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RE: NPR segment on Critical Mass/motorist conflict in SF
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Bruce Rosar
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Apr 11, 2007 08:37 PDT
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Two local (SF) points of view about that incident:
1) Minivan's rude introduction to Critical Smash
2) Did Critical Mass really go crazy?
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Minivan's rude introduction to Critical Smash
By Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
It was supposed to be a birthday night out for the kids in San
Francisco, but instead turned into a Critical Mass horror show --
complete with a pummeled car, a smashed rear window and little children
screaming in terror...
The spontaneous Critical Mass bike rides ... have been a fixture on the
last Friday night of the month since the early 1990s. But even
bike-weary cops ... weren't prepared for what happened during the latest
exercise of pedal power...
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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/04/BAGF7P12RN23.DTL
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Did Critical Mass really go crazy?
By Steven T. Jones
The Chronicle's Matier & Ross would have us believe that Critical Mass
riders went nuts on Friday and started attacking a poor innocent family.
I was on the ride and know how ridiculous that story was so I wrote Andy
Ross ... the following e-mail...
Andy,
... you can't ...actually believe the scenario that you spelled out...
Try this version and see if it makes a little more sense.
A driver gets angry and impatient after getting stuck in Critical Mass
and tries to drive through the crowd... To prevent injuries, the
standard practice in such cases is for riders to place themselves and
their bikes in front of the car. She hits said bicyclist ... and then
keeps driving forward. The rest of the bicyclists urge her to just stop
driving, please, which she refuses to do because at this point she's
agitated and indignant. They pound on her windows, pleading with her to
stop driving into a crowd of hundreds of bicyclists with her deadly
object. Pretty soon, a bicyclist loses it and smashes her window.
Now, none of this excuses the act of smashing ... But to simply report
this woman's version of events is irresponsible and simply bad
journalism. Or worse, it is a calculated effort by a writer with a clear
bias against bicycling (as I've heard you express on several occasions)
to spur a crackdown on Critical Mass....
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http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2007/04/did_critical_mass_really_go_cr.html
Bruce "Don't shoot, I'm just the messenger" Rosar
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