Minneapolis Critical Mass Arrestee Support

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

On August 31st, 2007 hundreds of bicyclists participating in a Critical Mass ride were attacked by the cops.  During the ensuing police riot, bikers and bystanders alike were thrown against vehicles and arrested for simply asking questions.  Bikers were tackled from their bicycles without any order being given for them to stop.  Those who were documenting the event with cameras or other recording devices were singled out and intimidated or arrested. (more…)

The City Attorney’s office is acting as a political tool for the Minneapolis Police Department and the City as it willingly serving their interests at the expense of the residents of Minneapolis. Instead of going after the police who planned and instigated a riot situation on 8.31.07, they are prosecuting the victims of police violence. This was painfully apparent in Gus’ trial, where the only evidence that the city felt that it needed to bring charges against Gus was the clearly fabricated story of a single officer. It was up to Gus and his attorneys to provide the mountain of evidence to prove his innocence. Though officer Craig William’s (#7769) story has been proven to be false by video and eyewitness testimony, it is highly unlikely that the City Attorney will ever prosecute him for perjury. Instead, the city is hell-bent on prosecuting the two remaining riders for crimes they didn’t commit based solely on the intentionally falsified reports of the police officers involved.

Gus had to go through months of worrying, a week of his life was taken away, and he lost thousands of dollars in the legal proceedings. This shouldn’t have to happen to anyone else! The city needs to be pressured to drop the charges against the remaining two riders in the Critical Mass ride.

Demand that charges against all critical mass participants be immediately dropped! The city has politicized the trials of the critical mass participants and won’t let up without citizen action. Here are contacts that you can make right now:

1. Call the City Attorney’s Office at (612) 673-2010 and ask to speak with Susan Segal, the city attorney. Let her know that leveling charges against the critical mass participants for political reasons is wrong and the flimsy charges should be dropped immediately.
2. Call or email your city council member (especially Gordon, Lilligren, Schiff, Glidden, Remington, or Hodges) or the mayor and let them know that you expect them to take a stand against police abuse and demand that they express their disapproval of these prosecutions to the City Attorney. You can also request a meeting with your council member to talk about the cases. The city council has to rehire the City Attorney every three years and has the authority to remove them early if necessary.

The final day of the trial began Monday morning ( 4.14.08 ) with the judge deciding that a recording of a police radio transmission earlier in the mass was not admissible as evidence. On the recording, police foreshadow the events to come, saying that they should “get a bus and just arrest all these bastards”. Gus Ganley then took the stand and testified to how it took him completely by surprise to find out that he was being charged with assaulting and fleeing an officer two weeks after the incident happened when he himself was assaulted. (more…)

The trial of Gus Ganley continued on Friday with witnesses for Gus’ defense being called to the stand. Ten different eyewitnesses testified to the series of events around Gus’ arrest and the August Critical Mass as a whole. Unlike the contradictory police accounts, the testimony from the eyewitnesses directly correlated with video and photographs taken at the mass. (more…)

The trial of Gus Ganley began today with opening statements from the lawyers for the city and from Gus’ defense. The prosecution then called their witnesses, all police officers, to the stand to testify as to what they saw seven months ago. (more…)