Posted on 02/20/2014 7:51:50 PM PST by bkopto
According to New Orleans Police Department reports, on Friday morning at around 2:26 a.m., a 32-year-old male was riding his bicycle down Esplanade Avenue when a man stepped in front of his path, at N. Robertson Street. When the cyclist slowed to avoid a collision, a second man, wielding a baseball bat, jumped out from behind a parked car and began beating the biker, fracturing his jaw.
Police officers responding to that attack encountered a near-identical scenario that unfolded 22 minutes after the first, just a few blocks away on Esplanade toward Rampart Street. The second victim, 25, suffered serious head injuries, including a fractured skull, police said.
"It's unspeakable," said Nicolas Lambert, a Treme resident who said he rides on Esplanade daily, though never at night.
Although the attacks occurred on Friday morning, NOPD did not release any information on the incidents until Monday evening. The two attacks were left off of the daily report from the department detailing violent crimes throughout the city on Friday and Monday. NOPD spokesperson Garry Flot said although the incidents were classified as aggravated batteries and a baseball bat is considered a dangerous weapon, the attacks could have been left off the log because the assaults did not involve a gun or a knife.
Still, the nature of the attacks stunned residents, even seasoned cyclists.
"If you ask me, it's bad," said Tim Eskew, a mechanic at Bicycle Michael's on Frenchman Street. "Is it bad? It's bad."
But Eskew, who has worked at the shop for 20 years, said residents shouldn't be frightened to ride their bicycles, as long as they take necessary safety measures. Eskew said he's a friend of the second victim, whom he called an experienced cyclist.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
OK, put the armed bikers on bicycles, the desired bad-ass effect would be the same.
But I did mean cyclists.
... though maybe the human powered cyclists could take to wearing spikes... as a warning. Don’t mess around with Spikes ‘n’ Spokes. One idea, don’t know how good or bad it would be. The spiky bikers might attract more attacks, not less, by ground based dudes with ‘tudes. No easy answer down this road.
WWJD? I dunno. Other than pray before and while riding. Even peaceniks have some sort of limit.
Chocolate City is chocolate again.
It does seem to call, perhaps, for some sort of “guardian angels” action... call it vigilantes if you want, but they wouldn’t spring into action until they saw it was clearly needed. They wouldn’t go around baiting trouble, but they would deal righteously with trouble when they found it, even happening to others. Citizens arrest and all that stuff.
What did chocolate ever do to deserve being likened to ghetto mindedness.
They only go after mothers that have children with them.
There's the problem right there.
Nah, I think they need to be baited and shot.
If they don’t attack, they don’t get shot.
A bunch of tough guys disguised as weak victims. Wreak havok on one night, and then split, leaving cops and gangsta-wannabees scratching their heads.
I suspected as much when I found no description of the attackers
Nothing!
Some psycho corrupt felon ex mayor just insulted it by comparison for no good reason.
Just about every one loves chocolate!
Can’t really say the same for...
Well maybe I just better shut up right there :D
And why should it BE a problem.
Fault Singapore’s fanaticism all you want, such a rider wouldn’t be touched. Someone attacking him would be very likely to get brutally caned if not worse. While I don’t advocate that degree of vengeance in America (they recruit troops to carry this out based on how heartless they say they can be), I do think that the US could come quite near to that level of public safety if honest people could bear any reasonable kind of defense arms without hassle.
Bwahahahaha ... now that right there was funny, Chris! And so right on!
It’s all fun and games until the bikers start using cyclone fenceposts for lances.
I say do the righteous thing, but I am quite aware that gets enemies.
I don’t fault Singapore, as they seem to have their act together. However, this being the U.S., we’ve all generally been taught that living in high crime areas, going out in the wee hours that generally that’s when something bad is disproportionately bound to happen (and inevitably, we already know the general age, race, and gender of the perps involved). It’s sad that it’s that way, and it shouldn’t be, but until a cultural shift occurs and the major contributors to the crime rate are taught to appreciate behaving in a civilized way, it’s not going to change (point being, people shouldn’t have to be forced to resort to carrying weapons to protect themselves to do something as simple as going out for a late-night walk or ride).
My friend used to live right there. Is there a motive, did they steal the bikes?
Oh, many muggings also happen in the daytime as well.
Freeing up folks to defend themselves would do almost as much as the likelihood of getting caned, to get muggers to think twice.
Why give up the night to evil.
It’s damned hard to shoot and scoot from a bicycle.
Also, Singapore had to deal with an “extreme diversity” situation. Especially with the wild card of Islam as about a third of the population. Not content to just let what Islam do what it commonly does when it is that strong in a population, Singapore drew a heavy line. The US black vs white situation isn’t that bad, but it’s worsening.
Well you stop, shoot, then scoot.
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