[matilda] Victory for 'critical mass' cyclists vs repressive laws

[Becky]

Intro note: At the Sept 2005 monthly London mass bike ride last year police handed out leaflets threatening to arrest participants the following month if they didn't ask police permission. Cycle activists who attended the Freedom To Protest Conference in London in October 2005 called for mass defiance, and the conference agreed to back the call. A week later 2000 cyclists turned up to defy the police threats! The rides have continued as always ever since, as they have done for over 11 years.


>From SchNews, 30th June 2006

CRANK IT UP

This week London Critical Mass cyclists won a high court decision against
the Metropolitan Police over the legality of the peddle-powered
demonstrations. This comes after police handed leaflets to cyclists at a
Critical Mass last September claiming that they were unlawful because under
the Public Order Act the organisers were required to give six days notice of
the date and proposed route, plus their names and addresses. However Lord
Justice Sedley and Mr Justice Gray ruled that police were misinterpreting
the law, and that no advanced notice was required because Critical Mass was
not a 'notifiable procession' under the POA. So Critical Mass will continue
in London, with the regular rides meeting 6pm on the last Friday of every
month under Waterloo Bridge.

* Critical Mass are held in cities all round the world - typically on the
last Friday of every month - reclaiming urban space from cars and asserting
cyclists' right to use roads. Check out if there's one near you at

www.critical-mass.info





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