Hell on Two Wheels
By now you've probably heard about the incident Friday evening, June 30, in downtown Seattle in which two bicyclists, participating in the monthly Critical Mass ride, were arrested by plainclothes King County Sheriff's detectives after a physical altercation. Here's a photo taken by one of the witnesses. After the jump, you'll find the statement issued by someone involved with Critical Mass and an attorney representing one of the men arrested, as well as the news release issued by the King County Sheriff's Office. I'll let you glean the facts from those two accounts.
Many in the bicycle community have gone nuclear over this, and they might be right about unnecessary use of force. But the righteousness that permeates the postings of eyewitnesses, the supporters of the two men who were arrested, and some bloggers is bothersome.
The whole point of Critical Mass is to disobey traffic laws to make a point, which we're told varies by participant. Fine. But when you take over the streets and intersections in defiance of signals and signs and other vehicles by riding en masse, and you enforce this anarchy with arrogant and liberal use of human shields to stop traffic, you can't expect there not to be a consequence.
Usually the consequence is simply bad PR, because you've pissed off, and possibly frightened, motorists who now are never going to see your point. Sometimes the consequence is someone getting hurt or arrested. That's a shame, and the reaction might justifiably be outrage if it isn't handled appropriately. But the reaction shouldn't be surprise.
Critical Mass is a great big fuck-you to anyone in a car who dares get in the way. It's an inherently hostile act of taking over the streets, and it doesn't deserve patience or accommodation. (If Seattle police have been patient and accommodating in the past, Critical Mass participants should consider themselves fortunate.)
I ride my bike around town and I drive my car around town, and for some stupid reason—I must be an idiot—I see a need for responsibility on both sides.
Unfiltered citizen and police statements follow.
Subject: SW Email: Violent Arrests at Seattle Critical Mass
Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2006 21:40:58 -0700
From: Charles Redell
With no provocation, four plainclothes King County police officers assaulted two bike riders on Friday without identifying themselves. Now one rider is facing felony charges as a result of his efforts to defend his friend from being beaten by wild men he didn't know were cops.
Seattle, July 2, 2006 — In a shocking incident of police brutality on Friday, June 30, two bike riders were assaulted and forcibly arrested in front of numerous witnesses during Seattle's Critical Mass bike ride. One witness called it the worst display of police brutality in Seattle since the WTO. Some are faulting Police Road Rage for the incident.
The attack began shortly after 6 p.m. at the corner of Vine St. and Western Ave. in Downtown Seattle. As a standard safety precaution, volunteer bike riders were blocking the intersection to keep car traffic from driving through the crowd of approximately 300 bicyclists. Jason Brien, 18, and three other riders were stationed in front of a personal van that had attempted to drive through the pack anyway with a callous disregard for the riders' safety. According to witnesses, the drivers and passengers in the van were obviously furious and were shouting and making threatening gestures. The passengers were dressed in “gangsta” type clothing.
After about half of the riders had passed, one of the passengers in the van jumped out and charged at Brien. Seeing what one witnesses called "an enraged man who looked like a linebacker” rushing at him, Brien attempted to ride off only to be caught from behind, pulled off his bike and thrown to the ground by the rampaging man. Other riders jumped off their bikes to rush to Brien's defense, including Zack Treisman, 30. Treisman worked to pull the attacker off his friend from behind believing the young man to be in grave danger.
One of the men threw Treisman’s face into the ground before digging his knee into Treisman's back and yanking his arm back so violently that it looks in pictures as if he was trying to break Treisman's arm. One witness quoted Treisman as yelling, "Don't break my arm!"
There was no indication by the men that they were police officers until after both Brien and Treisman had been assaulted.
Brien and Treisman, a University of Washington graduate student who will soon defend his Doctoral thesis in Mathematics, were arrested and taken to King County Jail. Brien was released later that night on his own recognizance. Treisman was held overnight before being released on $3,000 bail and now faces felony charges of assaulting a Police Officer. Treisman has had no previous law enforcement arrests.
According to Judge Eileen Kato the extremely high bail was necessary because the young man might be a "danger" on the streets.
Treisman's lawyer, David Speikers, labels this incident as ridiculous and said that Treisman was well within the law when he acted because the attackers didn't announce themselves as law enforcement officers.
"Unless law enforcement officers identify themselves as law enforcement, reasonable force to defend another person who is in danger is legal in this state," he said. There is no way Zack could have known they were law enforcement officers because they did not announce themselves as such until they were well into the attack. “The officers appeared to have started the fight as citizens and ended the fight as law enforcement.”
Ian Macrae, a Fall City real estate lawyer and Treisman's stepfather, said that he was furious at this assault on his stepson's civil rights.
