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news
Police car hits cyclist.pngVIDEO: Moment police car hits cyclist at London Critical Mass
A video shows the moment a police car collided with a cyclist in central London, destroying his bike and driving off during a protest ride on Friday night.
The BMW X5 driven by officers hits the cyclist, dragging another rider’s bike under the wheels, before speeding away in a move Scotland Yard said was defensive.
The incident happened on the corner of Vauxhall Bridge Road and Millbank at around 9pm during a regular Critical Mass protest ride about infrastructure and cyclist safety in the capital.
Police say they were “targeted by demonstrators” and riding over the bike was the only way to avoid a ‘deliberate obstruction’.
IT consultant John, 25, who did not want to give his last name, told the Evening Standard: “I can imagine the police line is that they felt threatened, but frankly they’re armed police officers – do a bunch of cyclists pose a threat to them?
“Was it necessary to run over this kid’s bike? The police were trying to push people out of their way with the car.
“I think it’s entirely fair to call it a hit and run. The police were involved in an accident, they completely crushed a bike, and then they ran away.”
The witness said it was not the only example of police brutality at the event, with an earlier incident in which a man was ‘wrestled’ off his moving bike and dragged across the road.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “At approximately 9.10pm on April 29, police became aware of a demonstration involving a number of cyclists at Vauxhall Bridge.
“During this a police vehicle was targeted by demonstrators. As it tried to drive away, the vehicle ran over a cycle that was left in the road as an obstruction.
“No one was injured.”
Back in 2013 we reported how a series of hit and run incidents was reported by cyclists attending a Critical Mass ride in London.
Road.cc was made aware of a number of eyewitness accounts and videos of disturbing events including at least one female rider ‘run over like a speed bump’.
The cameraman wrote on YouTube: “Unfortunately my video doesn't capture what happened just before. But from what I saw and what I pieced together, the driver of this BMW pushed forwards into someone holding traffic at the junction in the background, they went over onto the hood of the car, their bike went under the wheels.
“He seemed to walk away from that without being hurt. Car then accelerated through and was aggressively weaving though and past other cyclists and then that's when the video picks up. He clips the cyclist next to me, who then falls backwards onto me. “The details then get sketchy here, but another silver car (astra maybe?) also accelerates across the junction further up the road and literally runs over a female cyclist, she was then taken to hospital to check her over.
"It looked like the car had driven over her leg. “Then while everyone is recovering from this and we're talking to the Police a 243 bus then knocks another cyclist over. No details on that one though.”
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26 comments
I went on a criticalmass ride - once, never again.
I enjoy my cycling - but really didn't want to associate with the high volue of aggressive people attending the run, purporting to be cyclists and generaly being aggressize to drivers.
One person (for want of a better word) riding a Moulton had hung a rectangle made of angle iron around it, loosely on strings. Which made it unstable, to say the least. And deliberatley encroached on the vehicles which were passing him - and the rest of us - with plenty of room. He nearly knocked me flying!
I can't excuse the driver of the police vehicle, but under the circumstances and given the current situation with various rather nasty organisations, I understand the position he was put in, I really do. The video soundtrack reminded me of a baying mob.
Trouble-making moron places bike underneath front wheels of police car, is outraged when said police car slowly rolls over it, injuring nobody.
Typical behaviour of the modern anarchist* protest movement: go out in a big group, intimidating others and thinking you're hard as nails, find the trouble you're looking for, then go crying to YouTube when the other party responds aggressively.
Nothing to see here.
* They're not really anarchists - when you get talking to them, it usually transpires that they are Marxists.
As you can imagine i have very little sympathy for the man on the bike, not a cyclist imho but thats for another debate, not this one, but likewise the Met need to sort out their press releases etc as their responce to this isn't much better than the riders actions.
Not sure I would attend a critical mass after watching that.
Why would the guy wedge the bike under the X5 and is then shocked by the Police driving over it?
The Police should have arrested the guy, but they should not have driven forward like a hit abs run.
