(Photo credits: Peter Cooper)
by Viviane Faver
Amid so many protests in New York, one has been standing out and gaining more and more followers and strength in the form of community on the wheels – The Street Riders New York City.
Like other protest groups, Street Riders NYC remains committed to fighting the good fight. Led by Orlando Hamilton and Peter Kerre who are responsible for organizing and leading bicycle protests every Saturday. They have different teams, which are the Calvary ( blockers), Pace Setters, Medics, mechanics, legal, supplies, public policy, and more are coming up as we grow and expand our community outreach direct action efforts.
The message is clear. “We are a movement that defends the rights of black lives, as well as building a community with people who want to live in an equal rights society and takes care of each other,” said one of the co-founders, Peter Kerre.
In an exclusive interview with the New York Beacon, Kerre said the group started after riding to protect several marchers from other protests. From there, they decided to form a band and ride together to protest on bicycles.
The bicycle group began to draw other cyclists’ attention, who started to join them on missions to protect the protesters. The number of people doubled with each protest until they form a large group of cyclists.
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“After the police began treating us as a protest group and chasing us with helicopters and patrol cars, we thought to ourselves, ‘why not? They are already trailing us and treating us like protestors, so we may as well do so’, and we not only did but gave them a run for their time while at it because bikes are very mobile and cover vast spaces“.
They have already completed 12 ‘Justice Rides’ with an average of more than 10,000 bicycle protesters a week, with one protest reaching almost 20,000 bikers.
“We managed to broaden our voices about the cause across the city. At the same time, we have community cleanings in needy areas on Wednesdays and direct action electoral registration campaigns on Saturdays before our trips”, explained Peter Kerre.
During the protest, the streets are closed, and traffic is completely blocked. Peter said this work is done, not by volunteers, but by heroes and heroines who put their lives at risk by blocking vehicle traffic with their bodies and bicycles. “We have teams of blockers which work together in a systemic formation to block so that we are not only creating a safe passage for pilots but also being considerate of pilots.”
The team successfully lobbied Citi Bike via twitter to provide free bike access across all New York stations during the rally.
At its longest, the rally stretched about 15 miles long.
One of the Saturday’s rides traversed over 25 miles from Times Square to Harlem and backed down to Battery Park. Street Riders shut down entire roads, including the West Side Highway, causing traffic delays beyond the ride’s route. As the ride progressed, the protest grew in size. A day after the rally, Kerre told me the team woke up to over a hundred DM’s from people saying they rushed to grab their bikes and join in.
The group further strengthens the feeling of community among all participants. The other organizer, Orlando Hamilton , says that in addition to a protest movement, they are also a community, and encourage riders to talk to each other, get to know each other, pedal in groups ‘to and from’ the starting and finishing points. It doesn’t just happen offline. They made an online community on Facebook, group “Street Riders NYC”, where the pilots took the lead in building, connecting, and organizing each other.
When they do not lead their bicycle rallies, Street Riders NYC continues to offer their support services. The team regularly arrives at three or four different protests in a single day, but they cannot be everywhere. To meet the growing demand for their presence, Street Riders posted a volunteer form on their website. Within days, hundreds of people signed up to help.
“We have volunteer training on Thursdays. During these training, we intake new volunteers, train them in what we do, and have existing volunteers engage, recap last rides, and strategize ways to be more effective at what we do. On Thursdays, we have also now introduced Muay Thai self-defense training classes, thus enabling our volunteers to learn about not only self-defense but also de-escalation”, said Orlando Hamilton.
Would you like to join?
Readers can volunteer by coming to our volunteer training meetings on Thursdays ( they usually announce all info on our Instagram page @streetridersNYC ) and also on their website http://streetridersnyc.com