"This is a case of Police Road Rage," he said. "It may be illegal to block traffic in an intersection, but that's just a civil infraction. What these cops did to Zack is a violation of his civil rights. They're supposed to be sworn defenders of the public. It's an outrage."
Over the weekend, thanks to a groundswell of grass-roots support in the peaceful tradition of Critical Mass, numerous posts at Point83.com brought to light a dozen signed witness statements including that of a Seattle Public School teacher, the managing editor of Energy Prospects and a Seattle real estate agent.
About Critical Mass:
Critical Mass is a monthly bike ride that takes place in more than 300 cities around the world on the last Friday of every month. It is a loose affiliation of bike riders with no leaders or set agenda. Some of the reasons people join are to assert cyclists' right to the road, to promote bikes as a fun, healthy, viable alternative to cars and to build a greater sense of community. The first Critical Mass ride was on Sept. 25, 1992 in San Francisco. Seattle's Critical Mass has been running for at least 10 years and meets the last Friday of every month at Westlake Center at 5:30 p.m.
From the King County Sheriff's Office:
Bicyclists Block Traffic and Resist Arrest
On Friday, 06/26/2006, at about 6:20 in the evening, Sheriff’s Detectives encountered a group of about 150 bicyclists, from the group Critical Mass, at 1st Avenue and Wall Street in Seattle. The Detectives, operating an unmarked Sheriff’s Office vehicle, saw members of the group blocking vehicular traffic. Drivers with a green traffic light were not able to proceed because the roadway was illegally blocked.
The Detectives were the third car in line, stopped at the green light. Detectives activated their air horn and siren in an effort to get the cyclists to move. Cyclists moved and two vehicles were able to clear the intersection, leaving the Detectives as the first car in line at what was now a red light. The light turned green and the Detectives began to slowly proceed through the intersection. The Detectives reached the middle of the intersection when a bicyclist intentionally pulled in front of them, blocking their path and causing them to stop in order to avoid a collision. The cyclist threw his bike down and raised his arms as if to challenge the Detectives to run him over. The Detectives activated their air horn and siren again, but this cyclist didn’t move. Detectives exited their vehicle, displayed their badges and told the 18 year-old Vashon man blocking their path that he was under arrest. The man fled and Detectives caught him about 15 feet into the crowd. While a Detective was taking control of the disorderly cyclist, a second group member came up behind the Detective and placed him in a choke hold. When Detectives tried to arrest the second man, he continued to fight and resist arrest despite the Detectives loudly yelling “Police, stop resisting”. This second suspect punched a second Detective. Detectives were able to get this man, a 30 year-old from Seattle under control.
Both men were booked into the King County Jail in Seattle. The 18 year-old was booked on charges of disorderly conduct and being a minor in possession of alcohol. The 30 year-old was booked for assault in the third degree for attacking Detectives. One Sheriff’s Detective was treated at Harborview Hospital for injures suffered as a result of this assault.
12 comment(s)
Lee says:
Civil disobedience is still disobedience, and as such I hope most folks who participate in protests of any sort recognize that they are breaking laws and run the risk of encountering the penalties associated with those infractions. Does that include being jumped by law enforcement officers? And if you attempt to break up a fight and one of those people fighting happens to be an unidentified police officer, should you go to prison for third degree assault?
Posted On: Monday, Jul. 3 2006 @ 1:18PM
Storm says:
Given the 20 or so reputable and unrelated eye and ear witnesses to this event, all of whom are testifying that the cops didn\'t identify themselves (as in no sirens, no badges, no \"I\'m a cop\"), I don\'t believe the cops\' story has much credibility. Where have all the honest cops gone? We all know of incidents where the cops lied or roughed somebody up without justification. The police department hushs it up. I suspect that they slap each other on the back and joke about violating citizens rights, and work to come up with cover stories. This event is on the same order as your spouse getting beat up by cops for jaywalking. I\'ll quietly accept a ticket for jaywalking or a rolling stop, but I\'m getting tired of wondering if the cop that spots me doing it is going to beat me up and lie about it. What are the mayor and the chief of police going to do about these road raging cops and their fishy story?
Posted On: Monday, Jul. 3 2006 @ 10:42PM
Kevin says:
Sure, ok, it\'s a civil infraction for corking an intersection (which ensures that the cyclists get through in one piece) ... but since when has the punishment for a civil infraction been a public beating by unidentified cops? Pretty freakin\' weird if you ask me.
SPD tolerates the critical mass cyclists ... What\'s the culture like at King County Dept that makes the sheriffs think they can pounce on people? Who else do they do this to? How much more effective would have a siren, or even saying \"Police! Clear the road!\" have been? Seems a no brainer to me... but maybe that\'s the problem down at King County.
