Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Bicycle Safety

NYPD Has Spent $1.32M to Suppress a Monthly Bike Ride

4:36 PM EST on November 16, 2006

xup_rally.jpg
Charles Komanoff, flanked by Marquez Claxton and Norman Siegel, at City Hall this morning.

Time's Up took its campaign for safe bicycling into the economic arena this morning with release of a report documenting the Bloomberg administration's squandering of New Yorkers' tax dollars in suppressing the Critical Mass bike rides.

With the City Hall steps as backdrop, the grassroots environmental group released a report I helped prepare, estimating that police and other agencies spent $1,320,000 harassing and arresting Critical Mass riders from September 2004 through August 2006.

This figure comprises:

    • $1,000,000 spent by the NYPD policing the rides and processing arrestees (calculated by prorating officer's salaries and costs of scooters, police transport vehicles, helicopters and other equipment for the hours deployed)
    • $150,000 spent by the Manhattan District Attorney's office charging arrestees and trying cases
    • $170,000 spent by the NYC Law Dept. bringing and settling lawsuits against Critical Mass (the "Bray" and "Time's Up" cases)

During the same two-year period the city spent less than $700,000 planning, engineering, and installing bike lanes in the five boroughs. Thus, over the past two years New York City spent twice as much suppressing two dozen bicycle rides as it spent creating a safe bicycling infrastructure that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers could be using every day.

At the City Hall event, Marquez Claxton, who does public relations and political affairs for 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, called the NYPD's suppression of Critical Mass a "personal campaign" by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. "When you see such illogical allocation of police resources," Claxton said, "you have to conclude that the impetus is personal vindictiveness rather than dispassionate analysis."

Noted civil rights attorney Norman Siegel called on NYC Comptroller William Thompson to verify the dollar estimates in the Time's Up report. "Auditing use of tax dollars is your job as comptroller," Siegel said. If you're serious about running for mayor in 2009, the people of New York City will see to it that this is an issue you can't duck."

Another speaker, Mark Taylor of Assemble for Rights, urged New Yorkers to speak out against the NYPD's proposed parade-permit rules at a November 27 public hearing. Letting the police write the law in addition to enforcing the law is something that happens in a police state, Taylor warned.

For more information on this issue, here is my 2004 report (PDF file) documenting the trivial traffic impacts of Critical Mass rides on New York City traffic congestion and mobility.

Photo: Fred Askew

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Talking Headways Podcast: Local Culture and Development

We chat with Tim Sprague from Phoenix about supporting local culture through development projects and the importance of sustainable development and transportation.

September 21, 2023

How and Why to Start a Walking School Bus

Any caregiver for a kid in institutionalized education is familiar with the challenge of getting them where they’re going safely, on time, every single day, well before your own day’s assignments come into play. Here's how a walking school bus could help.

September 21, 2023

Thursday’s Headlines Have a New Pattern

Working from home may have killed the commute, but people are taking more frequent, shorter trips instead. Whether this adds up to less or more driving overall depends on the city.

September 21, 2023

New Calif. Slow Streets Offer a Sampler Platter of Quick-Build Safety Strategies

The city has a sampler platter of quick-build temporary traffic calming installations to experience for the rest of the year.

September 20, 2023

Wednesday’s Headlines Go Carless

A Washington state advocacy group for the disabled is challenging everyone to give up driving for the week of Oct. 2 to find out how hard it is to get around in most parts of the U.S.

September 20, 2023
See all posts