Mass arrests 'Critical Mass' cycle ride during Olympics opening

[GrumpyGregry]

Have the personal hygiene standards of the London CM-ers improved any in recent months? The last one I went on, well some didn't half niff a bit, so much so I decided to stop riding downwind and turned off.

 

[dellzeqq]

Because I don't like criminals, irrespective of which way they vote.

well, Smeggers, let's work this one out. 500 riders, 182 arrested, 179 released without charge, 3 charged, and, as yet, none found guilty of anything. I've no idea about their voting intentions, but your definition of criminals seems a little free...

 

[dellzeqq]

Yet had the single intention of heading towards Stratford. Group think innit. Same as the riots. Same as football hooligans. Same as the Nazis.

see my reference to fear of groups upthread

 

[dellzeqq]

Have the personal hygiene standards of the London CM-ers improved any in recent months? The last one I went on, weel some didn't half niff a bit, so much so I decided to stop riding downwind and turned off.

not in my experience - no. Niffiness prevails

 

[GrumpyGregry]

not in my experience - no. Niffiness prevails

I shall be staying away then. Can't hack the niff no more.

EDIT: My fear of cycling groups is founded on a loathing of BO, copping the content of a farmers hanky and being inadvertently spat on.

EDIT (2): and there was that time when someone dropped a drinks bottle and caused a crash.

The Fridays are such fragrant folk it is a pleasure to ride behind them.

 

[PK99]

to go back a way.....I'm struck by the sheer terror in the 'no-mates' tendency. Some cyclists really do fear groups, thinking that they can be transformed in to ravening mobs by skilled subversives. Writing as someone with more experience of organising group rides than most of you (well, allright then, all of you) I can tell you that it's a bit like herding cats. If somebody doesn't want to go somewhere they'll do something different. Indeed it's tough enough to get people who all want to go to the same place to go to the same place.

If this cadre of manipulative undercover organising geniuses does exist anywhere outside of the heads of people contributing to this thread, and does ever start a bike club, it'll be a great club!

From what i read it would be relatively easy to "hijack" the ride: A group of say half a dozen riders arrive, seemingly unconnected, and position themselves near/at the front of the ride. One of them leads in a particular direction the rest of the 6 follow and the Mass momentum is established. The 6 (unconnected riders) take it in turns to "randomly" lead and Hey Presto a "hijacked" ride. No one has organised to Mass but the Mass has followed the predetermined route of the hijackers.

 

[dellzeqq]

I should have written 'niffarious'. Oh, well.........

 

[dellzeqq]

From what i read it would be relatively easy to "hijack" the ride: A group of say half a dozen riders arrive, seemingly unconnected, and position themselves near/at the front of the ride. One of them leads in a particular direction the rest of the 6 follow and the Mass momentum is established. The 6 (unconnected riders) take it in turns to "randomly" lead and Hey Presto a "hijacked" ride. No one has organised to Mass but the Mass has followed the predetermined route of the hijackers.

From what I read it's pretty simple to split the atom, but I don't reckon many people can do it. That's the trouble with sofa theorising.

Why not go to a CM, hijack it and report back?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Or to put it another way, for one reason or another the police felt it necessary to remove over a 1/3rd of these "innocent" bicyclists.

and when it comes to public order policing in London they never ever get it wrong do they?

 

[dellzeqq]

that, Smeggers is the salient point, and if you'd taken the trouble to think about it you might have asked yourself why this ride was pepper-sprayed when all the previous CMs, including the one that 'hi-jacked' Parliament Square for 90 minutes was not. It's called Olympic Worry Syndrome. The authorities are all hyped up. There are police officers from Norfolk patrolling Kensington. There are 'specialist' police officers from Gibraltar in London, ffs! There are ten thousand troops, three and a half G4S securitypeeps, and no Met police officer will been allowed leave for weeks on end. And that's before we get to the aircraft carrier, the missiles on top of blocks of flats and Matthew Parris' cheesewire. It's security hysteria.

 

[dellzeqq]

When your talking one of the worlds biggest events, with the worlds biggest TV coverage and posing one of the worlds biggest security targets, Id rather they didnt take any chances, thanks. If I had my way, I wouldn't let anyone with beards or dreadlocks within a 60 mile exclusion zone of Stratford.

you've got a problem....

 

[dellzeqq]

Zoe Smith!

 

[User482]

Reinforcements! I have word that User482 is catching up with this thread. I have nefariously organized for him to hijack it...

And to think I used to browse P&L lite for frothing, self-important indignation. I'm only sorry that I didn't spot this earlier - they don't appear to have the internet in Wales.

 

[Boris Bajic]

I agree with everybody, and I offer this question:

What do you call a woman who married a cannibal?




Henrietta!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I wouldn't let anyone with beards or dreadlocks within a 60 mile exclusion zone of Stratford.

One of the bearded fuggers got through.