last friday there was a scheduled critical mass ride downtown, as is customary for the last friday of each month, but when the riders arrived at loring park, they were met by droves of mpls' finest on bikes, in squads, in a van, the bikers were told if they left the park they would be arrested. the cops were apparently very irritated from the get-go (i was not there but had the story recounted) and threatened people with taking their bikes away (because the cops assumed they were unregistered), ticketing for not having a light on the front of the bike after 4 or 5:00...and generally being aggressive idiots. it is one thing to be a cop and harass a group of people once they do something wrong, but until they do they should not be treated like criminals. the bikers were never told what it was they could do but when asked what they couldn't do a cop responded 'you'll know when you do it' this type of behavior absolutely needs to stop - what do you folks out in mpls-issues think? ever since the wto protest in seattle the police have been on a mission to suppress any voices that are counter to mainstream commerce culture. hard times (with the help of the city council and the mayor, of course), isag, sisters camelot, other critical mass rides, other gm protests, the list goes on and on so far we have seen no reprimands for the police responsible for mistreating citizens, and i think mpls residents need to speak up and make it known that the police do not have the authority to arrest citizens who have done nothing wrong - leave out your pathetic arguments that these people have done something wrong and just admit to the fact that every person has the right to not be arrested if they do nothing wrong - right? we need to first agree that this is the way our system should and does work, and then we can assess police(/judge/jury) actions as they come up and hold each offending offecer responsible as violations of rights occur. though i fear this is less an indivdual police problem than a systemic mpls police department problem... jon kelland bryant __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos - 35mm Quality Prints, Now Get 15 Free! http://photos.yahoo.com/
