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<DIV><I>Intro note:</I> 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.<BR><BR><BR>From SchNews, 30th June
2006<BR><BR>CRANK IT UP<BR><BR>This week London Critical Mass cyclists won a
high court decision against<BR>the Metropolitan Police over the legality of the
peddle-powered<BR>demonstrations. This comes after police handed leaflets to
cyclists at a<BR>Critical Mass last September claiming that they were unlawful
because under<BR>the Public Order Act the organisers were required to give six
days notice of<BR>the date and proposed route, plus their names and addresses.
However Lord<BR>Justice Sedley and Mr Justice Gray ruled that police were
misinterpreting<BR>the law, and that no advanced notice was required because
Critical Mass was<BR>not a 'notifiable procession' under the POA. So Critical
Mass will continue<BR>in London, with the regular rides meeting 6pm on the last
Friday of every<BR>month under Waterloo Bridge.<BR><BR>* Critical Mass are held
in cities all round the world - typically on the<BR>last Friday of every month -
reclaiming urban space from cars and asserting<BR>cyclists' right to use roads.
Check out if there's one near you at<BR><BR><A
href="http://www.critical-mass.info/"
eudora="autourl">www.critical-mass.info<BR><BR><BR></A><BR><BR><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>