Not happy with what I saw tonight.

Tonight was supposed to be the night I got the protest juices going again. The plan was simple… I would go down to Union Square and join in the monthly Critical Mass ride. I had heard about the police harassment at these rides, and wanted to check it out for myself.

I grabbed my beater (my cheapo Schwinn bike) and headed down to Union Square on the subway. I arrived about an hour and a half earlier than the people I was gonna meet up with. I walked my bike up Union Square East noting that every single cop in the lower Manhattan must have been there. Paddy wagons, bike cops, scooter cops, squad cars, and two helicopters. All hell was going to break loose.

I was already uneasy, and that didn’t help.

Hanging out at Union Square North, I saw some people… Bullshitted a bit… Hung out for awhile… Watched some of the idiots I was there with flip off some of the cops and basically dare the police to hit them over the head. Nice group to fall in with, right? But I figured hell, who cares. I’m there for the ride. The unity, the cycling. Then it went downhill.

I have to give you some backstory, though, because it’s important to the story. On November 12th, a judge in New York City ruled that the Police could not stop the Critical Mass rides in New York City by seizing bikes and not charging the cyclists, a tactic employed for months by the NYPD. So, does the city continue to allow cyclists to ride Critical Mass and continue to close off streets and let the crowd through? If they did, would I be writing this?

At tonight’s CM ride, a group of us were handed flyers by NYPD brass, ostensively warning us that if we put our feet on a pedal, we would be in jail. Simple as that. Here are the bullet points from the flyer:

THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT REQUIRES YOUR COOPERATION IN COMPLYING WITH THE LAW AND PROTECTING THE PUBLIC FROM HARM

IT IS DANGEROUS AND ILLEGAL TO RIDE A BICYCLE IN A PROCESSION ON THE PUBLIC STREETS WITHIN NEW YORK CITY, IF A PERMIT FOR THE PROCESSION HAS NOT BEEN ISSUED BY THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT.

NO PERMIT HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR A BICYCLE PROCESSION FOR TONIGHT, NOVEMBER 26, 2004.

IF YOU CHOOSE TO IRDE IN A PROCESSION THIS EVENING, YOU WILL BE ARRESTED AND YOUR BICYCLE WILL BE SEIZED.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION

A few of the guys who arrived after me pointed out that Union Square South, the “starting point” of the ride already had the dreaded orange netting out, and if you got to that point, it was too late; you were going to jail. Bike cops were swarming through the crowds staring everyone down.

It was getting ugly.

Apparently someone tipped off NBC, Fox, and ABC that the CM ride was going to be eventful. Considering the absolutely overwhelming police presence, I wouldn’t be surprised if the police called a few newsrooms and said “We’re gonna make an example of these guys, can you catch it on tape?” and they willingly sent their vans over.

Or maybe the excessive police presence and the news media showing up were completely unrelated coincidences.

Needless to say I chickened out. My protestor core didn’t last very long, but my simmering anger over this has not subsided in the least. There are so many things wrong with this I can’t even think of all of them all at once…

1. The police do not call the absolutely ridiculous number of cars and cabbies rolling past Union Square in basic gridlock dangerous for the public. In fact, the NYPD does not enforce bike lanes in this city, they don’t arrest double parkers who door cyclists and kill them, and they don’t even give tickets to cabs who turn from the middle lane across you and almost knock you off your bike.

2. The police got an order to stop seizing bikes without charges, so now they blanketly warn you of the charges you face via a flyer and tell you they’ll seize your bike. Sounds like a skirting of the ruling to me.

3. The riders who want respect from the cops oughta consider showing them some in return. In an hour there, I saw people curse at, flip off, gesture at, and mock the police that were there, all with zero provocation. Contary to what their feeble brains can comprehend, that does nothing to endear yourself to the gun toting, handcuff flinging night stick holding law officers of which there were so many.

I can go on and on, but there’s really no point. I hate just venting aimlessly.

I did bug out on the ride at about 6:15 or so, and headed as far from the center of activity as I could. I rode from 14th street and 5th avenue to 8th avenue, up 8th to 61st Street, then over the 59th Street Bridge, and into Queens at my office, dropped my bike in the parking garage, then took the subway back to the Bronx.

At least I got a few miles in tonight.

