27th July Critical Mass

Hope people are ok

oh ffs!

rikki

‏@indyrikki busespic.twitter.com/X4fhG2xC

i thought you weren't allowed bicycles on buses.

bet they've been carefully placed there too...

i would be grateful if people stopped the pointless chants of 'shame on you' in future. they don't work, they never have worked and they never will work.

I have been told nobody was gassed or injured

Ah. I didn't see any violence but I didn't stay in that spot for more than a couple of minutes.

i've been told a lot of things, not all of them true.

I do have a preference for a good old fashioned "scum, scum, scum!"

Why? It's actually very Britshly polite. What do you suggest people say? Nothing?

'scum, scum, scum' as per suggestion in post 69

you only say nothing once you've been nicked.

Get ya.

I'm a supporter and previous participant of Critical Mass. But deliberately trying to cycle en-masse near the opening ceremony of the Olympics is fucking stupid. What did people think might happen?!

I believe my information to be credible. But yes, we will see.

I suppose the obvious conclusion is that uniformed dickheads will act like uniformed dickheads.

it's not like they were going to do anything other than cycle past or stop for a bit, not like they were going to invade the stadium and probably realise that that might get them shot. why kettle and alledgedly beat them? why shouldn't they be allowed to proceed along the public highway?

allegedly. not how you did it. and i don't think there's much of the allegedly about it.

yes

that's my line

It all went well, then

Back home finally. Gutted it's turned out like this. My friend roughly pushed off her bike and jumped on by two coppers and arrested - for doing nothing more than trying to move away from the mayhem. Peaceful protest is dead. And this wasn't even a protest.

No one wanted to disrupt the opening ceremony.

But you're right if you're implying the police had to be seen to be doing something about this.

I've got a massive story and loads of pics and stuff but it's too late and I need to go to bed. I need to retrieve her bike tomorrow and help her get home.

Fuck this Olympics security clusterfuck shitstorm

Glad you're back safe, you must be absolutely knackered.

FWIW I didn't see anyone get pepper sprayed. Doesn't mean it didn't happen though. The police were rough and in some cases very violent. The ride got split in half early on - we don't know what happened early on the other ride - but both rides managed to bump into each other in the middle of Old Street about 8pm and a massive 10 min spontaneous party happened in the middle of the road. That's what Critical Mass is all about. Not a fucking Olympic-busting national security threat.

Thanks.

Yeah, on top of all this we cycled 20 miles today!

What happened with your friend? Night in the cells?

Yep, Charing Cross. Which is a bit of a touch because originally they were gonna send people to police stations in Surrey or Hampshire! I've heard some may be let out fairly soon, before the morning.

So they're not sending them to local stations to be dispersed quietly then?

Anyway, hope she's OK and didn't make any comment to OB.

That ^^ looks like a pepper spraying to me. You can't actually see it. But you see the copper readying his spray, then pointing it, then...

E2A - I'm not actually sure that's today. Forgive me until I can check. g'night

You were pretty much spot on with that Apparently one of the bail conditions is not to enter the Borough of Newham in possession of a bicycle


Apparently they bussed them to Croydon nick and delayed processing, so there's still about 20 arrestees on a bus there - having spent overnight without any food etc.

As I said last night, I think the OB really missed a trick here. They could have easily used that 2:1 ratio to give them a bloody escort to the stadium, arriving in style "ACAB but our bastards are the best in the world ect ect chiz chiz"