[*BCM*] cambridge

[Julia Asherman]

To my knowledge no one was ticketed, although it seemed like they really 
wanted to ticket us and realized it was impossible to ticket that many.  
They  told us all to wait and that we ran red lights, should be in the bike 
lane, etc., and then when the light was green they didn't let us through. 
They held us there for a couple of minutes while the light was green, and we 
eventually just went through.  It seemed like the only place they were told 
to patrol was that intersection, and there were many cars (both police and 
personal) parked in the bike lane which were completely ignored by the cops.

-julia

----Original Message Follows----
From: criticalmass at ianw.org
Reply-To: Boston Critical Mass <list at bostoncriticalmass.org>
To: list at bostoncriticalmass.org
Subject: [*BCM*] cambridge
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2005 17:06:52 -0400 (EDT)

Speaking of crackdowns, was anyone here on this friday's mass?

I was in the front of the pack as we got to the intersection of Mass Ave
and Prospect Street in Central Square, and the cops were waiting for us.
The light was red, so we all stopped, and the cops started "suggesting"
that we should all be in the bike lane, since we were blocking traffic.
This was certainly impossible, given the density of bikes.  When the light
turned green, me and 20 or so others passed through the intersection, only
to look back and see that the cops had walked into the middle of the road
to block it off and started shuffling everyone to the side.  I'm not sure
what happend after that, since my friend and I took that as a sign that we
were no longer welcome in Cambridge, and split for the BU bridge.

Were there any tickets issued? How many? Can anyone give a better
eyewitness testimony?

It's worth noting, from my point of view, that one of the cops' cars was
double-parked, and was blocking the bike lane.  It's also worth noting
that there were children in the mass, wearing their helmets and riding
along with an adult chaperone, enjoying themselves quite a bit.  I wonder
if they were ticketed...

   -Ian
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