The actions of the protestors tonight weren’t terribly surprising to me. I think my leaving was more because I didn’t want to be around those folks than anything else. But the actions of the NYPD were just as bad. The intimidation, harassment, and threatening that they dished out to people was no better than the idiots I was with harassing them.

All in all it was a very bad scene at the ride tonight; and one that I will not soon forget.

Nor will I repeat it.

I have better ways to spend a Friday night.

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  • http://www.stageleft.info stageleft

    Three points:

    [1] You should have had a permit, in an ideal world it really shouldn’t make any difference if a bunch of people want to get together and go for a ride to raise public awareness or not – but that’s the way the game is played and if you’d had a permit the cops wouldn’t have had a legal leg to stand on trying to stop you.

    [2] If you are going to take part in any sort of civil, public awareness raising, actions of any sort (other than possibly a march to proclaim the greatness of god as he relates to creation and the constitution or to denounce other activists that the government, at any level, doesn’t like) get used to the cops harassing you…. it’s standard fare.

    [3] There are idiots in every crowd.

    Unfortunately it sounds like the people who put this thing together know little or nothing about how to do it properly (tell ‘em I said so) – to be even marginally successful ya gotta jump through the hoops the “benevolent authorities” require you to jump through and then somebody has to be willing to get arrested when the cops either bust it up, or try and instigate something so they have an excuse to bust it up.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    1: The city has taken to the habit of just not issuing permits if they don’t like the cause, so that route wouldn’t work.

    2: I expected harassment, however this was above and beyond. They were trapping cyclists with construction netting like fucking fish and animals. That’s just insane.

    3: There are definitely idiots in every crowd, and the small group I was with was definitely not representative of the whole group; I also met some really nice people too.

    This thing is gonna die because the city has the power to shut it down and they’re using it. Yet another notch on the bedpost of the city when it comes to shutting down those pesky cyclists.

  • http://www.dogsnot.net Gordon the Magnificent

    Why the hell do you need a permit to ride a bike? Was it because of the amount of people or that you’re simply required to have one?

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    Supposedly the 500 people or so causes a hazard for public safety by riding on the street. Guess it gets in the way of the 10,000 cars that ride the streets in that general area in an hour.

    It’s idiotic, and it’s just another way the city clamps down on cyclists.

  • http://www.dogsnot.net Gordon the Magnificent

    Only been in NYC three times, but have one thought that’s common thread – why the fuck would you even want a car in that town?

  • http://www.softgreenglow.com/ Analog Kid

    The Critical Mass rides that have taken place here in Seattle have been around 25-350 people.

    If the ones in NYC are anything like the ones in Seattle, they should be shut down and never issued a permit.

    The riders ride the wrong way down one way streets, jump on and off the sideway, also endangering folks just walking, cross against the streetlights and/or just have groups of riders circling inside an intersection, thereby blocking up and stopping traffic even worse then usual.

    Sometimes the group will split and go down parallel streets, again, blocking traffic.

    Or during the holidays, they’ll pick one upscale commercial block and just circle the damn thing for an hour, yelling obscenties at the people on the sidewalk who are shopping.

    CM started out as an OK quasi-organization, but it has been heavily infiltrated here by the militant envirowackos and anarchists crowd. You know, the ELF types who don’t think anyone should burn dinosaurs. Some of them go buy a bike from a local charity just so they have something to ride in this pseudo-demonstration.

    Whenever they run a ‘bandit’ CM ride here, the city’s 911 call-center is flooded with calls of damaged vehicles from the riders kicking them as they go by.

    I call them ‘The Bicyclistas’.

    Sorry Vinny, but I cannot see anyone with a free mind wanting to associate with this group. Maybe your NYC CMer’s aren’t as militant as the ones here in Seattle.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    Well, any gathering of this type is going to have its nutbars; especially in a liberal city. But the truth of the matter is that until August there had never been an arrest at a CM ride in NYC. In fact, there was a certain live and let live by the riders and police.

    Of course you have your loons in there, but that’s the way it goes, but a majority of the riders just went to ride.

