2007-10-26 9th Annual Halloween CM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:   Judy Ross – 917.405.1544
                    Barbara Ross – 917.494.8164

9th ANNUAL HALLOWEEN CRITICAL MASS RIDES TONIGHT
Pressure is mounting on Christine Quinn to oppose the NYPD’s anti-assembly regulations that target Critical Mass and other public events.

Friday, October 26, 2007 at 7:00 PM Ride Participants meet at Union Square Park North

(Excellent visuals and interviews available at Union Square and after the ride at Time’s Up! Halloween party at 49 East Houston Street, between Mott & Mulberry)

New York, NY (October 26, 2007) – Friday, October 26th, bicyclists, dressed in a wide variety of colorful and festive costumes, will participate in the 9th Annual Halloween Critical Mass. New parade permit rules, promulgated by the NYPD on January 26, 2007, state that 50 or more people cannot proceed through the streets of New York—even if they are in compliance with all traffic laws—without obtaining prior permission from the police. Despite these new rules targeting the Critical Mass, participants continue to meet and ride together the last Friday of every month.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has come under fire for her support of the parade permit rules. One group, the Radical Homosexual Agenda, staged a “Parade Without A Permit” last month to demand that Quinn repudiate these rules and conduct open hearings on how assembly can best be facilitated.

Last week, the New York City Bar Association published a letter they sent to Christine Quinn refuting her assertion in a New York Blade editorial that she is powerless to change any flaws with the new parade regulations.

According to Peter Barbur, Chairman of the Civil Rights Committee for the NYC Bar Association, “Contrary to what Speaker Quinn has suggested, the City Council is fully empowered to amend the Administrative Code to establish a clear definition of “parade” and clear guidelines to be followed by the Police Department in issuing parade permits.”

Halloween Critical Mass 2003 in Times Square – Photo by Michael Zaidman

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