Posted On: Tuesday, Jul. 4 2006 @ 5:23PM
someguy says:
I am so sick of listening to this bleeding heart crap by 30 year oldd children.
Critical mass rescheduled it\'s ride from the last Friday of the month to the first Friday of the month in order to cause as much as much of an inconvenience on people as they possibly could.
What ever happened to the right of the common citizen to support their family and be able to travel back and forth to work without having someone\'s political beleief crammed down their throat by such an obnoxious means.
At the end of the day, Critical Mass caused commuters a minor inconvenience, created civil disobendence throughout the city and assalutled a King County Deputy in the line of Duty.
Throw the book at these punks.
Posted On: Tuesday, Jul. 4 2006 @ 9:44PM
eldan says:
Someguy: I\'m going to ignore the rest of your blatant trolling, because I\'m sure other readers will have the sense to as well. However, I do want to correct the simplest factual error in your post: the Critical Mass ride happened on the last Friday of the month, not the first. It was last Friday, which a cursory glance at a calendar would tell you was the 30th of June.
Posted On: Wednesday, Jul. 5 2006 @ 10:21AM
Barry says:
Just so you all know, \"corking\" an intersection is a misdemeanor (disorderly conduct) under Washington state law, not a traffic violation, which means you can be arrested for it, you can stand trial for it in criminal court, and you can go to jail for it.
Posted On: Wednesday, Jul. 5 2006 @ 12:06PM
John says:
No one has been charged with \"corking\". These are criminal court charges, and are much more serious than that.
Posted On: Thursday, Jul. 6 2006 @ 11:30AM
BobH says:
Someguy may have been trolling, but the fact is Critical Mass IS an obnoxious, self-important organization that does far more to damage the cause of bicyclists than promote it. Going out of your way to piss off drivers, break laws and generally be assholes about it -- all the while expecting no consequences (no, I don\'t consider a beating an appropriate consequence, if that\'s what happened) -- does indeed reek of immature, self-important rebels with a dubious cause.
Posted On: Thursday, Jul. 6 2006 @ 12:26PM
wf says:
Hey Chuck, I hope the next time that you \"go nuclear\" because some cop kicked your ass without properly identifying himself and only decided to arrest you after the fact, you get similarly dismissed as being too self-righteous to deserve your full civil liberties.
Posted On: Thursday, Jul. 6 2006 @ 4:52PM
Storm says:
There are two separate topics on this blog. The first is about civil disobedience, critical mass, right or wrong, and how you feel about bicycles. The second topic is police misconduct. They aren\'t related. The police have to follow the rules; society can\'t and won\'t tolerate cops taking the law into their own hands and beating people up. I\'m appalled that a lot of people who are crabby about bicyclists getting in their way seem to think that, therefore, it\'s okay for the cops to wack \'em a couple of times. Would it be okay for the cops to wack your spouse a couple of times for rolling through a stop sign? Would your spouse deserve a wacking for breaking the law? The argument seems to be that if you break the law the police can have a little fun with you before they arrest you. Sue Rohr is not doing her job - her Transit Cops are out of control.
Posted On: Thursday, Jul. 6 2006 @ 5:27PM
Chuck Taylor says:
wf and Storm,
Storm has it right, these are two unrelated issues. But they are tangled in this case. I\'m obviously not the only person who wonders why it\'s OK for the Critical Mass bicyclists to misbehave in unsafe ways but it\'s not OK for the cops. That doesn\'t mean I condone what the cops did.
Posted On: Thursday, Jul. 6 2006 @ 5:48PM
Dan says:
Chuck,
I agree with you on certain points. I think there\'s a place for cars and for bicycles in this city. I also believe the cyclists who bike in critical mass, or any demonstrators, as Lee pointed out, should be aware when they are breaking laws, and willing to accept the consequences. If the police had handed out tickets, or arrested someone for corking, or done whatever is actually in accordance with the law, it wouldn\'t have been a big deal.
But to equate the bikers\' actions with the detectives\' is crazy. Untangle the two issues. It\'s fine to disagree with critical mass, but the issue of police conduct is so much more important. If a cabdriver maliciously blocked me in my driveway in the morning, I might be mad, and I might call the police. He could be ticketed or towed. But anyone would see that I do not have the right to attack the cabbie. The moment I do that, the situation has escalated, and his affront to me is trivialized by my aggression towards him. How much worse are the actual police actions in this case: not just to attack someone, but to charge the person who stands up to defend his friend from an apparently out of control stranger as a criminal. That\'s what happened according to every witness I\'ve heard from or read about.
Stop burying the lead. The story isn\'t about a group of protestors you and others find annoying and obnoxious. It\'s about something much more serious: police brutality, dishonesty, and misconduct.
Posted On: Friday, Jul. 7 2006 @ 12:55AM