On the "C*******M***2" yahoo group, "_Jym_" wrote:

"...what they're doing with our anti-terrorism money."


TF: Bullshit! See the account below of how some of us who are
actually cyclists, want CM shut down badly enough that we're
conducting the the necessary preliminary "Peeping Tomming" _without_
any use of your tax dollars!

- TF


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...Got back to Penn Square (the traffic circle where City Hall is)
at 5:00. At 5:03, when I was on the EB side of it again, I still
didn't see the C***-M***ers. So I walked around Penn Square a couple
times. Then, at 5:15ish (at this point, my memory of the exact times
is becoming vague) (I think it was more like 5:10), I saw about 7
whacko-looking (i.e. young loser-type punks, somewhat distinguishable
as such from the other cyclists I'd been seeing), cyclists loitering
on the sidewalk; I walked past them without saying anything and then
began to loiter at a bench 50' south of them. Other cyclists (one of
whom had a track bike) arrived over the next 20-30 minutes.

Triad violation #1: The crowd of Enemies of Cycling loitered across
the full 6' cleared width of the sidewalk, making the occasional
pedestrians (several of them) grovel to get past and making one
pedestrian walk through a snowbank to another sidewalk to get past
them.

The official number of participants seemed to be 11 (I _might_ have
counted 12 one time, but I'm 75% sure it was 11, throughout the ride)
(_not_ counting me, of course; I was just an observer, figuring I'd
get dropped at the first light) as they started into 15th St. SB at
5:40 or whatever the exact time was that they started.

As I was walking my bike on the sidewalk following them to where they
entered 15th St. (still at least 50' away from them), a typical
pedestrian on the other sidewalk, already semi-associating me with
the C***-M*** whackos (all of whom seemed to be without lights -
Triad violation #2, when they got to the street and started riding),
said, "Get a light for that bike". I was going to switch it on just
to show it to him (although the Triad does not encourage turning it
on when walking), but I wasn't quick enough, and as he continued
walking with his back to me, he must have figured it out anyhow,
because he said, "You don't want to hang with them."

Triad violation #3: They ran the first red light within a quarter of
the way around Penn Square, and continued ignoring red lights
throughout the ride; the only time I saw them stopped at a red light
was when (as far as I could tell from a block or so back) a crosswalk
in front of them was too crowded for them to get through (when they
were going down S.Broad). (Plus, the occasions noted later when a
small percentage of them joined me once or twice in waiting at
lights.)

So anyhow, after they ran the first red light, I started being a
block behind them now and then, due to my waiting at lights. But, due
to their (and the traffic's) slow speed, I caught all the way up to
them several times throughout the ride. So much for my prediction
that they'd lose me at the first light.

So anyhow, they went 1 1/4 times around Penn Square (during which
they started spreading out across as many lanes as possible, i.e.
with no purpose other than to deliberately impede - a practice that
they continued throughout the ride, and they seemed to also be going
slow, for this purpose), and then turned S. on S. Broad.

At one of the times I caught up to them, a little ways down S. Broad,
a motorist, who had just had his green-light right-of-way violated by
the whackos as he was turning right onto S. Broad SB, started using
threats to get past the whackos, one of whom stopped and hollered
insults at him, up to and including, "You're a terrible father" (sic)
(I wanted to join in, but couldn't make up my mind whose side to be
on, so I just waited behind the car, watchful for backup lights,
although no such backing up occurred), and then later, this C***-M***
punk said to the other punks, "Well, he had his kids with him".

After several blocks (during which the insulted motorist gradually
threatened his way forward, and I, per my general procedure
throughout the ride, usually stayed a car or two behind them when I
was caught up to them; I did catch 100% up to them several times
also, but even then I still made a point of not talking to them or
anything, thereby reinforcing my already-established-by-not-running-
red-lights status as an observer only and not a participant -
although I _considered_ introducing myself, per that criteria), they
turned left on South St., went around one block or so of side
streets, and then backtracked N on S. Broad.

A little ways further, there seemed to be a regrouping, and this was
one of the times I got "among" them, and when I turned my light off
to wait, a chick (who was one of the C***-M*** whackos) looked at me
like she'd never seen a bike headlight before.

A couple times, a small percentage of the whackos who saw me stopping
at lights, stopped also as if following my example, but overall, C***-
M*** is a bunch of Enemies of Cycling.

The whole time (except for the shouting match mentioned earlier), I
was never in earshot of any of the ones that were talking, and I
never said a peep. Got to keep my status as "not associated with
them" intact, you see.

And then, a block or two before Penn Square, I finally got behind
them permanantly as a result of my waiting at lights - or maybe the
reason I didn't catch up to them again is because, judging by the
fact that I did catch up to 2 of them on the WB side of Penn Square,
they must have split up in Penn Square, which I assume was the end of
the ride.

Finally alone (i.e. with the pleasure of there now being _no_ chance_
of anybody seeing me and associating me with the bastards), I
proceeded W on JFK Boulevard. Got to 30th St. Station at 6:11, and
did a long loitering there writing these notes.

Observation about the punk who did the "You're a terrible Father"
incident (in which, incidentally, the insults that he shouted
previous to that were "So are you going to run me down?" and "You're
a terrible f*cker"): The punk, like I said, had just run a red light,
and the motorist, who had the green, had thereby been untriadally
delayed by him while turning right (south) onto S. Broad. I,
meanwhile (SB on S. Broad), was waiting at the red light. Then, when
I got the green, I caught up, and _I_was_delayed_ by the incident in
which the punk was blocking the car in front of me (an incident that
the _punk_, i.e. the CMer, had _precipitated_ by committing the
_first_ untriadality, i.e. the untriadality that precipitated the
incident). So, although I didn't fulfill my "Full-Matter Anti-Matter
Ride" pipe dream of getting on a perpendicular street ahead of the
CMers (the method that I'd pipe dreamed of, for proving that they
violate _cyclists'_ green-light right-of-way) (well, I did have
an opportunity to do so during the turn-around at South St. but I
didn't think quick enough), this incident provided an example of how
you don't even have to do that to see an example of how they _delay_
their "fellow" (on second thought, don't count me, when "their" is
included in this context) cyclists.

Another observation: The fact that I was able to keep catching up
with them despite my stopping at red lights (unless you count one
that was on the orange side), proves that they didn't even gain an
iota by running red lights and making a bunch of enemies for
cyclists.

Another observation: During the circling of Penn Square at the
beginning, a cop car, in a position to go after them if he wanted to,
saw the group going north in the circle - without lights, and
occupying as many lanes as possible in violation of traffic
principles - and didn't do anything. This is Letter-to-the-Editor
material...

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