The Chainlink

Was fun at this last critical mass in July.  Was the first one I have been to. Did anyone else from the chainlink participate? Here is a pic from the ride.

Anyone else take any good pics from the critical mass in July?

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No pic of the incident but I got one of the driver and his licence plate.
Are the cops gonna go after that guy or is he gonna get away with it? I was glad the cops had a presence there at the ride. But they were kinda responsible for the ride breaking into smaller parts sometimes? I saw them stop at some of the intersections and force the corkers to leave even though the bikers were still coming. I supposed that is why we needed to "mass up" more often.

That wasn't the only bike to get run over. See my discussion in the CCM group

 

http://www.thechainlink.org/group/criticalmassdiscussion

 

Tim said:

I agree that we needed to mass up more. I liked seeing so many people out there for this. That was a riot! But I don't recall having seen anyone get their bike ran over. Did anyone get a picture of that?
And IMHO it wasn't all that bad for a dog days of summer CCM. It always gets like that. The mass is bigger then in non-summer months, more college kids going a little too far pissing off the drivers, and drivers being less patient then usual as they all want to go out and party. I guess not seeing any actual fights break out is good for a summer CCM...

You make excellent observations for someone so new to the Mass, Tim.

The police are most motivated to keep the ride moving, and I think keeping anyone from stopping for any reason falls into that net (although their main motivation is that it was determined at a higher level of authority that corking is likely to foment conflict situations); while they got the message that preventing massups at the front was ultimately conterproductive to a smooth-running mass, they still get very annoyed whenever the mass stops. Depending on the cop and their individual role, they may see a massup as delaying the time they'll get home, or delaying the time it will take to get the mass the hall out of their district, or maybe they're genuinely concerned that it could turn into a 'digging in' type of situation that would put them in a position of needing to become directive.

This last mass had very little "leadership" from within though-- as Jason alludes, some months we seem to have a predominance of first-timers and less experienced massers, and us old-timers see few familiar faces and potential allies in trying to keep the ride cohesive and moving at a pace that works for most.  So if it was a bit chaotic and strung-out, I don't think you can pin it on the police.

It's up to you guys to get to the front and help keep it from running away.

 

Tim said:

Are the cops gonna go after that guy or is he gonna get away with it? I was glad the cops had a presence there at the ride. But they were kinda responsible for the ride breaking into smaller parts sometimes? I saw them stop at some of the intersections and force the corkers to leave even though the bikers were still coming. I supposed that is why we needed to "mass up" more often.
If anyone would like to get there a bit early and hand out chainlink bookmarks at a mass, email me julie@thechainlink.org.  We could use all the help we can get spreading the word!
I added another video and some more pictures of the critical mass ride at the original post on my blog: http://osnbiking.blogspot.com/2011/08/critical-mass-chicago-july-20...

Also, I will add some links to other peoples videos that I have found from the July 2011 critical mass:

http://osnbiking.blogspot.com/2011/08/critical-mass-chicago-july-20...

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