As a motorbike rider it was pretty intimidating and scary meeting a Critical Mass convoy head-on at Regents Park Outer Circle recently. Cyclists riding at speed, in darkness, on the wrong side of the road and to hell with anyone else coming in the other direction. Critical Mass turbators?
A good review by 'Silver Control' of CM Policing tactics circa 2003-2005:
'facilitating lawful protest' - @MetCycleCops replaced motorbike patrols.
http://www.met.police.uk/foi/pdfs/disclosure_2013/may_2013/2012030003079...
Haters complained they were 'facilitating unlawful protest'!
There's no reason to believe there aren't plain-clothes police mingling with CM.
And perhaps people considering mischief!
It is likely to be better all round if the police regard it as 'reasonably legal' !
They don't need advance notice for rolling roadblocks ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmZ7hhREZhI
(Not suggesting an armed escort here!)
Not sure about 'CM wants to be as wide and long as possible':
In other cities, it tries to be as compact as possible! One lane.
Trying to stay as a dense unit, avoiding getting split up. Solidarity.
Maybe 2 groups if >200 ?
"Officers ... intervene early ... should discourse occur between participants and members of the public"
Trying to neutralise the effectiveness of the protest by silencing the message?
Or does 'discourse' really mean 'disorder'!
Public Order Act 1986 Section 12 is 'Processions'.
If they stop or circulate as 'impromptu street party' Section 14 is 'Asssemblies'.
Police action causing the procession to halt was felt to be harmful.
http://www.met.police.uk/foi/pdfs/disclosure_2015/june_2015/201503000156...
includes a card showing the warnings, advice, understandings and persistent disobedience needed for (mass) arrest.
Nudging people out of the way with a vehicle is not covered: but it seems the X5 was 'accidentally delayed' by CM - it was travelling to another incident, not meant to be involved in policing CM at all. Poor real-time intelligence.
There was another unrelated 'youth' event on Sat 23rd April 2016 - flash-mob ?
https://twitter.com/AllyAsh/status/723871549711892480
http://www.mobypicture.com/user/AllyAsh/view/19061865
Other dates/times are likely to be less legal - not a 'customary procession'.
MayDay, F-Parade, G8 etc.
Ultimately, no-one comes out of this looking good.
CM can be good in principle, but can't we find better ways to further 'the cause'?
The thoughtful analysis and commentary that EricD points out at
https://youtu.be/JawXGwVYDOI - gives a very coherent view of what happened based on the best available evidence. (I disagree that the 'petulant kick' was a kick - I think the bike rider was thumping the car bonnet).
there will almost certainly be video from inside the car - and I think we can be sure that it will never get into the public domain.
Until one of the participants makes a complaint to the IPCC this will go unresolved, and be the subject of opinion and bad feelings.
For my part - among all police forces in the UK, I have an unhealthy mistrust of the Metropolitan Police, and this appears to validate my opinion that they are aggressive and not working in the interests of the public; on the other hand this collection of bottle swilling youngsters appear to represent nothing more than a bunch of louts out for trouble.
No, not in my name either.
Critical mass is a bunch of bellends out for trouble not for any form of organised protest.
Nope sorry, not in my name. This is not helping and is not winning us friends.
Also just watched a youtube video of a [peaceful] critical mass ride where the cyclists were just ignoring pedestrians crossing on a pedestrian crossing. Please don't, you are supposed to stop.
I did wonder if the Boardman bike that was shoved under the police car actually belonged to the guy who shoved it ...?
"Customary procession" is a house of lords ruling - not just a claim
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldjudgmt/jd081126/metr...
There's an analysis and slo-mo
https://youtu.be/JawXGwVYDOI
driver hits a bike and person at very low speed
lad lays bike in front of car which is still moving
There was a time when @metcyclecops would help 'corking', IIRC
http://road.cc/content/news/89451-hit-and-runs-reported-london-critical-...
http://road.cc/content/news/172149-video-driver-runs-over-cyclists-bike-...
