Incident

Date	May 30, 2003
Time	06:30 PM
Department	Buffalo Police Department
Officers	Robert R. Johnson , Michael J. Bauer , Daniel P. Horan
Address	Buffalo, NY

Incident Description

CW: More than two dozen Buffalo police officers attacked a peaceful group of bicyclists at 6:30 p.m. They kicked some and beat several with clubs and Mag-Lites. They arrested nine of them on the kind of trumped-up felony charges.

Links

Buffalo Cops Wage War on Pedal Pushers
The bicyclists were taking part in a Critical Mass event. Critical Mass is more an idea than an organization. Part of the idea is, get a bunch of bicyclists together and ride around town to alert folks to the virtues of non-fossil-fuel transportation and to make people aware that bicycles aren't an interference with traffic but rather a legal part of traffic. It's all very laid-back and benign. No speechifying or postering the walls. Just a bunch of folks riding in pleasant company around town, letting other folks know that there are transportation possibilities other than cars and SUVs. - Bruce Jackson at Counter Punch
Critical Mass
A great many cyclists had cameras with them. Mike Niman started taking pictures of the apparent overreaction of the officers. Two or three other people began taking photos also as a second police car was arriving on the scene. There was a tall black cyclist with very long dreadlocks taking photos and for no reason we could understand the police grabbed him and handcuffed him and started putting him in a police car. - Green Earth Al
NINE PEOPLE FACE FELONY CHARGES, CYCLISTS SAY POLICE WERE THE INSTIGATORS
The group includes two professors -- one who teaches journalism at Buffalo State College, the other an ethics teacher at Canisius College. Two are former school spelling bee champions. One is a woman with two children who stopped her car because she said police were beating a cyclist. - MICHAEL BEEBE AND VANESSA THOMAS of The Buffalo News