Date of Incident:
Received:

PRESS RELEASE
Bicycle Civil Liberties Union
Box 15071
Berkeley CA 94712-6071

Web:  http://www.bclu.org/
FAX: (510) 486-1528 
Pager (Director Jason Meggs): (510) 720-2818
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                   
September 14, 2001

CYCLISTS FEAR POLICE VIOLENCE 
RIDE FOR PEACE

BERKELEY CRITICAL MASS TO RIDE TONIGHT 5:30 PM (leave 6 PM),
DOWNTOWN BERKELEY BART

In the wake of recent tragic events, bicyclists planning a special monthly
Critical Mass community bicycle ride today fear that escalating police
violence and discrimination will reach an all-time high.

Last month, police injured riders while making two discriminatory arrests
and one false citation.  Complaints are pending and criminal charges have
not yet been resolved. Police have threatened to confiscate the
bicycle-drawn sound system this month, although bicyclists continue to
contend that it is not illegal.  In February, police brutally attacked the
bicycle component of a demonstration in Berkeley, causing injury and
destroying property.  Activists fear these attacks on free speech may only
get worse.

QUALITY HI-8 FOOTAGE EXISTS OF RECENT ABUSES, AVAILABLE TO THE PRESS.

The Bicycle Civil Liberties Union is calling on the City of Berkeley,
social justice and human rights organizations, and the media to help
monitor and protect this monthly first-amendment event.

The Berkeley Critical Mass, born in March of 1993, is now over
eight-and-a-half years old.  The rides have at times involved civil
disobedience by some participants, such as a protest in 1993 of the
illegal widening of I-80 in which 100 bicyclists took over and rode from
the Marin Avenue entrance to the University Avenue exit of the I-80
(un)freeway for a short time, but in general the events are peaceful and
positive events celebrating community and people-powered transportation,
which unlike the daily motorcar critical mass, poses little or no threat
to the public.

Let us not forget that most wars of this century at their root have
focused on the control of oil reserves.  Bicyclists reduce the demand for
such wars by reducing dependency on the automobile. The automobile has
become a direct extension of the military industrial complex, turning our
streets into polluted warzones where upwards of 50,000 or more are killed
and over 2,300,000 disabled by avoidable collisions every year.

Yet police in Berkeley have focused on "crack-downs" on bicyclists and
especially on demonstrations.  Additionally, the City of Berkeley is
treating bicycle violations more harshly than motorcar violations.  
Please check our abuse reports under the case histories section at
http://www.bclu.org/ for more information about some recent abuses by
police. Most recently, in Sacramento, our state capitol, police used
violence against peaceful bicyclists even after they declared their intent
to ride legally.

For more information regarding the Critical Mass movement and Peace in the
Streets, please check the website, http://guest.xinet.com/bike/peace/

THIS DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE MUST STOP!