How many wrongs can you count in this video?

[Medmech]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUoUF1JrS98

For the record the police reported that is was the cyclist were at fault not the driver of the van.

[Medmech]

(05-12) 16:56 PDT BERKELEY -- An angry confrontation erupted during Friday night's Critical Mass bike ride in Berkeley when cyclists accused a motorist of trying to run them over, a participant who videotaped part of the fracas said today.
But police said Saturday participants of the monthly bike ride threw their bicycles in front of the motorist to impede him.
The incident, similar to an altercation during a Critical Mass in San Francisco in March, occurred at about 8 p.m. as dozens of cyclists rode through the intersection of The Alameda and Monterey Avenue in North Berkeley, said bicycle activist Jason Meggs.
A 72-year-old man driving the Chevrolet minivan and his 70-year-old wife were surrounded by bicyclists who rocked their vehicle, police said, adding that two witnesses told them that three riders threw their bicycles in front of the minivan to block its path.
Tempers flared on both sides and the minivan's windshield was shattered and a wiper bent, but Berkeley police did not make any arrests, said Sgt. Mary Kusmiss, department spokeswoman.
"There's nothing to suggest in the report or documentation thus far that the driver intentionally or had an intent to hit anybody," she said. "The driver and his wife, both of them were very confused and, in their words, feared for their safety being encircled by this group, who they characterized as being quite aggressive and angry."
But Meggs disputed that account, saying the man drove toward the cyclists, prompting the confrontation.
On a video of the incident filmed by Meggs, cyclists are seen trying to remove three bicycles stuck beneath the right front tire of the van.
"Everybody, back away!" one person is heard shouting. Cyclists are seen and heard pounding on the vehicle's hood and windows.
"What the f-? What's your f- problem?" one cyclist demands of the driver, who is inside the vehicle with the windows closed.
At one point, the man's wife opens her door. "How dare you be so violent?" someone is heard asking her. "Are you people drunk?"
The woman says something that can't be heard, prompting a man to ask her, "Guess who started it? Guess who did it?"
"You're on top of three bikes!" a bicyclist tells the driver, urging him to move.
"I'm trying to -- my wife has the door open!" the driver replies.
A cyclist is heard telling the driver, "You injured somebody. Do not leave yet."
Firefighters at a nearby Berkeley fire station heard the commotion and summoned police because it appeared that "an angry crowd was surrounding a minivan," Kusmiss said.
One lieutenant, two sergeants and 14 officers responded, Kusmiss said, and police filed an 18-page report.
Meggs said two cyclists were injured but they declined medical attention.
He said the cyclists had a green light when they entered the intersection, but he did not know if the light had changed before they'd all made it across the street.
Meggs said he regretted the damage to the vehicle and insisted that he wasn't sure how it occurred. Nevertheless, he said hitting the vehicle is a "relatively innocuous thing to do when you're freaking out and thinking you're about to be killed."
Meggs said police blamed the bicyclists for instigating the confrontation, a charge he denied. The Berkeley Critical Mass has been a peaceful event for more than 14 years, he said.
The incident evoked comparisons to a March 30 confrontation during the Critical Mass ride in San Francisco.
In that case, Susan Ferrando of Redwood City said she found herself in the middle of a group of bicyclists in Japantown and tried to drive through them. Hundreds of bicyclists surrounded her minivan with children inside, she said, pounding on it and riding in circles around it. Eventually, she said, someone used a bicycle to smash the rear window.
Some bicyclists, however, say that Ferrando accelerated recklessly, hit a rider, knocked him to the ground and kept driving until the bicyclists surrounded her minivan. Ferrando has denied hitting a bicycle. Police said the bicyclist declined medical assistance. No charges were filed in the incident.
A portion of the video shot during the incident Friday night in Berkeley can be seen at http://bclu.org/20070511.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

[Dubyagee]

Beatniks with a "cause".


They have a right to the road but they should have obeyed the traffic lights. They are lucky the guy in the van didn't panic and floor it.

[Medmech]

Originally Posted by Dubyagee

Beatniks with a "cause".


They have a right to the road but they should have obeyed the traffic lights. They are lucky the guy in the van didn't panic and floor it.

They are lucky the guy did not have a heart attack, what about the guy who was carrying his kids yelling at the old lady..great example. At the beginning of the Van Scene you can see that all of the bikes were upright until they started pounding and rolled over the bikes.

This is not the first time the protesters have had problems they broke the back window out of a mini-van carrying a mom and her kids in the April Critical Mass.

