[*BCM*] NYCCM: Civil Rights Rally -and- Multi-Mass Last Night

[Jym Dyer]

=v= A group called Still We Speak organized a rally for right
before last night's Critical Mass in NYC:

http://www.stillwespeak.org/

For those on this list who dismissed the civil rights concerns,
said the ACLU wouldn't get involved, lionized traffic codes over
and above the Bill of Rights, etc., I welcome you to especially
take a good look at the list of speakers.

=v= The ride left from (at least) four locations last night.
So far there's only one MSM article about it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/30/nyregion/30bike.html

(Use http://bugmenot.com/ if you don't want to register.)  For
those on this list who dismissed my comments about the behavior
of Asst. Chief Bruce Smolka (as an _ad_hominem_ dislike on my
part), take a good look at what the _Times_ reports about his
behavior.

=v= The _Times_, of course, tends toward gentile prose and
doesn't quite convey the tension of the situation.  When Smolka
grabbed that woman, and outraged crowd of bystanders -- most
of whom were *not* bicyclists -- closed in, yelled, and whipped
out a bunch of cameras and camcorders.  (The _Times_ underplayed
the arrest of their reporter, too.  All the guy did was ask an
officer for his badge number, and they shoved him down on a car
hood, plasticuffed him, and took him away.)
    <_Jym_>