This evening’s ride commemorated the tenth anniversary of when CM London visited the Caledonian Road in 2015, where 15 year old Alan Cartwright was murdered in a knife attack by a bike thief. Two other cycling groups, The Fixed Pirates Crew, and Bikestormz, also joined in with the ride this evening, as a statement against knife crime.
About 600 riders set off and first visited the Caledonian Road, heading towards the City and then north from the Old Street roundabout. At the Cally pool where Alan Cartwright was killed, riders erected a banner and lit distress smoke flares. The banner said “Bikes Up, Knives Down / Bikestormz, Fixed Pirates, Critical Mass / United Against Knife Crime”. Alan’s family was not in attendance due to a quiet family gathering but sent their immense gratitude to riders coming back after to long to remember Alan’s awful death. The ride stopped for about twenty minutes and then moved on. Detectives from the Met Police were in attendance but kept their distance away from the banner and memorial.
The second stop for the ride was on Tufnell Park Road, outside the home of Mohamed Abdi Noor, aka Blanco, who had been murdered in a knife attack near the junction of Holloway Road. Blanco was an active member of the Pirates and had been on several CM rides before his murder. He was only 21. At this stop, friends of Blanco spoke on the microphone and talked about what a fantastic person he was. Three members of his family then spoke, talking about their anguish from what had happened, their voices breaking as they talked. They were overwhelmed with emotion, as the riders three-cheered for Blanco and then made as much noise as possible with their bells and horns and voices.
The third stop was at the south east corner of the outer circle of Regents Park, having ridden along the eastern side of the park. This was in response to recent morning incidents with cyclists in the park, where thieves on motorbikes had been using hammers and knives to threaten riders for their bikes. The ride stopped for about fifteen or twenty minutes here, and then moved on.
The ride headed back south, down towards Holborn, and then east via St Pauls, then London Bridge, and finished in the small park opposite Hop Kingdom, where the Fixed Pirates were having a raffle prize draw as a fundraiser for one of their riders Laura, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The pirates there raised the banner above their heads to more cheers from the crowd as the tickets were drawn. The police came to ask for the noise to be dropped down, and then left shortly afterwards.
