Bike Party = Unlawful Assembly

Please read my update that kinda sorta apologizes for this sensationalist blog post.

I was at my usual place near the Bike Party start Friday night with my camera shooting shady troublemakers like these.


San Jose Bike Party No Pants Ride July 2013

Normally, one or two motorcycle police might accompany bike party. I shoulda figured something was going down when I saw a dozen motorcycle cops from three different agencies cruising down Stevens Creek Boulevard. Around midnight, the Santa Clara Sheriff Department declared an unlawful assembly at one of the regroup sites and dispatched a helicopter ordering the unruly mob to disperse.


San Jose Bike Party No Pants Ride July 2013

You can view my entire set of nearly 400 photos over at Flickr over here, or you can view them as a slideshow here. I see now that it’s taking forever for Flickr to load that set of photos, so I’ll probably make the slideshow into a YouTube video later this weekend.

Thanks for looking!

7 Comments

  1. The bike party crowd was hardly an “unruly mob”… I’m not sure if that was sarcasm on your part, but the crowd was super chill, and as soon as the helicopter started making the announcement, people started leaving as ordered. as your photos show, there were plenty of kids and other people just out for a nice night, not looking for trouble and definitely not looking to be treated like criminals.

    It was completely ridiculous for the police to waste money on a helicopter, and the constitutionality of declaring an unlawful assembly when there was no threat of violence is dubious at best.

  2. I think they were, perhaps, practicing and trying to establish this as an acceptable extension of their authority. I wonder what the communication chain was that inspired that level of response.

  3. Jym, I suspect you are right 🙂

    xiousgonz, I’m very curios as well.. a variety of options including (as more of a last resort) a FOIA request to see emails relating to Bike Party had crossed my mind

  4. You were a crazy camera man, Richard. They looked fun all the way. I noticed the man seated his child in front of him, and the other father seated his baby on the optional child seat. I wish they would have ridden their “mama bicycle” 🙂 Thank you.

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