    Unfortunately in recent months, cycling has been, to put it lightly, under attack in New York City. From councilwoman Provenzano requiring registration of bikes (hasn’t passed yet) to her refusing to look at a bill to fund indoor parking for bikes, to her having bike lanes removed in my neighborhood because the people in the neighborhood got pissed off that they were getting tickets for blocking the lanes, to the messenger who was killed in Manhattan by a double parked truck who didn’t even get a ticket.

    That’s what motivates people like me to want to do Critical Mass, but frankly, the overreaction I saw by the police last night, and the absolutely draconian tactics they used are unacceptable.

    Believe me… I never liked the idea of CM either, but the way things are going in New York City lately, it may be the only way for cyclists to be heard…

  • http://www.stageleft.info stageleft

    Are there no organized groups/clubs in the entire city that are willing to step up to the plate and organize some sort of riding lobby to deal with this crap Vinny?

    Seriously, things like the removal of bike lanes are giant steps backward and action needs to be taken before you guys are forced off the streets completely.

  • http://www.softgreenglow.com/ AnalogKig

    Heya Vinny, as a longtime firearms owner, believe me, I know all about the 10% rule. But if the arrests have already started, you can count those guys out.

    Just like what you did, the good, honest riders will start to vacate the group and the jackasses will recruit more of their friends for filler and down the chute they go.

    I’ll guarantee you that some of the chuckleheads you described we protesting the RNC in a less than tasteful way. Oh well, let ‘em go.

    You’re best bet isn’t to gather with a large group of bicyclists, some of whom just hate authority on principle, and ride around. It’s to get to your other city councilmembers and make sure they ignore Provenzano’s bills. Without them, she’ll look like the lone looney screaming for attention.

    By the way, has she always been on this I hate bikers kick, or is this something recent? Sounds obsessive compulsive.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    See, AK, the problem I have is that the police appeared out to break this thing to bits immediately. Most of the CM riders from August weren’t from here. The thousands of protestors were general purpose ass clowns from all over.

    The “good honest riders” do make up a majority of the group, however the police react to the group as if there’s going to be a riot every single time people get on a bike. My problem is the way they handled the situation.

    For example… Stringing orange netting across a street to clothesline cyclists is just stupid. They wrapped them in it and then picked them out one by one to be arrested.

    That’s just wrong. Nobody had broken any law at that point, and they were ready to bust it up before any laws were even broken despite a court order that told them to leave the riders alone.

    As for Provenzano’s bills, she’s very powerful, and she can kill a bill immediately, so the idea that some other councilmember would kill a Provenzano bill and risk getting one of his / her own bills squashed is a pipe dream.

    This city is becoming worse and worse if you ride a bike, and there ain’t gonna be no help from the city gov’t.

  • http://www.softgreenglow.com/ AnalogKig

    I got ya, Vinny. I guess I’m just wishing the SPD would use netting on the Bicyclistas here like that, so I’m not really able to get worked up over it.

    Of course, I may be confused about how the netting was used. Was it just strung up across a street and when the looneys drove up/into it was it wrapped around them, or did the NYPD walk it into them.

    If its the latter, I can understand being pissed over that. If it is the former, the wackos were warned about going in that direction beforehand and the netting is just a convenience for the police.

    Then again, I wish that riot cops were issued cattleprods for crowd control (and yes I have been tagged with one. I have also volunteered to be tasered. Nasty thing, electricity)

    But I must say, I wish the SPD would have thought of that netting during the WTO riots here 4 years ago. Make the netting 6ft tall and tie each end to a couple of horses and you’ve got large sections of a riot pretty well contained.

    I think that if the honest CMer’s could find a way to police the wackos out of the group, they’d go a long way to show the NYPD that they have realized their problem and are taking care of it themselves. Even going so far as old school property destruction of the wackos bikes and planting illegal substances, pre-ride. Leave the bicyclistas on foot and they can’t make wheeled asses of themselves.

    As for Provenzano, if one council member can kill another councilmember’s bill outright, something needs to be done to the council’s rule book.

    Sounds as if someone needs to change the rules that she has learned so well to make everything a straight up and down vote.

    We have one of the most liberal city councils this side of Beserkley here and our councilmembers put up their fair share of insipid proposals, but they all get a straight up or down vote and that weeds the truly dumb ones out pretty well. There are no kings/queens on our council.

    How would that work in NYC? Does it require someone like Bloomberg the Ball-less to send in an unkillable bill or what?

