Bipedal, By Pedal! #2: Confidential Mad Libs
by Joe Biel
It's the second issue of the Expozine Award Winning Bipedal, By Pedal. Last time around we got a social history and tactics lesson about the Critical Mass bicycle activist movement. For this issue BPBP2 editor-dude Joe Biel collected legal documents pertaining to the Portland Police Department's nefarious, illegal crackdown campaign on the local Critical Mass movement. Obtained by Freedom of Information Requests, Biel shows through once-secret police and court documents that Portland Critical Mass did not in fact die out, it was brutally torn down by the cops in an organized campaign of intimidation and spy work. The Portland Police broke the law and Critical Mass was the causality. Portland is, of course, one of the best North American cities for cycling and Critical Mass is gone. This zine is a rally call for bike activists. Don't let this happen in your hometown! If that isn't interesting enough, the documents are redone as Mad Libs. This is a companion piece to Biel's upcoming documentary, Aftermass: A Post Critical Mass Portland.
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There is a lack of understanding on the part of the Police department about what Critical Mass stands for. It appears the amount of arrests made were excessive considering the minor amount of misdemeanors involved.
A collection of police documents dating from 1993 to 2005 keeping tabs on the Rose City’s burgeoning Critical Mass bike ride, it reveals the cops’ growing paranoia that this parade of scruffy two-wheeled activists would “start a riot that would endanger the lives of families and children.” It’s a hilarious read.
One of a small crop of books on Critical Mass or, more accurately, law enforcement’s overreaction to the cycling group’s occasionally dubious decisionmaking.
Local zine legend Joe Biel, has a knack for making transportation activism interesting, fun, and sometimes funny (he's the guy who made the Martinis in the Bike Lane documentary). Biel's latest zine is an ingenious handling of hundreds of internal police documents about Critical Mass in Portland. He's uncovered police spies that infiltrated Critical Mass meetings, lots of fear and hysteria about crazed bike "anarchists," and more.