BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Call 911, let them know where to find a battered victim?

The comments on that article are disturbing.

I get the impression that few of the comments are actually made by cyclists.

The good thing is that we haven't seen much of this on East Liberty Blvd lately... I think there was an incident at the beginning of the summer, but quiet since then.

wow...

Normally when someone on here talks about the comments to an article being disturbing, it's describing hate against cyclists. But there they're all so busy hating on anything darker than Snow White that they haven't had the time to hate on cyclists yet. The complete lack of variance makes me think that it's just one or two people posting under different profiles, though. True, I tend to associate such unveiled public racism with extreme ignorance and lack of imagination, but it looks like an online echo chamber.

I'd love for some techie sleuths to track down some IP addresses and put a scare in some people. Or a summons or subpoena.

I find it disturbing that the youths are described like insects (swarming) and that the headline puts forth the idea of a "Knockout game" without giving any further info.

My impression of the E Liberty / Highland park incidents that have been reported is that there are some problematic & violent groups of youth, but not the sort of electronic-network-driven "flash mobs" that have been seen recently in London and Philly.

Trailnet doesn't have much on their web site about the attacks, but their twitter feed led to this facebook alert:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/trailnet/urgent-safety-alert-for-all-cyclists/10150347219871197

Sounds like for the sake of maintaining my calm and peaceful nature I should refrain from reading those comments.

^ good idea. I only glanced and that was enough.

The comments by area cyclists on the facebook alert aren't so bad.

Stay away from that CBS sh*t, though.

"I find it disturbing that the youths are described like insects (swarming)"

Um, no? One very legitimate definition of "swarming" is "to move or assemble in a crowd" and "swarm": "a large number of animate or inanimate things massed together and usually in motion". Sure there are insect-related definitions as well, but please don't attach your own negative connotations to an innocent word.

Duly noted Pseudacris.

I think "mob" would have been a different way to describe unruly group behavior without connoting insects.

Um, I suppose I have inadvertently outed myself as species-ist.

An update from Trailnet:

http://trailnet.org/blog/updates-on-the-bike-attacks

[excerpt]

Multiple cyclists were attacked on Thursday, August 25 on Tower Grove Ave at Flad – at the wall of the Missouri Botanical Garden. They were punched in the face and knocked off their bicycles by groups of 6-10 men. This happened to at least two cyclists that night. Unsuccessful attempts were made to steal the bicycles after assaulting the riders.

Police believe they have a clear description on one of the criminals, and are pursuing that lead. The Chief of Police says there does not appear to be a pattern of these assaults on cyclists. Trailnet intends to use these incidents to increase awareness of all harassment that pedestrians, runners and cyclists face; we do not want to wait until a pattern has been established. A quick search in fact indicates that there have been over a thousand such incidents in the Saint Louis area, almost exclusively pedestrians in the last eight years. Unless victims are compelled to report the incidents and law enforcement accurately reports them, these assaults become invisible and our neighborhoods are stagnated in their ability to become healthy and vibrant. Other harassments include loud yelling, honking, throwing items out the window and automobile drivers speeding.

So you need to report something that they don't wanna write a report for. They need the reports, they don't wanna write, to investigate further.

I have friends who live in St Louis and can't wait to come back to Pittsburgh. This sounds exactly like what they describe. Crazy bigotry, crime and a over worked police force who doesn't really give a damn.

The most insane part about the comments is that they all start off on the black vs white thing when the only person interviewed is Cheech Ramirez.

Sorry to go off-topic but in aviation there are strong parallels (npi) between STL and PIT - both airports were turned into ghost towns by departure of their once-dominant airline.

They're the two most under-utilzed major airports in the country.

Next up: several drunk rednecks with guns and mediocre bike handling skills go out on citizen bicycle patrol. Stay tuned.

Of all things, their bike handling skills concern you?

^ ha!

Grew up in a suburb of KC, KS, and have been to STL more times than I care to count. I've been offer crack, meth, prostitutes and just about any other illegal item you can think of while walking through or stopped at a gas station. Missouri is a pretty shitty state overall.

@orionz: what really concerns me is the press calling "intent to do bodily harm / assault & battery" a "game". Thanks for asking.

I was implying that I think the bike handling of the people you described should be the least of your worries.

What bothers me the most is the piss poor response by the cyclists themselves. A little bit of proactive goes a long way.

What do you mean by "piss poor response"?

Avoidance, waiting for the cops to do something (I am not advocating anything here), etc. For the most part people just say "wow, this sucks" without ever attempting to make matters better. There does seem to be a few people who are getting the idea from reading the comments though.

"Ramirez says he and his friends returned to the scene minutes later to help another bicyclist who was being beaten."

I wouldn't call that "avoidance".

Sounds like the initial victim got some friends and went back and broke up another beating...

Otherwise, it all sounds pretty similar to what happened here last year. A lot of people got all worked up, there was a big community meeting, and then it stopped for unknown reasons and most people forgot about it.

My mother's side has a bunch of people in Hannibal, MO, and I've only seen it as a really nice little town. Granted it's basically a Mark Twain mecca, so probably the worst problem it has is a touch too much snark in their sarcasm, but still. Not ALL of MO is evil.

I was just being facetious. Funny thing though, I use to think MO had the shittiest road surfaces of all time, and then I moved to PA...