At the beginning of the ride, a large number of people walked their bicycles west on the north side of 17th street north of Union Square. I followed, somewhat behind, walking my bike too. The crowd stopped moving at one point. A little bit later, I turned around to move away and was told that I could not leave by an officer, who had something written across her chest. I asked her if I was under arrest and why I could not leave. She asked if I was with "the group" implying that I could leave if I was not. Another officer asked me if I was stopped, and I mentioned that I was by the above-mentioned officer. He said "good enough" and asked for my ID. He later came back and asked if I was riding on the sidewalk, and I asserted that I was not. He looked at my bicycle and asked me to ring my bell. When I could not he began to write me a ticket for a broken bell. When he came back with the ticket I told him that there was no law against walking a bicycle with a broken bell on the sidewalk. He said "tell it to the judge." A bunch of people ticketed around me had received tickets for no having functional headlight while they also were only walking their bicycles on the sidewalk. There is no law forbidding walking a bicycle on the sidewalk without functional headlights. We were held for a long enough time that we lost the Critical Mass bicycle ride and were way too late to participate in the performance at the pool in Brooklyn.

The next day I installed another bell and went to the precinct on the ticket. They said that I had to go to the Task Force at 138 W. 30th St., between 6th and 7th Aves. They said that if it were a car they could resolve it there. According to the form at the Task Force place, which turned out to be the Traffic place, it said that repairs had to be made by sundown Saturday though it sounded like they might take repairs later than then. I sent in the form, so my charge should be dismissed. I also filed with a CCRB complaint against whoever gave the order to ticket people walking their bikes on the sidewalk.

UPDATE:
The DMV sent back my forms saying that they were not authorized to dismiss my case by mail. The CCRB wrote me and said they did not have jurisdiction and referred my case to the OCD (Office of the Chief of the Department of the NYPD).

UPDATE 2:
I went to the TVB on Rector St. They sent me to see a judge in room one. The first judge, C. D'Albis, wouldn't dismiss it because he said that the law applying motor vehicle laws to bicycles didn't apply rights, only responsibilities, and I didn't have copy of the law ready so that I could argue otherwise. I went back on another day and saw a different judge who dismissed the ticket promptly, without any need to argue.

Regarding my complaint, I was eventually left repeated messages and a certified letter from an officer claiming to be from the Traffic department but seeming to leave a different name in one of his calls. He was calling with Caller ID blocked. The contact number he left though was the public number for the Traffic department. In his last message he sounded upset that I wasn't returning his calls. Even if he was from Traffic, I don't see how they could do anything against whoever gave the wrong order, presumably a white-shirt; since they're made to participate in the whole bogus chasing of CM.

I asked a scooter officer to please move out of the crosswalk as he was blocking pedestrian traffic. He moved and I thanked him for moving. Unfortunately he pulled up alongside, inspected my bike and found that I did not have my front headlight on my bicycle at that moment. The light mount was on the handlebars and I do own a light but it was not on at the time. Unsympathetically he instructed a second officer to write me a ticket. The second officer however incorrectly wrote his badge number on the ticket and admitted to writing it down incorrectly.

Update:
I went to court today and the second officer, that wrote the ticket, showed up. here is the two second rundown.
-We both approached the bench
-Introduced ourselves to the judge
-Judge asked the cop the describe the situation
-The officer said (not a direct quote but close enough
I was working the critical mass demonstration when I was asked by a supervisor to write a ticket to the cyclist
-The judge immediately stopped the officer and stated that because he did not witness the action the ticket was not legal and was dismissed. The officer said OK and that was it.
My case was dismissed in about 45 seconds. I arrived at the courthouse at 12:55 and left about 1:05, quick and easy.

