This month’s London Critical Mass passed off without serious problems after a court ruling which makes the organising of The Mass is illegal. For the police, who have brought the court, action it must be almost impossible to understand how there could be such an event without there being organisers.

Psychologically and sociologically the police, as a body, and as individuals, are geared up to give and take orders, they are organised hierarchically, it is therefore easy to see why Critical Mass should be difficult for them to understand. The judiciary likewise are perhaps dumbfounded by phenomenon of The Mass.

I spoke to the officer in charge of policing the mass and he seemed to confirm this misconception. He told me that the Mass itself was not illegal, but the organising of it was. He mentioned that people at the front of the mass who could be taking instructions on a mobile phone could be organising. Also that a website connected with The Mass was an indication of organisation, and inferred that they may be looking for a website moderator.

This is a fascinating is a situation in which the encroaching power of the state to monitor and control is somehow being challenged by an organic and disorganised phenomena. I personally have taken part in many Masses and, for the police who monitor Indymedia, can confirm that it is indeed unorganised. The mass is difficult to quantify. It is not one thing. It is many things, it is a bunch individuals, but they, as individuals, also act as a “mass” or, on “mass”, but that is only because they are a mass. In other words the phenomena of The Mass is somehow a contradiction.