SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A San Diego police officer hit in the head with a screwdriver that a Critical Mass bicycle rider allegedly threw was recovering Saturday.
It was unclear if any of the riders were arrested near Sixth Ave. and Market St. downtown, where the crime occurred about 9:10 p.m. Friday.
The officer was taken to a hospital with a bleeding head wound, Officer David Stafford told the U-T San Diego.
The last-Friday-of-the-month ride, held in about 300 cities worldwide, is an outgrowth of the Critical Mass movement started in San Francisco in 1992. The name of the ride refers to the number of riders needed to dominate streets.
In Los Angeles Friday night, a young man lost his life in a crash on UCLA's campus during a Critical Mass ride.
In Southern California, the riders can sometime be rowdy. In other cases, the riders don't follow the rules of the road. For instance, "corking" is when a handful of the leaders block an intersection to enable the larger pack of rider to pass through.
Run-ins with police during Critical Mass rides are not uncommon, since some riders apparently embrace the night time tours as a
form of protest.
