Some CM participants have been emailed by Met police.
Recently some participants in London Critical Mass have been receiving emails from Liaison.team@met.police.uk in which the police have attempted to influence the route of the ride and confer with what they seem to regard as CM organisers. All of which is contrary not only to the Law Lords ruling but is impractical as no one can influence the CM ride in advance of the day and even then attempts to do so on the day cannot be guaranteed. This has been pointed out to the police more than once but they seem to have difficulty in understanding it.
Here is one such email.
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"Dear Sir/Madam
I am a police officer and work at New Scotland Yard and previously attempted to make contact with you re your Critical Mass rides. I am emailing again in the hope that someone may speak with me regarding future cycle rides by Critical Mass so that, jointly, we can work together to avoid the events the 27 July when large numbers of cyclists were arrested.
It was clearly a challenging night for all. It appears that people, not normally involved in the ride, may have taken part and disrupted what is normally a peaceful and lawful event and in the name of Critical Mass. I also know that there is concern from Critical Mass participants that the event will now become 'criminalised'.
There is no intention or want to stop Critical Mass cycling and I firmly believe it would be beneficial if we could speak together to talk about future rides so there is dialogue and understanding about what you do and how and also about what the MPS is trying to achieve.
I would be grateful if someone could contact me as we do want to work with you on future planned rides.
Kind regards..."
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This is the Law Lords Judgement...
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldjudgmt/jd081126/metro-1.htm
and pay special attention to 'section 11 of the Public Order Act 1986'.
Original article on IMC London:
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