  • http://www.stageleft.info stageleft

    You’re best bet isn’t to gather with a large group of bicyclists, some of whom just hate authority on principle, and ride around. It’s to get to your other city councilmembers and make sure they ignore Provenzano’s bills. Without them, she’ll look like the lone looney screaming for attention.

    The chances of success with a plan like this are somewhere between very friggen slim and absolutely friggen none…. the messagae needs people and it needs people who are willing to be visable doing their thing.

    If you start trying to play exclusively by their rules without making any noise you will find your issue at the bottom of the stack on the floor near a basement based dilbert cube – because that’s what politicians do to people who do not make enough noise.

  • http://www.stageleft.info/ stageleft

    Three points:

    [1] You should have had a permit, in an ideal world it really shouldn’t make any difference if a bunch of people want to get together and go for a ride to raise public awareness or not – but that’s the way the game is played and if you’d had a permit the cops wouldn’t have had a legal leg to stand on trying to stop you.

    [2] If you are going to take part in any sort of civil, public awareness raising, actions of any sort (other than possibly a march to proclaim the greatness of god as he relates to creation and the constitution or to denounce other activists that the government, at any level, doesn’t like) get used to the cops harassing you…. it’s standard fare.

    [3] There are idiots in every crowd.

    Unfortunately it sounds like the people who put this thing together know little or nothing about how to do it properly (tell ‘em I said so) – to be even marginally successful ya gotta jump through the hoops the “benevolent authorities” require you to jump through and then somebody has to be willing to get arrested when the cops either bust it up, or try and instigate something so they have an excuse to bust it up.

  • http://www.stageleft.info/ stageleft

    Three points:

    [1] You should have had a permit, in an ideal world it really shouldn’t make any difference if a bunch of people want to get together and go for a ride to raise public awareness or not – but that’s the way the game is played and if you’d had a permit the cops wouldn’t have had a legal leg to stand on trying to stop you.

    [2] If you are going to take part in any sort of civil, public awareness raising, actions of any sort (other than possibly a march to proclaim the greatness of god as he relates to creation and the constitution or to denounce other activists that the government, at any level, doesn’t like) get used to the cops harassing you…. it’s standard fare.

    [3] There are idiots in every crowd.

    Unfortunately it sounds like the people who put this thing together know little or nothing about how to do it properly (tell ‘em I said so) – to be even marginally successful ya gotta jump through the hoops the “benevolent authorities” require you to jump through and then somebody has to be willing to get arrested when the cops either bust it up, or try and instigate something so they have an excuse to bust it up.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    1: The city has taken to the habit of just not issuing permits if they don’t like the cause, so that route wouldn’t work.

    2: I expected harassment, however this was above and beyond. They were trapping cyclists with construction netting like fucking fish and animals. That’s just insane.

    3: There are definitely idiots in every crowd, and the small group I was with was definitely not representative of the whole group; I also met some really nice people too.

    This thing is gonna die because the city has the power to shut it down and they’re using it. Yet another notch on the bedpost of the city when it comes to shutting down those pesky cyclists.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    1: The city has taken to the habit of just not issuing permits if they don’t like the cause, so that route wouldn’t work.

    2: I expected harassment, however this was above and beyond. They were trapping cyclists with construction netting like fucking fish and animals. That’s just insane.

    3: There are definitely idiots in every crowd, and the small group I was with was definitely not representative of the whole group; I also met some really nice people too.

    This thing is gonna die because the city has the power to shut it down and they’re using it. Yet another notch on the bedpost of the city when it comes to shutting down those pesky cyclists.

  • http://www.dogsnot.net/ Gordon the Magnificent

    Why the hell do you need a permit to ride a bike? Was it because of the amount of people or that you’re simply required to have one?

  • http://www.dogsnot.net/ Gordon the Magnificent

    Why the hell do you need a permit to ride a bike? Was it because of the amount of people or that you’re simply required to have one?

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    Supposedly the 500 people or so causes a hazard for public safety by riding on the street. Guess it gets in the way of the 10,000 cars that ride the streets in that general area in an hour.

    It’s idiotic, and it’s just another way the city clamps down on cyclists.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    Supposedly the 500 people or so causes a hazard for public safety by riding on the street. Guess it gets in the way of the 10,000 cars that ride the streets in that general area in an hour.

