Overstated, via BoingBoing:

New York has declared war on bicyclists. Last week, participants in the monthly “Critical Mass” ride were dragged from their bikes and arrested, their wheels confiscated (this amid a climate where city lawmakers are proposing to ban “unlicensed” cyclists). The riders who were taken in had been riding in the bicycle lane and not interfering with traffic. Civil rights lawyers got the episode on video and the whole mess will surely end up in court.

Because of the cold, there weren’t that many riders, so the Mass was not quite critical enough. With absolutely no blocking of any traffic the mass took off from Union Square. I made it about 4 blocks before I was swarmed by cops on scooters who grabbed me off my bike and put me in handcuffs. Let me make one point particularly clear: I WAS RIDING IN THE BIKE LANE at the time of my arrest. The mass was small so we it wasn’t taking up the whole road and everyone was riding off to the side. Not that it mattered. A small woman who was riding behind me was forcibly pulled from her bike and thrown to the ground with a knee in the back of her neck.