Mass arrests 'Critical Mass' cycle ride during Olympics opening

[dawesome]

I'm just bemused at how you managed to crow-bar your "Death Camps" meme into a thread about people going for a ride on their bikes.

 

[MissTillyFlop]

I am all for a green planet and demonstrating for it. What I am not for is the kinds of policies who in cold blood murdered 100 millions of my fellow human beings in utopian political experiements, terror, KZ camps and state organised famine during the last century. I am afraid movements like CM is attracting the kind of people with those political views. That's why I am out although I (probably) share your views.

I wish that one day, political moderates like myself could protest for a good cause in peace without attracting leeches from the extreme left/right. *deep sigh*

My brother keeps going on about how great Hugo Chavez is and how much better Venzuela is than the UK, how it's more "democratic".

After failing to convince him that political opponents going missing and terrible human rights abuses aren't generally the sign of a happy populace, I gave up and had to settle with:

"Well why don't you bore off and live there then?" (NB I may not have used the word "bore")

 

[middleagecyclist]

I just reached 100 likes and have been awarded a 'Seriously Likeable' trophy while on this thread. Thanks guys/gals. It's not a KOM but still very pleasant!

 

[toroddf]

Sigh... Just to clarify so even Dawe get it.

I am more than happy to support CM on it's own and to do their CM rides as long as the purpose is to support the issue I share with CM. We simply need more bike riding and less car usage. We need more cycle lanes and we need a greener policy. I have even written a book about this.

I am not happy to support a cause and bikeride hijacked by trotskyites, anarchists and other loony political extremists and trouble makers. I know from their written material, the history books and personal contact that hijacking other good causes for their own selfish means is their modus operandi. The list of good causes these leeches has taken over is as long as this thread. Two of the causes I have put in tens of hours in previously has been hijacked by these leeches and scum of the earth. Once bitten, twice shy.

Now, move on. I have said my piece.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Why do people think Anachists are loons? There is no Anarchist agenda!


__________________________________________________________________________________
Sent from a recumbent.... settee.

 

[dawesome]

I have seen bad behaviour at CM, but only by some chavvy kids with their bums hanging out, Trotskyists were notable by their absence. I don't think I've ever actually seen a Trotskyist. CM is usually self-policing, any idiots get dealt with by removal to the gulag. I remember another CM that ended up in the Old Dutch pancake house, one of those twatpanzer Hummers was idling in Shaftesbury Avenue, a dirty great black behemoth, God knows what it weighed. One of our number got off his bike and stood by the tank as we took photos, the male driver went bright red and incandescent with rage, the vein in his temple writhed like a lugworm, I laughed my pants off. Also, the 2005 ride which was supposed to be banned from anywhere near the HOC and we would be arrested if we went anywhere near. About four hundred of us rode round and round Parliament Square, then got a bit bored and went for BEER.

 

[MissTillyFlop]

I have seen bad behaviour at CM, but only by some chavvy kids with their bums hanging out, Trotskyists were notable by their absence. I don't think I've ever actually seen a Trotskyist. CM is usually self-policing, any idiots get dealt with by removal to the gulag. I remember another CM that ended up in the Old Dutch pancake house, one of those twatpanzer Hummers was idling in Shaftesbury Avenue, a dirty great black behemoth, God knows what it weighed. One of our number got off his bike and stood by the tank as we took photos, the male driver went bright red and incandescent with rage, the vein in his temple writhed like a lugworm, I laughed my pants off. Also, the 2005 ride which was supposed to be banned from anywhere near the HOC and we would be arrested if we went anywhere near. About four hundred of us rode round and round Parliament Square, then got a bit bored and went for BEER.

Why would you get cross that one one was photographing your 4x4. Surely the only reason anyone has one is to attract attention?

 

[dawesome]

Remarks and gestures may or may not have been used. Completely non-violent, but it was more along the lines of highlighting the complete and utter foolishness of using such a vehicle on London's roads, which is not what was promised to the driver in the adverts.

PEOPLE WILL THINK YOU'VE GOT A MICRO PENIS.

I was breathless with laughing, people were gasping for breath and it caught on with people walking past until this poor bod was surrounded by mocking laughter.

