While I agree that we should think tactically, and that 20 cops in the middle of a huge critical mass (with bikes to use for barriers) shouldn't be left alone, the tactics described in the previous post are

a) not effective
b) likely to get you hurt or in jail for a long time

Un-aresting people is very important, especially for high-risk individuals who face the brunt of the police state's violence. Group-hugging cops, however, is unlikely to help.

The best thing to do in a situation like the one described would be to form a barricade of bikes to encircle the snatch-squad, and then negiotiate for the safe dispersal of the arrested individuals.

In general, when attempting an un-arrest, it is always best to grab or touch THE PERSON BEING ARRESTED and NOT the police officer. Even brushing against a police officer is considered assault. Putting your knee to a cop's neck is probably attempted murder or something.

As for stealing plastic cuffs? That's ludicrous. I don't like parinoia or jumping to conclusions, but that particularly makes me suspicious that the above post is either made by someone with little protest experience, or by a provocateur hoping to get people hurt.

Stay safe!! Keep your friends safe!! Fight the cops, but do it with intelligence!

Although i'm not a bike rider, i would like to disagree with the first poster. From what i've read so far, getting arrested and then suing the city for false arrest and giving the money to homeless shelters or indymedia could be a very productive activity. Not that i want anyone to get hurt getting arrested and the experience is probably unpleasant, but i think as a strategic activity, it seems to produce more than running away and coming back later. You can still come back later after you are arrested.

Just my two cents worth. I agree with the second poster that the first one may be a plant trying to provoke behavior that the authorities could interpret as terroristic.

I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more effort put into Un-arresting people. It can be done without touching a police officer, and has been done peacefully in the past. I also think that fewer people would have been arrested if they didn't stop for the police. I stood at an intersection three cops would get into the middle of the street, and wave for 20 people on bikes to stop. Being the polite people that they were, they stopped, and some of them were arrested. This could have been avoided if they had simply refused to stop, and swerved around the police officer.

It's never a good idea to split your people up, or to allow yourself to be split by the police.

In protest situations, it sometimes seems like the more you listen to the cops, go where they tell you, etc., the more likely it is that you will be arrested.

What are a bunch of nonviolent people gonna do inna police state in NYC except follow orders or get there asses kicked and thrown in jail? It's all very self-sacrificial like the Oakland docks where police pointed guns at people and they all couldn't wait to get hit and be a victim. Pure charade. Anyone with real sense ducks and runs when guns are pointed at them. Fight or flight is the natural response, sit like a duck is not.
The funny thing is that activists actually think that oppressed people in this society will adopt their thoroughly middle-class postures of discontent. I guarantee that oppressed people in this country will never accept such self-sacrificial middle-class postures like standing in harms way, it just will not happen. I don't think being a victim to the same state power as Iraqis accomplishes anything except easing the conscience of individuals who are getting a state spanking.
No one is facing live ammunition and no one will get more than a slap on the wrist even for their hundredth nonviolent arrest, which is already known, so why the charade? Why do people posture as revolutionaries and speak of revolutions when they refuse to depart from what is organized and accepted in our society? If anyone does want to use force, why would they do it in the midst of a police state under police supervision?
What if the antiwar demonstrators end up being collateral damage in a terrorist attack on the Republicans? Will there be a reaction by the left of disgust toward the terrorists? Do you think the terrorists should respect us, therefore not attack?
If you don't think the war is at home, then you're deluded, and he who enters a battlefield unprepared for war is a sacrificial lamb. I prefer not to put myself in harms way or sacrifice my body and person for exactly zero victory, or symbolic victory or stylistic victory. But that is what people are doing and so they should not complain if they are assaulted by police or terrorists.
The major aftermath of most of these type of events if there is any clash with police is mass complaining and crying of how mean and harsh the police were, litigation etc. I’ve only seen foreign footage of people kicking cops asses, or I’ve seen footage of drunken Americans or drunken Canadians kicking cops asses up and down the street. The anti-war movement should have done it from the gate, aren’t we more pissed off than a bunch of sports fans or drunken revelers, apparently not. On the first day of the war we should have kicked some cop ass and grew some cahones, but that my friend is way too much to ask.
If nonviolent direct action were successful, first off it would not dogmatically and moralistically reject other forms of resistance. Secondly you would see the numbers in the blockades in the thousands instead of hoping to get maybe 20 people to commit to an action. But instead the tactics chosen have castrated the movement, alienated the constituency, and emboldened the police, while we are all busy policing ourselves and each other as certain not to actually leave the parameters of middle-class respectability in any way except pure posturing(my clothes, my hair, my piercings, my sexual behavior). Calling such a standoff or ass-kicking a victory may be self-assuring for activists but it is certainly not a victory for anyone living in the real world.
Those Republicans coming to the RNC are completely responsible for a mass amount of suffering across the world and if all people do is talk mean to them, try to offend them and cause a little disturbance then I say that people who know the enormity of American crimes have fallen short of the responsibility to physically restrain the Republicans from committing any more genocide. Anything short of that you should not be wasting your resources, energy, planning etc., and should be saving and building for a time when people are prepared to physically restrain the murderers.
The funny thing is that it is not the traditionalists who are being rigid, but it is the new-age pacifists who are making the dogmatic assertion that violence is acceptable under zero circumstances. Which makes absolutely no sense to me, pacifists mean to say that if a woman is being attacked or raped she shouldn’t resist, she should be nonviolent. And we know that there is rape and much worse being committed globally and it is somehow "wrong" to resist with force or violence. Or that all the ‘other’ people in the world should resist with their lives and we should just take a little time out of our busy schedules to do a little dance in the street, and voila we’ve done our part for the revolution!?!
...The world is not starving for new lifestyles or new identities and that is about the extent of what the left is offering. Until people realize that their new age stylistic politics are not revolutionary, they are thoroughly assimilationist, they should not expect regular Americans or the rest of the world to join them, support them or view them as other than an entrenched subculture in late stage capitalism, without much power or much real dissent at all.

