Critical Breakdown

New York's Critical Mass was busted last night as a prep-up for protests surrounding the Republican National Convention next week.

I can't say if the riders who were arrested (around 264 out of an estimated 5000) were in blatant disregard for the basic rules of Critical Mass that police tend to respect (stay in the right lane of traffic, for instance), or if it was a sensitized police department trying to set a tone for next week.

But, I can say that the media has decided to portray the thing how it wants to. Here's the lead from the New York Daily News article [emphasis added]:

Manhattan was spin city last night as 5,000 activists on bicycles swarmed city streets and snarled traffic during a protest of the upcoming Republican National Convention.

Spin city, indeed... Here, buried deep in the article, is the contradictory statement that briefly explains what Critical Mass is...

The ride, organized by an environmental group called Time's Up and dubbed "Critical Mass," is held in the city on the last Friday of every month but never near the scale of last night.

The "scale" of the event is what the paper uses to defend its claim that the ride was a RNC protest, but that scale makes logical sense. Late summer rides are universally the most atteneded CM events, especially if weather is nice. I rode in December and there were maybe 30 people, but just a few months prior on a beautiful Halloween evening the ride began with a couple thousand. I was told the August ride had been even larger. Now, add in people arriving in New York to protest the RNC (it's certainly a liberal crowd on these rides) and you add even more to the number. So, the "scale" is no excuse for changing the entire purpose of the ride to push one's editorial plan for the upcoming Convention.

Here's the link to New York's Critical Mass.

And, here's a link to the CMs going on across North America. You'll notice it isn't even limited to Blue states/regions.