 

[MissTillyFlop]

Remarks and gestures may or may not have been used. Completely non-violent, but it was more along the lines of highlighting the complete and utter foolishness of using such a vehicle on London's roads, which is not what was promised to the driver in the adverts.

PEOPLE WILL THINK YOU'VE GOT A MICRO PENIS.

I was breathless with laughing, people were gasping for breath and it caught on with people walking past until this poor bod was surrounded by mocking laughter.

Well any high powered car driven by a man of a certain age is known as a "compensation car" to at least 51% of the population...

 

[Tiberius Baltar]

well, when you've told us what you've done 'to help', and should it come close, as in close to one thousandth of what CM has done, I might be just one tiny bit impressed. Take your time. Just list your achievements........

Achievements in what? Life? Love? Or some sort of botched ideal about everyone living in harmony and getting on peacefully?
I don't have to list anything because I wasn't the one coming onto what is actually a very decent forum and making grand statements about reclaiming the streets. Do you guys really think that its just cyclists who get a hard time in rush hour traffic? What about all the people on the bus who are being held up by congestion? Should they happily sit back and let you cycle on through the traffic ignoring red lights and using any lane you like while they bcome late for work? Should the cabbie or the delivery man or the wagon driver bow down to you and your friends because you feel you have some sort of divine right to get to where your going before everyone else?
We have all as cyclists encountered dangerous and inconsiderate drivers but we have all encountered these same idiots as pedestrians, bus passengers and drivers. An idiot is an idiot whether he is on foot, on two wheels or driving an articulated lorry.
Critical Mass can't even get thier story staight on here! Some of you say it was a ride out with friends that just happened to go into the Olympic lanes, some of your "members" say it wasn't a protest and some of you say it was deliberately planned to cause a nuisance so which is it?
Up until this point which is over 100 posts we still don't have a clear indication of what it was you people were trying to achieve. So why don't you tell us what it is you are trying to achieve and then maybe you will get some agreement from us.
Everything I have seen and read over the last few days just make your "movement" look like a joke. I was wondering why I had never heard of Critical Mass up here in Liverpool and I honestly think that its because we have a bit more sense than to turn up in a mob in order to bring the city to a standstill.
You will never achieve your illusive goals by pissing off ordinary members of the public and antagonising the police.
Watch the full video of your so called "poor disabled man" and you will see him pin the copper down before denying that he even touched him! Critical Mass have done themseleves no favours with this one and I feel rather than attracting potential followers they have alienated a lot of cyclists.
By the way five years in the Parachute Regiment was quite an achievement but thats just one of the things I did I don't tend to brag about in order to make myself or my posts hold some weight.

 

[ComedyPilot]

I drive a Smart car FWIW.........................

 

[dawesome]

Up until this point which is over 100 posts we still don't have a clear indication of what it was you people were trying to achieve. So why don't you tell us what it is you are trying to achieve and then maybe you will get some agreement from us.

Beer. I enjoyed the wonderful liberation, good humour and hilariousness of CM but if I'm honest it was mostly the beer. And laughing at red-faced gentlemen.

I wasn't there the time a YACFer dressed as a witch and put a spell on a female 4x4 driver, who started fizzing and popping in her seat, bobbing up and down manically. Furious. At being cursed by a lady dressed as a witch on a bike.

Last time I was in Paris there was a massive CM of skaters- rollerskaters. We were in a hotel near Gare Du Nord and flipping loads skated past, it took about 6 minutes for them to go past at 10-15mph. Dunno if they're political or Trotskys but it looked like they were having a flipping brilliant time, en mass, together, riding/skating with hundreds of other people in complete safety, a wonderful, liberating feeling that was similar to the Skyride day although that was way more middle class than CM.

 

[toroddf]

Beer itself, the manufacturing and the distribution is accelerating the demise of our planet. Nice one ! Not so nice one for those of us who want this planet to be of any use to our grand-children, though.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Beer itself, the manufacturing and the distribution is accelerating the demise of our planet. Nice one ! Not so nice one for those of us who want this planet to be of any use to our grand-children, though.

Having children and grandchildren, and the resources they consume only adds to the pressure the planet is under........

 

[dawesome]

We stopped at Bayeux on the way home.