Was in NYC visiting a friend. Was riding a borrowed bike. Battery in front light died while I was riding. Officer was very friendly - he did not want to be writing bike tickets that night, but there was some sort of supervisor/superior there, so he could not let me go. He encouraged me to contest the ticket.

two cops on scooters boxed me in while in the flow of trafic. one one the left one in front of me. they told me to stop. i said no i have the same rights to use the road as any other vechicle, and had not broken any laws. the cop on the left swerved right actually hitting my front wheel of my bike causing me to almost... lose control of my bike and crash. i was able to stop. the cop on the left then asked me for id. i asked "why?", he said "give me you id or we are going to arest you." i videoed the rest. i used a recyclable video camera. i'll post word for word what was said when i get the video back from the store.

diaz (badge # 8006) tries to give me four tickets. i inform him that zielenski has to be the one signing the tickets, and he walks away. he eventually comes back with one ticket which he has signed himself, which he does not hand to me but drops at my feet. what a waste of precious resources.

i was given a ticket for riding critical mass
one cop pulls me over tells another one
to give me a ticket
and we sat there and tried to come up
with what the ticket was going to be for
because he couldnt find the original one in
the little book.

It's totally bogus, but will cost me more to fight it
then pay it i think im going to fight it anyway,
i would like to do thiss in mass as well if anyone
is already doing this or knows how.

was near front of group of approximately twenty to thirty cyclists who had all stopped for a red light while proceeding south on 3rd ave. As the light changed to green and all began moving south again police on scooters darted in front of group from the left, apparently attempting to blockade the intersection. The scooters first blocked the right lane, which I was in, and as I began to move left to avoid them (and also avoid cyclists stopping and turning abruptly in front of me) my progress was quicky stopped as well. An officer on a scooter appeared moments later on my left and grabbed my arm. I said, "What's wrong? I'm legal, I've got lights and a horn and I stopped for the light." He said "don't argue"
and I was instructed to move to the side of the roadway.
He actually apologized a half dozen times while writing the ticket, was quite friendly, and made it very clear he was following orders with which he did not agree. He had to refer a couple times to a printed sheet of paper that appeared to list violations to be used against cyclists.

We were walking our bikes down the sidewalk, looking for a way to get through the police barricades, then I stopped and was just looking around (standing up next to bike). A Lieutenant points his finger at me and yells for my driver's license. He said I didn't have a REAR light, which was true, but I was not riding at the time. Just standing there. Then he passes me off to a subordinate officer who never saw a thing and she writes me the ticket for the FRONT light (which didn't exist either) not being on at all times. I went to four different precincts the next day (with new lights on the bike) and none of them had any clue what my violation number even meant. Never heard of it before. I'm convinced the lieutenant made up the phantom violation, knowing I couldn't get it dropped with a replacement light (it's not an 'equipment violation') and passed it off to the other officer so he wouldn't have to face me in court and tell the truth about how it happened.

ok this ticket was a farse. Firstly I didnt run it. the light was green. I tried talking to the cop about his magic eyesight but he just told me to fight it in court. When I crossed the intersection there were a group of bikes who had already crossed. The captain in charge told a group of vans (there were about 5-7 police vehicles already parked there) to go after the group and ticket them. telling the police vehicles over thier loudspeaker that they had run the light. at this point I made a U turn. At this point no cop followed me because I was far behind this group that was followed. I went back across the intersection and waited a few minutes. I then crossed again but to my surprise you still had trigger happy cops stopping every biker in sight. regardless of weather they were in groups or not. why do I say this? well while I was stopped. (riding ALONE mind you) someone else who was passing by on her bike was asked for id and asked to comply with the officers wishes. ????? cmon is this police proceedure? It was senseless. I told them I hadnt run the light and they said fight it in court. they were parked in thier parking spot with vehicles in front of them and in back of them how could they have seen me? This was a gang arrest. clearly they were given an agenda and follow it every ride.

I was riding my bike east on the right side of 17th street, as we approached the intersection three police man and a small electric police cart pulled into the intersection directly in front of me, I veered to the left to avoid hitting them and was promptly pulled over and told I was being written a ticket for "failure to stay right." When I asked what the law was regarding "staying right" when a person wanted to turn left from a one way street to another one way street he just shrugged. While I was waiting I ate an apple and his commanding offficer walked over and "reminded" me it was rude to eat an apple while being ticketed. I went to court in Brooklyn yesterday (oct 26)- the police officer showed up in street clothes, the dialogue went something like this judge: miss durkee do you plead guilty or not guilty? me: not guilty judge: offcier did you write this ticket? officer: yes I did judge: can you explain it to me? officer: no sir, I cannot judge: pause........ well okay , thats not guilty, not guilty, you can get a receipt from miss gonzalez.