covered well, all over the web and [hopefully] major media, the magical chalk-matrix message printing bicycle has been impounded and its owner/operator was detained on unspecified charges.
Kinberg cooperated fully with the officers as he was being handcuffed, only asking, “can I ask what I’m being arrested for?” to which no one provided an answer. As of 11:00 PM Saturday evening, he was still in custody without being charged with anything
wired had a description of the effort back on august 2nd. both the new york post and the detroit news mentioned kinberg on august 15th, and the village voice also has some [ironically post-arrest] news.
i didn’t jump on this as fast as some others, partially because i wanted to see if charges would develop – and they apparently have. joshua is apparently charged with vandalism and/or criminal mischief. i’m not sure what the difference is in new york.
there’s a first-person account with joshua kinberg as guest blogger at the hardblogger site at msnbc. we like first-person information when it is available.
now for some editorial commentary: it seems to me like the fbi scare tatics and infiltration of dangerous anti-bush organizations resulted in some solid intelligence that mr. kinberg intended to do unusual anti-bush things during the rnc in new york. obviously given a high priority in the counter-dissent effort, the arrest and impounding of the mechanisms of protest seem to be carefully arranged to avoid their actual use during the rnc. the bad news is that the news of stopping this particular form of protest is likely to make it into a feeding frenzy for big media and blogs alike. what would’ve been a “cute geek moment” in an otherwise very busy news cycle could, one might hope, turn into a rallying point for the half of america that bush doesn’t see.
what’s disturbing here is that mr. kinberg was arrested after producing identification at an officer’s request, and, apparently on a pre-emptive basis. surely, he would’ve used his magic chalk-spraying bicycle machine to vandalize and cause mischief all over manhattan, had he not been arrested. that was his plan, and our loyal protectors thwarted it effectively. surely a triumph for safety in new york. america. is. safer.
lesson to future protesters: don’t go on the record until after you get a chance to use your magic protest widget.
my own investigation into this potential terrorist reveals that this plan has been in the works for a year. evidence also suggests that he has co-conspirators at the parsons school of design. not only did they encourage this highly american activity, but they awarded this dissenter a masters degree, in part, for his work.
i expect more interesting things to appear at bikes against bush.
in the meantime, expect things on this list get shut down as well, unless the civil authrorities in new york realize they made a big mistake with this one.