City Update: Critical Mass Attack
Both of the Critical Mass bikers who were arrested on Friday afternoon are out of jail now. The biker who was reportedly chased down and attacked by the K.C. deuputies got out on Friday night. Pending charge: possession of alcohol by a minor. This is Jace, the biker who tried to halt traffic as the Critical Mass pack approached an intersection in Belltown. He evidently halted the wrong car: a van occupied by some pretty angry plainclothes K.C. deputies. According to witnesses, the plain clothes officers rushed out and didn’t i.d. themselves before knocking Jace to the ground. Jace is 18 and the officers subsequently found beers in his backpack.
The other Critical Mass biker, Zack, a 30-year-old U.W. grad student who rushed to help (thinking Jace was being attacked by some amped up dudes), is facing a more serious charge: assualting an officer. The officers apparently identified themselves in the middle of the scuffle. Zack was released on $3000 bail on Saturday evening. (A bondsman covered the fine, so Critical Mass only had to pay $300.) He had a five-minute hearing yesterday at K.C. court.
Zack has an attorney now. Witnesses are dropping off signed statements at Wright Brothers bike shop in Fremont in advance of Zack’s meeting this afternoon with the lawyer.
Zack’s girlfriend, Jill, who (whom?) I spoke with this morning, says before they meet the lawyer they’re taking Zack to get checked out by a nurse: “He’s got bruises all over his upper torso from what they did to him.” Jill also reports that after Zack was released last night at around 6:30pm, a crew of Critical Mass bikers, including Jace, headed over to Myrtle Edwards beach to take a break from this whole thing.
Zack’s hearing is this Thursday at the K.C. Courthouse at 2:30.
Thanks for the update. (Who. Jill is the subject, not the object.)