Media ops in action! Televsion news crews ignore the larger scene and focus their attention on interviews with motorists stuck in the police-created traffic jam. Interviewees are asked how they feel about the traffic delays caused by Critical Mass

Location: eastbound lane of Broadway
at the Larkin Street light

Map for EZ reference

Media ops: Crisis Creation Tactics – 2

In San Francisco, traffic jams are hardly news, even if they are “caused” by Critical Mass and it was felt that the media was somewhat disappointed with the event.

Sensing their disappointment, I called on several team members to add an additional element of visual excitement to the scene. Here’s what the officers came up with.

As the cyclists made their way towards the tunnel, specially trained officers selected two from the crowd and applied RVM.

• Visual aid #10: With the cyclists making their way towards the tunnel it was time to act. Here’s one of subjects the team selected for RVM.
  Location: intersection of Broadway and Larkin looking south down Larkin.
• Visual aid #11: Taking advantage of the training opportunity, the officers practiced a riot formation as they marched towards the RVM subject.
• Visual aid #12: Securing the prisoner took 5 officers. With the cyclists gone and traffic flowing freely, it was essential to make an efficient use of the excess manpower.
• Visual aid #13: In less than one minute, our media op created this dangerous criminal. This subject helped us maximize our RMV opportunity by not wearing a helmet.
• Visual aid #14: Unfortunately, having failed to do something worthy of a criminal charge, the subject was given a citation and let go.

  The second subject afforded us a different range of media op opportunities.

Winner – The 1997 Richard J. Daley Award

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