There are lots of Flickr sets from Friday’s memorial at the Ghost Bike.  This picture is from Alex Thompson’s ^[1] but you should also check out Ensie’s ^[2] and Streetsblog’s ^[3].

Last Friday, participants in Los Angeles Critical Mass, members of the local community and other assorted transportation activists all gathered at Los Angeles’ newest Ghost Bike for a memorial for Jesus Castillo and rally for safer streets for cyclists.  Nearly 300 riders participated in the memorial which included a "die-in" where hundreds of cyclists laid down on the street in a similar manner to war protesters.  There to witness the act were a handful of LAPD officers and a representative of Eric Garcetti’s office.

Occurring less than 24 hours after the LAPD patted a hummer driver on the back for riding through a group of cyclists from behind, the mood when the Critical Massers rode up to the newly chained up Ghost Bike was a mixture of sadness and anger.  However, that anger didn’t break out in acts of violence or vandalism, excepting the one idiot who took a sharpie to a news van, and instead was a well-ordered example of civil disobedience.  Whether or not the LAPD would have been so restrained as to not step on the cyclists civil liberties without the television cameras is a different matter, especially since dozens of riders got tickets on their way Downtown for their next stop.

You can see CBS’ take on the die-in here ^[4].