The official account of the incident, which was witnessed by dozens of people, would almost certainly have gone unchallenged if not for a video that surfaced on YouTube, drawing over a million views and making news across the country. Said Long's attorney, David B. Rankin:

"We're just very lucky this videotape surfaced, and we're very thankful the DA's office did the right thing in dropping these charges."

"This was a case where the officer's sworn testimony was contradicted by the videotape," Rankin said. "It raises serious questions about other cases that don't have the luxury of a videotape."

Times Up! noted the disparity between police treatment of mass rides in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and called for an end to the city's schizoid behavior toward cycling in general:

"Time's Up! is thrilled by this victory in court and we remain positive that this decision will convince the Mayor and the NYPD to treat the Manhattan Critical Mass ride in non-violent and sensible matter similar to how they currently treat the monthly Critical Mass Ride in Brooklyn," said Judy Ross, Time's Up! spokesperson. "Time's Up! also demands that Mayor Bloomberg immediately instruct the NYPD that bicyclists are part of every day traffic and that the increase of bicycling is a positive trend that the city recognizes and is accommodating."

Rankin said Long has not decided whether he will sue the city. Meanwhile, the Daily News says the PD is "still investigating" the incident. Pogan was placed on desk duty.

 
Nick Whitaker's latest effort for StreetFilms is about the Street Memorial Project, a joint effort from Visual Resistance, Transportation Alternatives, and Time's Up! which was established to honor pedestrians killed on NYC streets. The project is an outgrowth of the Ghost Bike movement. A plaque is usually placed at the site indicating the date of the fatality, manner of death, and age of the victim.

Ryan Nuckel of Visual Resistance says, "I'd like to see the need for to really dwindle to nothing, but that is not going to happen until there are changes on the streets of the city."

Time's Up 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 (calculated by prorating officer's salaries and costs of scooters, police transport vehicles, helicopters and other equipment for the hours deployed)
• $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."

Noted civil rights attorney Norman Siegel called on NYC Comptroller William Thompson to verify the dollar estimates in the Time's Up report. "Auditing use of tax dollars is your job as comptroller," Siegel said. If you're serious about running for mayor in 2009, the people of New York City will see to it that this is an issue you can't duck."

Another speaker, Mark Taylor of Assemble for Rights, urged New Yorkers to speak out against the NYPD's proposed parade-permit rules at a November 27 public hearing. Letting the police write the law in addition to enforcing the law is something that happens in a police state, Taylor warned.

For more information on this issue, here is my 2004 report (PDF file) documenting the trivial traffic impacts of Critical Mass rides on New York City traffic congestion and mobility.

Photo: Fred Askew