This weekend I saw many examples of how police were re-purposing the bicycle. I was distressing for me to see bicycles being used as weapons and as “aggressive fences” during the past weekend’s military like clamp down.
The group has matured over the years and now, I think, understands that their chosen tactic, ‘Direct Action’ must be peaceful in nature in order to succeed (this includes sit-ins and demonstrations that target the offices of politicians); and that violent confrontation with police only serves to empower the authorities use of overwhelming force.
There has been no evidence of such incident around this group in the ten years since the Queens park riot (one of the groups early actions), in on going campaign for street youth and the very poor.
But for the people setting policy in the Toronto Police, this group, they believe needs constant reminders of the power of the police though ‘special’ treatment. As such police policy makers decided that this particular march fit the bill for an application of the surreal level of security bring laid on this weekend, especially in the red zone, which this groups main neighborhood is pretty close to – Dundas and Sherbourne – Allen Gardens.
Note in the video how Toronto Bicycle Police are charged with walking along side the demo, on both sides, with their bikes wheel to wheel – basically creating a rolling fence.
As you can see this containment idea was an over-all strategy – all egress points along the route were manned – not by enough force to stop everyone if they decided to change the route – but by centuries, in military terms, or eyes and and ears on the field.
Later, along College Street police arrest a young black man it seems they’ve targeted through face recognition software, he’s deaf and they arrest him for not following police directive (which he cannot hear) and is taken behind police lines into an HMV store.
The crowd presses the doorway the police are defending, attempting to communicate with supervisors about the protesters deafness and secure his release. There is no evidence of violence from the crowd in all the video I’ve seen of this. But the crowds pressing in to the centre the police themselves have created leads to confrontation. Eventually the order comes to push the crowd back – to secure the police position.
In the ensuing may-lay Jesse Freeston a producer/reporter with The Real News Network (TRNN), and others are thrown back over police bikes, which for some reason are lying on the roadway. When he’s down Jesse is punched in the head – twice.
Right afterwards, Freeston asks the policeman who punched him why he did it. At 4:11 of the video Toronto Police Bicycle corp. use the handle bars of their bikes as batons to jab The Real News Network’s reporter while ordering him to leave the scene (he is working as a reporter on public sidewalk, at a permitted march).
Later in the same video (at 5:11), the Toronto Bicycle corp. use their bicycles as an “aggressive fence”, with the bikes tipped up on their back wheels in a line, the knobby tires right in your face.
I dislike seeing bikes used as weapons or fences. it’s really bad imagery and a sad weekend in the otherwise good ‘Police on Bicycles’ campaign that’s getting more police out of their isolating, ‘uber human’ patrol cars and on to the streets and sidewalks, talking with and getting to know folks in communities.
The inflammatory title of the piece serves to begin a discussion about the differences between car and bike, the history of the creation of the infrastructure and the bias towards car traffic reflected in traffic law.
No?
Oh well. That’s what I wanted to talk about here.
Three weeks and three days ago Mark added a common sense essay to the discussion the included a link to this great video below. This seems like a good place to start here.
So far there are 12 comments on the discussion including one added today by Todd Tyrtle – have a look.
My take here and at this blogs sister site the “Bicycle Route Mapping Wiki“, is that everything must change a little, some things must change a lot in the transportation infrastructure of the city to make Toronto a bike friendly environment.
I rode courier for four summers and 3 winters people running reds was never a problem. Like the video says you make a habit of running red the problem will soon be gone – you’ll be dead. The main point of Mr. McKays introduction if I read it correctly is that we need to be taken seriously with in the commons.
I’m all for that – but you’re not going to stop a practice used by messengers to get they’re job done, on a grid that treats them like second class users – with a crack down – what ever that might be.
Equal, that’s the key I think; we all want to be treated like equals, but the stage the way it’s set right now has people with a car being a lot more equal than them without.
I agree that responsible cycling is key to the discussion, I even think bicycles should be licensed – along with changes to the drivers license test that includes much more about sharing the road, and perhaps even a section of the test that involves a bicycle road test for motor vehicle drivers! You can’t drive a car until you’ve got your cycling license for example.
“We are all diminished by any loss of life,” said Mr. Bryant.
I would opine that we are all diminished when after one takes the life of another, the institution we have built that maintains our civilization offers no sanction.
The starting point, the point where Michael Bryant loses his humanity to fear and the objectification of the other, happens before the hellish ride that kills Darcy Allan Sheppard. It starts with an assault at an intersection, when Bryant uses his car to throw the cyclist onto the hood (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufM7zvX3-tM&feature=fvw). He then brakes and backs up, spilling the injured man to the pavement, then he wheels right, around the man and over the bike, trying to effect an escape of the scene of his criminal act – it is at this point Sheppard grabs onto the side of the car. It is in this attempt to escape the consequences of his assault on Sheppard that Bryant embarks down the road to murder – and becomes Sheppard’s Chauffeur of death.