    It’s idiotic, and it’s just another way the city clamps down on cyclists.

  • http://www.dogsnot.net/ Gordon the Magnificent

    Only been in NYC three times, but have one thought that’s common thread – why the fuck would you even want a car in that town?

  • http://www.dogsnot.net/ Gordon the Magnificent

    Only been in NYC three times, but have one thought that’s common thread – why the fuck would you even want a car in that town?

  • http://www.softgreenglow.com/ Analog Kid

    The Critical Mass rides that have taken place here in Seattle have been around 25-350 people.

    If the ones in NYC are anything like the ones in Seattle, they should be shut down and never issued a permit.

    The riders ride the wrong way down one way streets, jump on and off the sideway, also endangering folks just walking, cross against the streetlights and/or just have groups of riders circling inside an intersection, thereby blocking up and stopping traffic even worse then usual.

    Sometimes the group will split and go down parallel streets, again, blocking traffic.

    Or during the holidays, they’ll pick one upscale commercial block and just circle the damn thing for an hour, yelling obscenties at the people on the sidewalk who are shopping.

    CM started out as an OK quasi-organization, but it has been heavily infiltrated here by the militant envirowackos and anarchists crowd. You know, the ELF types who don’t think anyone should burn dinosaurs. Some of them go buy a bike from a local charity just so they have something to ride in this pseudo-demonstration.

    Whenever they run a ‘bandit’ CM ride here, the city’s 911 call-center is flooded with calls of damaged vehicles from the riders kicking them as they go by.

    I call them ‘The Bicyclistas’.

    Sorry Vinny, but I cannot see anyone with a free mind wanting to associate with this group. Maybe your NYC CMer’s aren’t as militant as the ones here in Seattle.

  • http://www.softgreenglow.com/ Analog Kid

    The Critical Mass rides that have taken place here in Seattle have been around 25-350 people.

    If the ones in NYC are anything like the ones in Seattle, they should be shut down and never issued a permit.

    The riders ride the wrong way down one way streets, jump on and off the sideway, also endangering folks just walking, cross against the streetlights and/or just have groups of riders circling inside an intersection, thereby blocking up and stopping traffic even worse then usual.

    Sometimes the group will split and go down parallel streets, again, blocking traffic.

    Or during the holidays, they’ll pick one upscale commercial block and just circle the damn thing for an hour, yelling obscenties at the people on the sidewalk who are shopping.

    CM started out as an OK quasi-organization, but it has been heavily infiltrated here by the militant envirowackos and anarchists crowd. You know, the ELF types who don’t think anyone should burn dinosaurs. Some of them go buy a bike from a local charity just so they have something to ride in this pseudo-demonstration.

    Whenever they run a ‘bandit’ CM ride here, the city’s 911 call-center is flooded with calls of damaged vehicles from the riders kicking them as they go by.

    I call them ‘The Bicyclistas’.

    Sorry Vinny, but I cannot see anyone with a free mind wanting to associate with this group. Maybe your NYC CMer’s aren’t as militant as the ones here in Seattle.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    Well, any gathering of this type is going to have its nutbars; especially in a liberal city. But the truth of the matter is that until August there had never been an arrest at a CM ride in NYC. In fact, there was a certain live and let live by the riders and police.

    Of course you have your loons in there, but that’s the way it goes, but a majority of the riders just went to ride.

    Unfortunately in recent months, cycling has been, to put it lightly, under attack in New York City. From councilwoman Provenzano requiring registration of bikes (hasn’t passed yet) to her refusing to look at a bill to fund indoor parking for bikes, to her having bike lanes removed in my neighborhood because the people in the neighborhood got pissed off that they were getting tickets for blocking the lanes, to the messenger who was killed in Manhattan by a double parked truck who didn’t even get a ticket.

    That’s what motivates people like me to want to do Critical Mass, but frankly, the overreaction I saw by the police last night, and the absolutely draconian tactics they used are unacceptable.

    Believe me… I never liked the idea of CM either, but the way things are going in New York City lately, it may be the only way for cyclists to be heard…

  • http://www.stageleft.info/ stageleft

    Are there no organized groups/clubs in the entire city that are willing to step up to the plate and organize some sort of riding lobby to deal with this crap Vinny?

