Berkeley Critical Mass Heads To Oakland, Faces Police Repression w/ Video

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ha ha. Me and my friend who used to go on rides recall being chased into Berkeley every day we strayed into Oakland. The response from individual police is always very variable. The first couple might not turn their heads, then we'd encounter one who would run their siren or get out and chase people. That officer in the second clip with the coffee or pop is very verbal.

Is Berkeley getting better about tree pickup? It used to be that all the carfree people and apartment dwellers couldn't haul their stuff to the dump.

Here is a city where the first responders run the big tree burn, and show people what a fire risk they can be. Solvang is a danish themed town near where Michael Jackson and Ronald Reagan lived, that really gets into christmas season. http://www.santamariatimes.com/articles/2009/01/10/news/featurednews/news01.txt

why are all the cops in America so fat?

I think the critical mass rides just give cyclists a bad name. It's an activity that is just designed to irritate people. How can you convince cars to share the road by getting a bunch of bike to hog the road. All it does it make people mad and then when I'm on my bike going to work the cars are all mad and they take it out by crowding me. You can't make people be nice be being jerks.

ever heard of a "parade"?

critical mass is a parade, if you feel CM causes drivers to take there anger out on you that says more about the drivers than it does a festive parade.

Not a fan:

Your sentiment is the official corporate meme to discredit the bicycle movement.

You have nothing to substantiate that with; people who hated bicyclists and harassed us were worse before CM.

CM has been a catalyst for moving the agenda forward.

CM is a WONDERFUL GIFT, a safe space, a place to take your friends and family. It is an opportunity to get a little joy out of our city which has been stolen by the auto.

TRY IT SOMETIME, if you're a real person (which I doubt you are).

Hey,

We went to Oakland in solidarity with protests of the killing of OSCAR GRANT.

The cops and helicopter were out because of THAT.

We played righteous James Brown through downtown and people on the streets were dancing everywhere.

We brought joy to a city in pain.

Love it!
Live it!

THANK YOU BERKELEY CRITICAL MASS.

No, CM is pretty annoying to people who just want to go about their lives. Parades are to for that matter, but they happen once a year and the planners try to minimize impact to traffic, not maximize.

Anyhow, feel free to feel good about your bike ride... but really the rest of us just got annoyed and want to know when you're going to grow up.

Also, to the previous person who said that I'm not a real person... what exactly would I be if I'm not a person?? A robot, computer AI, alien, perhaps a dog that can type??

Berkeley resident wrote;

"No, CM is pretty annoying to people who just want to go about their lives."

Guess what? Global warming and climate change (storms, flooding, sea level rise, etc...) from fossil fuel combustion is going to be pretty darn annoying to people who want to go about their lives also. At least critical mass is doing something to show alternatives to the dominant U.S. car culture that is responsible for causing global warming (from excess CO2 emissions) to begin with...

People in the Bay Area who drive their cars aggressively when there is a decent public transit system (that most low income and working people use because they cannot afford a car) available are also pretty annoying to the pedestrians, transit riders and bicyclists who just want to go about their lives..

Yet if a person on foot or on a bicycle dares to say anything to an aggressive car driver guess whose side the police will take? The good capitalist car driver who funds the petroleum corporations, NOT the pedestrian or bike rider who is exerting physical effort to keep the air clean by avoiding driving..

Then there's the legendary BART transit cops who gun down unarmed people in the subway stations, guess they're doing their part to keep public transit "safe" from themselves. That's another story entirely, though it goes to show the brutality of the modern police state directed against pedestrians and transit riders..

Furthermore, critical mass would not be so annoying if you got out of your car and walked, took the bus/train or a bicycle to work like so many others in the Bay Area do daily. In addition, don't forget to thank the multitude of bicycle riders for their ongoing boycott of petroleum products is keeping the gas prices slightly lower for those who remain dependent on their cars. Why make the petroleum corporations any wealthier than they already are? Less demand for gasoline lowers the price, let's keep up the gas boycott!!