Katie may be more afraid of bicyclists than Muslims. Hard to believe, boys and girls, especially since the majority of bicyclists, at least in the Twin Cities, aren't brown. Katie's latest column is the second one on in a row about the pitiless abuse of minivans and SUVs and their suburban occupants by a mob—a mob, Katie swears—of bicyclists!
Critical Mass, the loosely organized bicycle group that ties up rush-hour traffic once a month in Minneapolis, has demonstrated who rules our streets. But Minneapolis isn't the only place where the Mass mob has strong-armed the police and City Hall, and left outraged motorists fuming but impotent.
Today, Critical Mass cyclists cow commuters in more than 300 cities, from Denver to Rio de Janeiro, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The ride got its start in San Francisco (where else?) in 1992 with about 50 cyclists. Authorities there looked the other way as riders ran red lights and snarled traffic. Soon, the event was drawing hundreds, even thousands, of riders.
And therein lies a cautionary tale for Minneapolis.
We know, of course, that anything that started in San Francisco can't possibly be good.
Katie has dropped a couple of broad hints about what she thinks that the Minneapolis police should do:
Today, ugly confrontations are a fact of life in the City by the Bay, and traffic is a bad trip on the last Friday of the month. Cyclists sometimes scratch or beat on cars, taunt or spit at motorists, and come close to running down pedestrians.
[ . . . ]
How did San Francisco get into this state of anarchy?
The city ran up the white flag 10 years ago, after a pitched battle in July 1997 set a pattern of capitulation.
Katie, of course, is made of sterner stuff. She would not hesitate to crack some heads in the name of a quicker commute! Spot thinks that Katie's real problem is that she is afraid that the local constabulary isn't going to be sufficiently tyrannical during the Republican National Convention next summer, perhaps inconveniencing some of her buds.
Meanwhile, Avidor sent Spot a great parody of Katie's last column on the bicycling mobsters.
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