Thugs for Cancer

So, on Saturday the 29th I had to work in the afternoon. I leave the house and just 10 seconds before I get to 16th, a trio of motorcycle cops (RCMP) with lights flashing blocks the intersection, and two of them then proceed westward. I look down the road to the east and see a mob of motorcycle cops, bicycles, vans/trucks coming up the hill by Earl Marriott, very slowly I might add. The cop gestures to the east, to ask if I were turning that way. I shake my head, then point west. He does nothing. So I start to turn, and he barks out "NO! YOU'VE GOT TO WAIT!!"

WTF??!! I'm in no danger of mowing down the slow moving peloton, and he and his cronies have to block the road 1/2 mile & more ahead of them. The next intersection over is a main one with traffic lights, the bulk of the time it is green for the direction the thug posse is heading, and when there is cross traffic, the lights change briefly. Now there is a bunch of cross traffic (both ways) wanting to go through their lights but are being blocked. Eastbound traffic which could have proceeded before the lights changed, but are being blocked from going through in the OPPOSITE direction (and obviously the other side of the road) as the thug posse and could not possibly interfere with them, yet these dumb fucks think they to cause disruption before their mass ride gets close to actually "needing" to be escorted.

I could see that these slow-pokes were not arriving any time soon, so I hoofed it to the next intersection (blocked), went the only non-blocked direction, cut through the hospital access road to get past the blocked bit, but now more of the goon troupe has pushed west past my new position so I have to go west on foot on the sidewalk again to the next intersection (also controlled by lights and blocked by cops, well ahead of the cyclepack), turn left again and ride 1 block south, ride 2 to the west, 1 north again, and I get to Johnson & 16th just in time to witness the latest move of thuggery to the big traffic centre to block it off prematurely. Everybody sat for 3 minutes before the 1st wave arrived. More motorcycle cops. A van. A pack of 10 cyclist in matching gear/bikes. A large truck. A car. More motorcycle cops. Then they turn right and head north. What could have been a minor traffic delay became a big snarl because there was nowhere for anybody to go. Now it is true that it was a minor inconvenience (I was in danger of missing my bus until they decided to block 152nd so it couldn't arrive either), but when it needed not be any disruption, nor did it need as much escorting as a visiting Head of State with a risk of assassination.

Plus, what on Earth possessed these morons to call their ride "Cops for Cancer"? Which cancer are they promoting? Lung? Colon? Or just their self righteous attitude that it is OK to shoot unarmed prisoners in the back of the head, whilst in a jail cell, and say that it was in self defence? I say "Cancer for Cops" like these.

On another tack. In the August issue of Momentum Magazine, there is an article by Sheldon Brown along lines I have believed about bike-a-thons. I don't support them because a long distance bike ride is fun, not a "penance" like the bike-a-thon promoters seem to think. Read the article (it is a short one, just takes a minute or two).