Saturday, February 22, 2014

Never a Dull Moment on H Street

A reader sent in this video he shot, & I thought I'd share.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

did the reader see any police nearby? if so, what action did they take?

Anonymous said...

These guys fly through the neighborhood often. They are going to hit a child some day as they have no regard for stop signs. I have been told by police they live in Trinidad but are able to catch them.

Anonymous said...

Correction - I meant to say unable to catch them.

Anonymous said...

this has been going on for years...I was almost hit crossing K street once.

Anonymous said...

shadowy figures?

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5plr9OpzO1rwcc6bo1_250.gif

inked said...

3:21,
Can we at least agree that their behavior was shady?

Anonymous said...

can we at least agree that the english language affords us the ability to condemn behavior with words that do not have longstanding negative racial connotations?

Anonymous said...

how are they so elusive to police? it's not like they're riding the Bat Bike and going faster than police vehicles? isn't that intersection across from 7-11 where the police typically hang out?

inked said...

4:28,
I'm a bit puzzled by this too. Their behavior is very blatant.

inked said...

4:09,
I wouldn't have said "shadowy figures," but only because they were in the open light. Personally, I don't associate the term shadowy figure with any racial group, but just with anyone who operates outside the light of day/rules. It has never occurred to me to associate the term with African Americans.

Anonymous said...

Just saw (barely due to their extreme speed) another one of these guys on L street NE today. They seriously may hurt someone - like a child or elderly person. I can't believe we don't have a littering law but this kind of stuff is legal.

Anonymous said...

the cops, at least in Baltimore, have a pretty established "do not chase" policy in this context, which lets these "shadowy figures" operate pretty much with impunity. Probably because a good chase would inevitably lead to a 12 year old black kid (e.g., "shadowy figure") on a four wheeler turning himself into a meat crayon on the thoroughfare. You can clean it off with a high pressure hose, no problem, but people still complain about dead kids, pretty much regardless of color and regardless of the poor judgment of the dead kid.

media assassin said...

Come on now, you're meaning of "shadowy figures" is exactly what it seems to be. Don't bite your tongue! Say what you mean and mean what you say! I'm not fooled by these so-called liberal whites. Being liberal is just a more liberal and covert way of maintaining white supremacy in all areas of activity. Everything with most of the pretentious white folks that moved to this area always has to do with race. Whites are moving in so the community should be your way or the highway. Isn't that correct?

Media Assassin said...

I meant "your"

media assassin said...

I don't condone their behavior but say what you mean and stop talking in code. Someone mentioned that the English language should be used differently to describe the "shadowy figures". You know how to use the English language and said exactly what you meant. Can't take it back now! Don't apologize for the way you feel because it's your right although it might not be right but hey, I'm all for free speech. Just face it and be real about it. If you said (typed) it, you meant it (probably said it to your inner circle in another way)!

Anonymous said...

Wow media,
Projection much?

V+ said...

Hi folks!

I was the one who took the video and said "shadowy figures."

I was evoking comic book, pulp language there, certainly not any racial coding.

I was thinking more Mad Max than anything with respect to race!

MSM Journalist said...

WTF? LOL.

small green cat said...

"media assassin" is a troll. Prior to his/her posts in this thread, there's not one living person on the entire planet that's considered the expression "shadowy figures" to have a racist subtext, and he/she knows this. So just don't feed the troll.

Anonymous said...

yup, no one at all has ever used the term "shadow" as a slur. Cool story, bro.

http://www.rsdb.org/slur/shadow

pat said...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5c/Shadow_Death_From_Nowhere.jpg

Please tell this artist to stop being racist.

pat said...

I've seen one or two of these punks blasting down Benning Rd on a sunday and then either tearing off on the paths near Kingman island or down along the RFK perimeter lot.

Given the other priorities of MPD, chasing and arresting is probably a bad idea.

1) they all seem underage, so you can't get much of abeef.

2) They are punks on ATVs and BMX Motobikes, not gang bangers doing drivebys

3) If they were white kids way out in Loudon, they'd just be punks or rednecks.

4) When they runover someone throw the book at them.

So, I think MPD is turning a studiously blind eye to them.

If MPD can quietly ignore Critical mass bike rides, they can also ignore these kids.

Anonymous said...

Pat, that would be a totally awesome and pithy comment, showing us all how smart you really are, if such a thing as CONTEXT did not exist. Other than that, totally great pull. You must be like a super cool debate coach or something.

Anonymous said...

@media assassin:
Actually most of these 'liberal whites' weren't racist when they got here. Don't worry though, you guys are slowly turning them. Just keep racializing every issue, keep calling them 'white boy' and 'white bitch', and make sure they know they don't belong here. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.

Alan Page said...

"I was evoking comic book, pulp language there, certainly not any racial coding."

I grew up on comics and I can't say I would ever use "shadowy figures" to describe a group of people who ran a red light in broad daylight. Go for more obvious descriptors like "self-entitled douchebags" which have no color or racial connotation at all.

Anonymous said...

We have a serious issue with these guys just a little north of y'all. Whoever mentioned the "do not chase" policy is correct - MPD will not chase them on the grounds that they will ride even more recklessly and, more so than hurt themselves, could hurt an innocent passer-by.

However, they have no solution beyond this. Blah blah blah find out where they're storing the bikes and we'll go get them. Good luck. The bikes are hauled in from MD on trucks. I've given the police license plate numbers, locations, and descriptions of some of them. Nothing. The truck is parked on the street for hours and nothing happens. Then they load the bikes back up and take off.

At least they were just running a red light there. Up in these climes they ride on sidewalks, through parks, the wrong way on one-way streets, and even with VERY small children on board (I've even seen infants, kids as young as 3 are common).

Anonymous said...

"do not chase" policy sounds like a nice way of saying do nothing. A visible quick barrier could be set up, a tail from plain clothes officer, i don't know. but, letting these kids do dangerous things is irresponsible. allowing our police force unable to produce results is apathy

Anonymous said...

I don't see anyone demanding the police corral and/or chase white people on the Critical Mass rides, which do similar activity (blow through red lights and more), except on bicycles.

Anonymous said...

"a visible quick barrier," rapid police response, blah blah blah. Which Smokey and the Bandit movie did you get that one from?

Anonymous said...

if a mass of cyclists whether they be white, black, latino, asian, etc, start doing things that are dangerous to the public, then yes they need to be stopped.

Anonymous said...

Honestly, nothing actually needs to be done about this, not by the police anyway. If anyone is likely to get injured doing this it's the kids. If I was the their parents I would be concerned, but I'm not, so...

Eventually, one will get hurt or killed and then the rest will learn a lesson or they will just get older and wiser and stop doing dumb-ass shit. Arresting everyone and getting these kids mixed up in the criminal justice system isn't the answer for everything.

Anonymous said...

i doubt the parents of these children are the responsible types. no one will stop them until one of their own friends gets killed might work with people who make wise choices, i doubt these kids are that intelligent.

Anonymous said...

One of these kids is going to get killed by a car while running a red light, and I have no problem with that. As a motorcycle rider myself, these punks give us all a bad name and we don't need them in our ranks.