[*BCM*] NY CITY P.D. SPENT $1.32M TO SUPPRESS BIKE RIDES

[Jeff Rosenblum]

NY CITY P.D. SPENT $1.32M TO SUPPRESS BIKE RIDES

-> In a Nov. 16th Streetsblog article, Charles Komanoff wrote, "Time's
Up [New York City's Direct Action Environmental Organization] took its
campaign for safe bicycling into the economic arena this morning with
release of a report documenting the Bloomberg administration's
squandering of New Yorkers' tax dollars in suppressing the Critical
Mass bike rides. With the City Hall steps as backdrop, the grassroots
environmental group released a report I helped prepare, estimating that
police and other agencies spent $1,320,000 harassing and arresting
Critical Mass riders from September 2004 through August 2006.

"This figure comprises:
- $1,000,000 spent by the NYPD policing the rides and processing
arrestees...
- $150,000 spent by the Manhattan District Attorney's office charging
arrestees and trying cases
- $170,000 spent by the NYC Law Dept. bringing and settling lawsuits
against Critical Mass (the "Bray" and "Time's Up" cases)

"During the same two-year period the city spent less than $700,000
planning, engineering, and installing bike lanes in the five boroughs.
Thus, over the past two years New York City spent twice as much
suppressing two dozen bicycle rides as it spent creating a safe
bicycling infrastructure that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers
could be using every day. At the City Hall event, Marquez Claxton, who
does public relations and political affairs for 100 Blacks in Law
Enforcement Who Care, called the NYPD's suppression of Critical Mass a
'personal campaign' by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. 'When you see
such illogical allocation of police resources,' Claxton said, 'you have
to conclude that the impetus is personal vindictiveness rather than
dispassionate analysis.'..."

Source: http://tinyurl.com/yhwvpu