Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Nowhere to ride

From the NY Times:

The outcry has become even more pitched since Sept. 29, when a pack of motorcyclists was involved in an altercation on the Henry Hudson Parkway with a man driving an S.U.V. The police said some of the motorcyclists pulled the driver from his vehicle and beat him. One motorcyclist was hospitalized, and this month 11 men, including an undercover police officer, were indicted in connection with the attack; all but one were charged with gang assault. And while helmet-cam videos do not show dirt bikers in that melee, bikers say the authorities are intent on shutting down their urban sport.

Back in Harlem, they unloaded the bikes and rode off into the streets. Fire trucks and police cruisers showed up almost instantly. It is illegal to ride a dirt bike on New York City streets.

“This is why we rip and run in the streets,” Joseph Middleton, 31, a biker from Harlem, said. “There really is nowhere to ride.”

So far this year in the city, there have been at least 437 motorcyclist and dirt biker arrests: nearly 200 for reckless endangerment or reckless driving, and 5,498 summonses for license plate violations and other infractions. Joseph A. McCormack, the chief of vehicular crimes at the Bronx district attorney’s office, said prosecutors there had seen a sharp rise in the number of cases involving dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles in recent years. There were more than 200 cases — including reckless driving, vehicle violations and, in a few instances, striking pedestrians — this summer alone.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nowhere to ride?

ALL-TERRAIN vehicles and DIRT bikes...hmm...I wonder if that's a CLUE about about where these bikes COULD be ridden legally. Seems to me there's a place called the boonies. It really isn't that far. If you can load these things on and off a truck in Harlem then...

Oh, but I guess then there wouldn't be lots of people who get to see how much of a GANGSTA you are.

That's the REAL reason you ride in the city isn't it? Desperate for a attention, like a spoiled toddler.

Still crap in your pants too?

Anonymous said...

these savages could not survive out in the countryside/boonies. People out there tend to be able to take care of themselves, so they would have to say goodbye to public housing, food stamps, etc.

You know, all the programs that allow them to have the extra cash to buy ATVs.

Anonymous said...

Oh, but I guess then there wouldn't be lots of people who get to see how much of a GANGSTA you are.
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These animals are so low on the social ladder that acting out like this is the only way they can any impact whatsoever on the world around them. They have no other power anywhere else. Causing disturbances is all they have.

Anonymous said...

Sunday 9/29/2013 was my parents 50th wedding anniversary. At around 2:00 pm I was waiting at the light by the McDonalds when you get off of the Deegan to go on to the Willis Avenue Bridge. At least 100 vehicles lane splitted through the waiting cars and headed on to the Bruckner. Most of there vehicles were dirt bikes and quads. A few were sport bikes and no Harleys or BMWs.

That was a very clear day with great weather.

Seeing the video I saw that the gang that assaulted the Range Rover consisted of only road bikes.

I think that on that day several groups of bikers were out.

BTW, I was never able to find the time of the assault on the RR. Does anyone know it? This group was headed South on the Deegan and went on to the Bruckner at 2 PM.