Petty, Vindictive Bastards

Not content to merely trample protesters' First Amendment rights during the RNC, New York City law enforcement agencies, likely goaded on by Republican Mayor Bloomberg (whose strings were probably being pulled by the national Republican machinery) also felt it necessary to confiscate protesters' bicycles. Over 300 of them. Some of them were of innocent bystanders. Some of them were apparently legally chained up and not in use.

The matter of the seized bicycles has been a little-noticed footnote to the ongoing legal disputes over mass arrests during the demonstrations, with complaints that innocent people were swept up in them and many were detained for long periods in violation of court orders.

[snip]

To retrieve a bicycle, the owner must present the property voucher, given at the time of arrest, at the district attorney's office and obtain a release form to show to the property clerk in Brooklyn. Bicycles played a significant role during the Republicans' visit. On Aug. 27, the Friday before the convention, about 5,000 bicyclists shouting "No more Bush!" hurtled past Madison Square Garden. Later that night, more than 250 of them were arrested after a protest ride that ended in the East Village. Many of the arrests were made outside St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery Church on Second Avenue, and most were on charges of disorderly conduct or obstructing traffic. Many bicyclists said they were arrested even though they had broken no traffic laws.