so if you don't use force you are a pacifist and a coward and if you do use force you are a terrorist?

how about just being a normal person who reserves the right to think for themself?

Brief story of violent police actions against non-violent bike riders(Names abbreviated)

J and I were biking with Critical Mass tonight.It was a joyous ride
with over a thousand bikers getting cheered on by everyone we passed. As
we discussed plans for the weekend, J said that on saturday, all he
wanted to do was stick around for DW's birthday and then rest and get
ready for sunday's show. When the ride reached 34th street, the police had
7th Ave. cut off. We couldn't easily ride forward or back. As it was
around nine, J thought it was a good point to head back to the
station. Suddenly the police, with plastic handcuffs in hand, charged the
crowd. Everyone, costumed folk, casual riders, even dads with sons, ran,
some with bicycles over their heads, as we saw police ripping people off
their bikes and thowing them to the pavement. It was panic. As I was able
to slip onto the sidewalk and get away I assumed the same of J. He so
didn't want to get arrested and feared losing the beloved bike he had had
since a kid. The police gave the riders no option of disbursing, setting
on them like circled prey. So much for Mayor Bloomberg welcoming
non-violent protesters.
After witnessing a similar scene later in the East Village, police
charging tight crowds of revelers with no chance of escape, I rode home. The ride
seemed to be the essence of good-natured non-violent protest, a
celebration of the like-minded. Seeing people thrown to the ground and
their property confiscated was sickening. That our friend was set-on by
these jackels is devastating.

Hi Jym! I had the feeling you'd be in the center of it all. Keep your nose clean.

I think what you guys did was Awesome!!! I am a hardcore cyclist from Portland, Oregon and Critical Mass is a great way to have a Nonpolluting demonstration. I wish I could have been there. Have you heard of the Oregon Zoobombers? Keep Cycling Strong
Treksta

Great pics, Jym!

Perhaps the polic were there to protect you. I know that after standing on the streetcorner in manhattan waiting for 15 minutes to cross the street to get to my apartment, I was pretty much ready to start breaking some of your heads. The other bystanders, similarly stranded, were also quite pissed.

Thanks a lot for detaining every single new yorker who wanted to walk cross town that evening. It was quite civic minded of you to refuse to yield for pedestrians when the lights clearly stated that they had the right of way.

I am certain that the republicans safely ensconced in the Javits center with their army of sycophants and personal attendants were quite put out.

I guess that non-polluting demonstrations such as biking take precedence over the original non-polluting activity, walking.

Thanks, you made the left look real good. You are a pack of tools.