It's a MASS of something thats for sure, I'll be honest I have been LMAO at the video for an hour. That girl in the goofy outfit crying about her bike is priceless.

[kmaysob]

now how many think the old man carrying a gun would have solved it?

[Kuan]

Why isn't there a mass ride in Richmond? LOL!

[Jim B.]

I lived in San Francisco till a couple of years ago, so I've been witness to this Critical Mass stuff many, many times.

It's utter anarchy, the SFPD does nothing, and the main artery, Market Street, from the Embarcadero all the way to Castro is effectively comandeered, by bicycles, when it goes on. The traffic laws no longer exist.
It's their moment of absolute freedom.

God help any confused, hapless, motorist who gets in the way. I personally saw an unfortunate Latino guy in an Olds Cutlass, literally get swarmed by dozens of cyclists, merely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It got very very ugly.

San Francisco, with it's very busy and brisk traffic, and steep hills, is not a bicycle friendly city. I only dared ride in Golden Gate Park.

There are double parked beer and soda trucks that unload in designated bicycle lanes, people who careless open their doors into traffic and "door" bicyclists, sewer grates in bike lanes than can snare a bicycle wheel, ignorant and oblivious car drivers yakking on cell phones inside of SUVs with deeply tinted windows, (for that SF Fog????) and trolley buses and street cars, as well as careless pedestrians and red light runners galore.

The cyclists can be just as bad, I havebeen mowed down and hurt by cyclists speeding on the sidewalk, seen countless bicycles zoom full speed through red lights, or go the wrong way on a one way street, curse, kick, hit and spit on stopped cars at which they have taken offense, perform endless figure eights in the middle of intersections so they won't have to put their foot down and stop, and disrupt traffic as a matter of course.

I knew someone who was killed when a garbage truck ran over her bike in the Mission District, and near work a young guy pulled out directly in front of a Muni bus and got killed.

Mostly I walked or rode the bus. 95% of all of San Francisco is within
2 blocks of public transportation. It works, not all the time well, but it works.

When Critical Mass got started, it was fun to watch the first couple of times.
Worth a trip to see it, even. Not anymore. There are some very angry and combative riders amongst them now. Real lawbreakers, actually all of them are, because traffic laws aren't obeyed at all, but some real mean people.

I would make an effort to stay away, and support one to shut it down by the Police, now. It's a recipe for chaos and trouble now.

[Kuan]

I haven't been to a mass ride in 10 years. It used to be kinda cool. Actually the beer runs were much better.

All they need is to run into some guy in farm country here minding his own business, or go do a mass ride in Richmond. There's a reason people don't picket in Richmond, or Compton, or Chitown's westside, or Hong Kong for that matter.

Morons. They'll grow out of it.

[iwrock]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uhP3weBUkk&NR=1



Hahhaa. Wow. Look at the news coverage.

[Hammertime]

Originally Posted by Dubyagee

Beatniks with a "cause".


They have a right to the road but they should have obeyed the traffic lights. They are lucky the guy in the van didn't panic and floor it.

Agreed, what they need is a few beatnicks that need a cause to mow down 50-60 of these idiots with a few 24' U-haul vans and send them back to the parks where they belong...idiots

[Medmech]

I remember a few mass rides but I have/had no idea what the cause was other than consuming Bloodymary's and beer.

The video that the guy took is comical and it does look staged which the police did allude to. It reminds me of my favorite South Park episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4URnLAzncA

[TheDon]

damn hippies...

[Hatterasguy]

Whats wrong with running over hippies??


I don't know how it started, but what I see on the video is an older couple with their van surronded by a crowed. Looks like the driver got a little nervious and started to inch forward in an attempt to get away from them. But the crowed wouldn't part and let them leave.

They are lucky he didn't floor it, if my car was surronded by a crowed that was hitting it, and then broke a window I'd gun it and get the heck out of their. Whoever is in front well sucks to be them.

[ASaltyDog]

Yea, we're going out there on Jun 8. Gonna get pretty liquored up with some cheap tequila, then drive in front of them with my old smoky Cherokee where I've mixed pepper-spray in the oil. It's got like 3 good cyls so it should make it.

I'll toss out handfuls of nails, and when they get in sight in the rear view mirror, I'll dump the 150gal tank of used oil on the road. Don't ya just love little liberal weenies?

Word was AlGore's bicycle had collapsed and bent in half way back near the coffee house so he took a limo

[Medmech]

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

Whats wrong with running over hippies??

If there is a law against that, lock me up! I thought hippie season was year round.