I was participating in the Critical Mass ride this past Friday (4/30/04). We were eastbound on Lombard when a Baltimore K-9 patrol officer blared his siren. We moved aside to let him through, but he drove right in among all of us, yelled at us (25 people or so) to pull over and stay on the sidewalk. The encounter ended with the arrest one of rider who was videotaping his actions but had broken no laws.

Until that point in the ride, we had been riding along having a grand old time, getting high fives and smiles from police officers and pedestrians along the route. Some drivers behind us weren't too thrilled, but we only got a few honks here and there.

At first the officer seemed intent on writing us all up for failure to wear helmet violations (it is legal for adults to ride without helmets) or for riding our bikes in the street, but after ten minutes with multiple police paging through their carry-along rulebooks they couldn't find a single law any of us had broken.

They arrested the video camera guy anyway, after knocking him to the ground (with the assistance of a nonuniformed passerby who refused to identify himself) and having him handcuffed for half an hour on the sidewalk. The officer threatened us all with arrest if we didn't all "move along" but most people stayed to witness. Most of the incident was captured on video tape and we hope to have it online soon.

I haven't been in touch with the man who was arrested since Friday; the last I saw of him he was being hauled in a paddy wagon. I have heard from one person that he was released this past Sunday at 2am.

There was no provocation of this officer whatsoever. He had a belligerent attitude and primarily seemed to resent being held up for four minutes in city rush hour traffic. His supervisor who was called to the scene seemed to feel like she had no choice but to help him save face by going ahead with the arrest. It would have been funny, except that an innocent person wound up spending hours behind bars.

Just over a year ago the baltimore police harassed, beat, and arrested four Critical Mass riders: citypaper.com/2003-04-23/pf/mobs_pf.html

This was my first Critical Mass ride in Baltimore, and having lived in the city for about 8 years now this was by far my worst experience with Baltimore police. Typically I find them to be courageous and honorable. I hope this case will go beyond proving innocence and the officer who seems to feel he has authority to pluck law-abiding citizens off the streets and put them in jail will be held accountable for his error.

Critical Mass is held the last friday of every month. It is a joyous and peaceful protest against our reliance upon fossil fuels for transportation, and a great way to spend a friday afternoon.

I can be reached via e-mail at protozoa-AT-tux.org

Kathleen Ellis