[*BCM*] Scattered Thoughts on Massbike, Police, and Class

[contraelolvido at riseup.net]

> When people badmouth MassBike on this list, I think what they're
> frustrated about is the complete lack of even basic protections given to
> cyclists in situations like this.

No see that's really not the case. The folks critical of massbike
criticize them because they want police protection or any of that jazz,
but because they view massbike's actions as harmful to bicyclists. I don't
have time to rehash the arguemnts but I'll try and bullet out some
scattered thoughts on why.

1)Police are not neutral abstract concepts, they are real, living
breathing people, who have prejudices and ideas of their own. The vast
majority of police, like the population in general, is predisposed towards
drivers and their needs (especially police who drive more than most
people, and often more recklessly). To expect them to 'take your side' in
an issue or to 'see things from your perspective' is pointless until
society at large has changed - they simply won't as whole, no matter how
friendly any given cop may be.

2) Police are also not simply neutral enforcers of the status quo (ie they
don't simply support car culture because it is dominant). They also are
forced to serve (despite the fact that individually it is against each of
their own 'interests') a specific class interest.

3) "Enforcment", which means punishment and not prevention, does
absolutely 0 to prevent 'crimes' (another loaded term). Obviously the
possibility of jail time didn't stop the guy from almost killing you. Any
cursory look into the history of any enforcement campaign (drugs,
prohibition, gambling... etc) easily shows this.

4) What enforcement (or rather reliance on a distant third party to solve
your problems) does do is disempower individuals from constructively
solving problems that affect them. Granted, this can't be applied on an
individual basis (ie. in your particular instance there was nothing you
could do... i'm not faulting you at all) but rather on a broader social
level.

5) Mass bike attempts to 'create' bike safety through individual
enforcement. This is absolutely stupid. If the possibilty of a cracked
skull doesn't scare you into riding a helmit, a $20 fine certainly won't.
Their reliance on police and legislation is counter-productive, and
inversly hurts  bikers without money (to fix up their bikes, make them
compliant, etc) at the expense of Massbike (which gains in
influence/power), which is largely run by middle and upperclass bikers.

6) The two pronged strategy of fixing bike safety through social means
(creating a bikers culture that respects safety and utility rather than
hip style or expensive parts, riding in groups to promote group safety,
spreading bike education) and legal/political means is contradictory. I
personally think that their bike ed. and group rides are a good thing, but
it is negated by their reliance on police.
   This isn't mere speculation. Alot of the kids I work with who bike on a
daily basis have never heard of mass bike. Yet they view the police
crackdown on bikers as a class issue, a conflict of interests between
rich "liberal" bikers (weekend warriors) and regular folks who bike to
work. Reliance on political and legal means (because as its root the
state is based on class division) will always result in this, there's
no way around it. It isn't a coincidence that the police crack down in
central square and not harvard or kendall.