Whose streets? Protesters’ streets.
Thousands of cyclists again rolled on Saturday night — this time in Manhattan — to protest police brutality and to champion the Black Lives Matter movement.
Just one day after Juneteenth — the holiday that marks the freeing of enslaved people in Texas in 1865 — an estimated 10,000 bikers took off from Times Square, taking up the entirety of Seventh Avenue from about 38th Street to 50th Street.
The massive, 20-mile loop from Times Square to Harlem and down a car-free West Side Highway to Battery Park eventually comprised four miles of cyclists.
Cyclists not only chanted “Whose streets? Our streets,” the names of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and “How do you spell racist? N.Y.P.D.,” but also used their bells and other tools as musical instruments — carrying the sound of the movement all through Manhattan as onlookers cheered in support.
See? Melodical pic.twitter.com/LncS2BFXNZ
— Good Idea Dave (@DaveCoIon) June 20, 2020
Solidarity from New York’s Strongest pic.twitter.com/FZCeSqF3wl
— Julianne Cuba (@Julcuba) June 20, 2020
The protest, organized by Street Riders, fell on the same day as President Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, where only about 6,200 showed up — an estimated 4,000 less than the number of cyclists who rode in New York City.
This bike protest in NYC completely took over the streets and it was amazing 😍😍😍 pic.twitter.com/RejA9DbVUG
— Allison Esposito Medina (@techladyallison) June 20, 2020
One of the group’s founders, Orlando Hamilton, told Streetsblog last week that the group is just getting started. He spoke about using the bike as a tool to protest racism in the form of infrastructure neglect and police harassment while riding.
“Black lives matter and we’re here to stay. These bike protests are here, going on for a long time,” said Hamilton. “We still go out of our way every day to make sure we show up and continue doing what we set out to do.”
