized.

Permalink Reply by h' 1.0 on August 1, 2010 at 1:24pm

Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! said:

Luckily from what we know no one was arrested for trying to take LSD or any other bike related offense. It seems, or rather, it is conjecture, that people were only arrested for possession. Though we, here anyway, certainly don't want to see anyone get arrested we cannot possibly mitigate arrest when there is smoking or drinking in public.

How hard is it to put your booze in a water bottle for fucks sake. And if you want to get high in public... Make brownies! Don't create a giant puff of smoke with a distinct aroma. Jeeze.

Agreed-- masser, police thyself.

Permalink Reply by Jerry on August 1, 2010 at 5:13pm

Unfortunately, this was top down. The first cop on the scene, when we arrived, barking orders over his PA system, confirmed that. Somebody in command decided to ambush us with a Wolf Pack -- they were lying in wait for us. And they did what Wolf Packs always do, i.e., treat citizens with contempt, bark orders, and harass random African Americans until they find a few who are dirty and arrest them. That's SOP for for tactical squads. I guess the Vice Lords must have been on Summer vacation, so CPD could afford to put a Wolf Pack on a bunch of people trying very hard to avoid trouble.

From the perspective of public safety (I don't pretend to speak for the ethos of the ride), and considering the unique social character of the Mass, this ride did everything right. I'm frankly shocked, and totally puzzled, as to why CPD decided to kick us in the teeth after such a successful ride. It's inexplicable.