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2013/mar/18/police-acti...
http://road.cc/content/news/76967-trial-opens-nine-cyclists-arrested-cri...
http://road.cc/content/news/78316-guilty-verdicts-five-critical-mass-par...
https://justicecm9.wordpress.com/
Well put. Most folk ride the mass for fun and to show for 2 hours once a month the power of bikes. Normally all emergency service vehicles, if sirened-up, are let through. The mass can move out of the way far quicker than cars.
Anyhow, CM is an open, non led event; as such you get a cross section of folk, annoyingly at the moment CM is attracting some trouble makers, and it's only a small %, who are ruining the usual casual vibe.
I don't think CM has ever represented much other than some cyclists asserting their rights to be safe in cities. Personally, i have had many wonderful rides on CM, I've ridden a few shit ones due to trouble like this and bad routes but i have never riden amongst a friendlier group, nor had so many passersby wave at us. It is what it is and that isn't everyones cup of tea.
Looks more like anarchy to me. Critical Mass probably get what they deserve the way that some of these " cyclists " ride and act. We all want safer roads and better cycling infrastructure but blatant provercation is not the way forward.
That looked more like a riot than a procession to me. Whoever those thugs are, they don't speak for me.
Good to know that official police position is jumping red lights = defensive driving.
The final video .....why did you run over my bike?
beacause you kicked it under my front bumper?
If you did that to me I would run over your bike.
may I also say if you were involved, you didn't achieve critical mass, and we're asking for trouble. If you manage enough mass, roll through, if you don't, try again next month, this guff does cyclists no favours.
i would have thought it more appropriate for the cops to use sirens and blue lights as a warning rather than physical force to make their way forward, bear in mind this is a security sensitive area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NrWL7kGdVI&feature=youtu.be&t=33s
Another angle. Looks like police was right.
Thanks for posting. Looks like the cop did act defensive, and driving off was justifiable as he goes to safety to await backup.
These weren't cyclists protesting, they were thugs smashing up a police car.
I note the way the police are incorrectly calling critical mass a demonstration. In fact it is a procession.
And they "became aware of it" even though it happens every month... Hardly impromptu.
Yeah, that's always been the claim. A protest of course requires advanced notification with the Police. The problem is that an informal gathering of cyclists, who just decide to ride with one another every last Friday of the month, have no permission to cork traffic or ignore signals to maintain such a large group.
Part of me quite admires the idea of the movement, but not the amateur marshalling, corking and the number who get pissed during the ride (look for the beer bottles, including one being thrown). Even John Lydon hates anarchy.
It looks like the Police handled that incredibly badly, and I'm very unhappy with what happened. The group was too large for them to handle without support, and the force they used could easily have resulted in serious injury. But even if the Police admit failings, their most likely response will probably be to have a greater presence in the future.
Police in an X5 being targeted (if that was really happening) because they're in a huge stupid SUV which is totally inappropriate for an urban environment rather than because they're police, I would have thought. Sets an interesting precedent: allowed to knock someone off and drive over someone else then speed away, because they in their tonne of high performance SUV felt threatened by a hipster on a bike...
Maybe it's not needed for the school run - but for the Police it makes perfect sense as a patrol car. They'd struggle getting all their kit into a Mini.
An estate car would have more room inside and also be able to respond quicker to an emergency situation. The trouble with SUVs from an engineering perspective is that they have a high floor pan because of the 4x4 drive. This means they have a raised CoG and therefore don't handle as well as an ordinary car. The raised floor also means they have less room inside.
The police jumped the red lights. They weren't responding to an emergency so broke the law in doing so.
Critical Mass ...... The usual, go looking for trouble and cry when it finds you stance. #zerofucksgiven
The IPCC need to be involved in the cover up to make it official.
I'm not a fan of criticalmass (I appreciate the centiment but just not the way they go about it) but the police are paid and trained professionals and they should act that way.