    Seriously, things like the removal of bike lanes are giant steps backward and action needs to be taken before you guys are forced off the streets completely.

  • http://www.softgreenglow.com/ AnalogKig

    Heya Vinny, as a longtime firearms owner, believe me, I know all about the 10% rule. But if the arrests have already started, you can count those guys out.

    Just like what you did, the good, honest riders will start to vacate the group and the jackasses will recruit more of their friends for filler and down the chute they go.

    I’ll guarantee you that some of the chuckleheads you described we protesting the RNC in a less than tasteful way. Oh well, let ‘em go.

    You’re best bet isn’t to gather with a large group of bicyclists, some of whom just hate authority on principle, and ride around. It’s to get to your other city councilmembers and make sure they ignore Provenzano’s bills. Without them, she’ll look like the lone looney screaming for attention.

    By the way, has she always been on this I hate bikers kick, or is this something recent? Sounds obsessive compulsive.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    See, AK, the problem I have is that the police appeared out to break this thing to bits immediately. Most of the CM riders from August weren’t from here. The thousands of protestors were general purpose ass clowns from all over.

    The “good honest riders” do make up a majority of the group, however the police react to the group as if there’s going to be a riot every single time people get on a bike. My problem is the way they handled the situation.

    For example… Stringing orange netting across a street to clothesline cyclists is just stupid. They wrapped them in it and then picked them out one by one to be arrested.

    That’s just wrong. Nobody had broken any law at that point, and they were ready to bust it up before any laws were even broken despite a court order that told them to leave the riders alone.

    As for Provenzano’s bills, she’s very powerful, and she can kill a bill immediately, so the idea that some other councilmember would kill a Provenzano bill and risk getting one of his / her own bills squashed is a pipe dream.

    This city is becoming worse and worse if you ride a bike, and there ain’t gonna be no help from the city gov’t.

  • http://www.softgreenglow.com/ AnalogKig

    I got ya, Vinny. I guess I’m just wishing the SPD would use netting on the Bicyclistas here like that, so I’m not really able to get worked up over it.

    Of course, I may be confused about how the netting was used. Was it just strung up across a street and when the looneys drove up/into it was it wrapped around them, or did the NYPD walk it into them.

    If its the latter, I can understand being pissed over that. If it is the former, the wackos were warned about going in that direction beforehand and the netting is just a convenience for the police.

    Then again, I wish that riot cops were issued cattleprods for crowd control (and yes I have been tagged with one. I have also volunteered to be tasered. Nasty thing, electricity)

    But I must say, I wish the SPD would have thought of that netting during the WTO riots here 4 years ago. Make the netting 6ft tall and tie each end to a couple of horses and you’ve got large sections of a riot pretty well contained.

    I think that if the honest CMer’s could find a way to police the wackos out of the group, they’d go a long way to show the NYPD that they have realized their problem and are taking care of it themselves. Even going so far as old school property destruction of the wackos bikes and planting illegal substances, pre-ride. Leave the bicyclistas on foot and they can’t make wheeled asses of themselves.

    As for Provenzano, if one council member can kill another councilmember’s bill outright, something needs to be done to the council’s rule book.

    Sounds as if someone needs to change the rules that she has learned so well to make everything a straight up and down vote.

    We have one of the most liberal city councils this side of Beserkley here and our councilmembers put up their fair share of insipid proposals, but they all get a straight up or down vote and that weeds the truly dumb ones out pretty well. There are no kings/queens on our council.

    How would that work in NYC? Does it require someone like Bloomberg the Ball-less to send in an unkillable bill or what?

  • http://www.stageleft.info/ stageleft

    You’re best bet isn’t to gather with a large group of bicyclists, some of whom just hate authority on principle, and ride around. It’s to get to your other city councilmembers and make sure they ignore Provenzano’s bills. Without them, she’ll look like the lone looney screaming for attention.

    The chances of success with a plan like this are somewhere between very friggen slim and absolutely friggen none…. the messagae needs people and it needs people who are willing to be visable doing their thing.

    If you start trying to play exclusively by their rules without making any noise you will find your issue at the bottom of the stack on the floor near a basement based dilbert cube – because that’s what politicians do to people who do not make enough noise.