At least 267 bicyclists were arrested Friday, 8/27 during the monthyl Critical Mass ride. The po-po estimated that 5,000 riders participating, which means there were many more. This writer was one of the arrested. Almost everyone who got pinched was picked up between 8:30 and 9:30pm. A small group was taken to a precinct before being halued off to a RNC detention center at Chelsea Pier by the West Side Highway. Most were taken directly to the detention center. We were held in plastic cuffs, cuffs that were way too fucking tight I might add, for about an hour until we were processed and put into pens. The pens are metal fences a good 12" high topped with razor wire. They were set up in what was a bus garage or depot of some sort. The benches had been painted recently enough that the paint was still wet on some of them. Not to worry though as those who avoided getting black paint on them from the benches were soiled by whatever the hell it was on the floor of the place. Oil, grease, de-greasers and whatever else left many bicyclists, this writer included, with chemical burns to compliment the nerve damage done by the cuffs (the sensations in the writer's left thumb are a mystery as he can't feel anything). Massers were held here from anywhere between 2 to 16 hours before being sent over to 100 Centre St for further processing. This writer was in no less than 7 different cells between 8:30 pm on Friday and 7:00 Sunday morning before being released. There were, of course, no means with which to clean ourselves of the pollutants we gathered in the first detention center but there were balogna sandwiches available for bowling over water cups, which proved unusable as the water was not drinkable. Several detainees were not involved in the ride. At least three were media, (Indymedia and Free Speech tv). There was one who was making a food delivery of some kind for a restaurant and another who was shopping, along with several sensible bicycling commuters. The frivolous charges ranged from disorderly conduct to parading without a permit along with resisting arrest and others meaning, they will all be dropped.

The ride itself started a little late and a little slow (sound familiar Chicago?) but was soon enough a mass of riders flooding the streets of NYC. This writer relieved traffic guards from about halfway back in the mass and still waited for no less than twenty minutes for the last massers to arrive, this without any significant gaps in bike traffic. Even without the huge number of arrests, this was a mass to remember.