I posted on Friday about the importance of working with "the powers that be" to further cycling issues and adoption by Toronto residents. I'm not saying that events like Critical Mass need to be less anarchic, because holding up traffic for a minute or two as the group passes through an intersection is no big deal, and speaks more about driver impatience than anything else.
It is weird that since I posted that on Friday, we've seen the now-infamous photos of the courier-driver confrontation in Kensington Market (which I've now seen linked on both MetaFilter and BoingBoing, which basically means it is "internet famous" now...), and now there is news out of New York that cops watching Critical Mass there did something silly and one of them got hurt.
In an article entitled Critical Chaos: Two Cops Hurt, 17 Arrested at Mass Ride, the Village Voice reports that:...a pack of about 100 bikers was moving south on Third Avenue when a line of 14 scooter cops patrolling alongside abruptly veered left to cut off the ride. One scooter cop slammed into another scooter, throwing the cop several feet from his scooter. He landed hard on the pavement, hitting his shoulder and head...A bunch of cyclists stopped (the ones that weren't chased by police) and one who is also an EMT took care of the hurt cop until ambulances arrived.
Amazingly, although the 14 cops on motorscooters veering into the bicycle group are clearly at fault... "Cops on the scene were clearly pissed. "He landed straight on his head," said one scooter cop who asked not to be identified. "It's not fun and games any more."" It's a clear example of the strong and blatant animosity between these two groups.I admire the EMT cyclist who stopped to help the cop, and I admire all the NYC Critical Massers, because their motto is "Still We Ride", although a lot of them have been arrested (for riding a bike!) and they have to deal with cops driving into them. I'm thankful that here in Toronto we have relatively good relations with the police, and we should work to keep it that way.
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