Here’s a player with the audio embedded of the carefully scripted stage play that served as a news conference this morning.
After, reporters pose questions that seem intended only to help Mr. Bryant flesh out the details of the spin he has just delivered – questions that help Bryant add colour and depth to his script:
Thanks to the National post (mp3 of Michael Bryant news conference May 25, 2010).
“28 seconds…” This is the theme the script writers go with, it talks to the idea that at a moment of fear and surprise you might have done what Michael Bryant did – that is, cross to the opposite side of Bloor Street and use a mail box and a tree to “brush off” – to snuff out the life of – a man hanging onto the side of your car for dear life.
On April 15th @bikerooTO and @JoFergs were talking on Twitter about #TransitCity, and specifically how bike corridors both north/south and east/west through the core were absent from the plan. This map illustrates where one big problem lies.
A way up the east side of the core. Notice the big problem just above Bloor to just below St Clair, that's Mt Pleasant which is a 'highway', and a 'kill zone' for cyclists.
The squiggly route through Rosedale is a product of the Great Don River taking a huge slice out of it’s flood plain as it dog-legs above Bloor. The roads in the area reflect that topography.
Several man-made barriers also present barriers to safe cycling.
Mt. Pleasant Blvd. is a highway and is not for bikes. Cars power down that hill that starts under 777 Jarvis.
The lack of a tunnel or a bridge across the railway tracks at the north end of Rosedale force bicycles out of the safe quiet side streets, and on to harrowing Yonge.
I think the east side of the core is uniquely suited for a commuter cycling corridor, a ‘super safeway’ for bikes (a shady pleasant ‘few-car’ route north and south that will ‘quiet’ neighborhood streets and increase property values).
This route has been added to the Bicycle Route Mapping Wiki, Sherbourne and Queen’s Quay to Eglington and Mt. Pleasant. Next week: I’ve got in mind an east/west route through the top of the core just north of Bloor Street West, Dufferin to Sherbourne that I always use during business hours.
AnnieD posted last week that she’d given up on her old bike. She described these sympoms in her post where she admitted she’d decided already to buy new.
AnnieD said 6 days, 14 hours ago:
But my current bike is starting to suffer from the winter cycling: the chain is making various unhealthy sounds (though lube might be all it really needs), the rim brakes regularly fail, something about the wires freezing and/or some of the non-wire bits getting jammed (interested in disc brakes versus coaster brakes), and at least twice/year my gears refuse to change to the highest level (I usually ride in 3-5 but now have to ride is 2-7 since ”3” the gears won’t change to ”3” anymore) – tempted to switch to single gear.
I’m against new.
So, although the issue was settled and the new bike from Urbane is in the works, I thought, the old bike still needs a home, and by the sounds of it – a tune-up.
michael holloway said 16 minutes ago:
So I take it a new bike is the solution.
A new bike if not tuned up at least once a year will develope the same problems (Jamming brakes and gear shifters).
Bikes don’t like the winter, because all their vital moving parts (except the wheel and crank case bearings) are exposed to the elements. Water with salt, freeze/thaw and mud and rinse takes all the lube off in short order. When couriering – in the winter months – I had to tune-up my bike once a week (if there was snow).
(That’s ten hours a day, five days a week through ALL weather.)
What happens is, the grease in your brake and gear cables not only lubes the cable – so it slides easily, but it also repels water. If water gets in your cables it finds the lowest point and sits there, and in the winter freezes and/or rusts the cable to the cable housing.
Suprise! One morning, flying along – no breaks!
The cables for brakes and gear derailers need to be disconnected, pulled out, cleaned, checked for rust spots, replaced if necessary, greased and re-assembled and re-calebrated. It’s not easy, it takes technique, but after you’ve done it twice – it’s like riding a bike.
You need a pair of needle nosed plyers with side cutters, a multi-head screwdriver and two of cresent wrenches. (I find a pair of vice-grips always comes in handy, but don;t tell a mechanic I said that.)
Most riders can get away with one tune-up a year, but if your riding all winter, definatly do your tune-up in the fall. Come spring you’ll probably feel like it needs to be done again.
You can maintain your cables between tune-ups by loosening the cables (there are several spots on most bikes where you can reduce the tension with out disconnecting), and then dripping a fine oil between the cablehouseing and the cable. Do this one drop at a time, letting gravity take the oil down into the cable, and repeat…
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BIO
I manage two blogs here at BikingToronto: "FreeWheel" and the "Toronto GTA Bicycle Rote Mapping Wiki". The Blog and the Wiki are two sides of a coin - the blog to discuss bicycle routes and mapping technology, and the Mapping Wiki to publish bike route maps contributors and I have discovered to help city planners, cycling advocates and road users to choose and advocate for safe and efficient cycling routes on Toronto's busy and dangerous car-centric infrastructure.
michael holloway
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