I just saw 30 of these shadowy figures blast thru a red light. The mysterious 12 o'clock boys? https://t.co/WCOcBEUbcy
— Vaughn Sterling (@vplus) February 22, 2014
A reader sent in this video he shot, & I thought I'd share.
I just saw 30 of these shadowy figures blast thru a red light. The mysterious 12 o'clock boys? https://t.co/WCOcBEUbcy
— Vaughn Sterling (@vplus) February 22, 2014
A reader sent in this video he shot, & I thought I'd share.
33 comments:
did the reader see any police nearby? if so, what action did they take?
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.
Correction - I meant to say unable to catch them.
this has been going on for years...I was almost hit crossing K street once.
shadowy figures?
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5plr9OpzO1rwcc6bo1_250.gif
3:21,
Can we at least agree that their behavior was shady?
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?
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?
4:28,
I'm a bit puzzled by this too. Their behavior is very blatant.
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.
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.
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.
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?
I meant "your"
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)!
Wow media,
Projection much?
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!
WTF? LOL.
"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.
yup, no one at all has ever used the term "shadow" as a slur. Cool story, bro.
http://www.rsdb.org/slur/shadow
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5c/Shadow_Death_From_Nowhere.jpg
Please tell this artist to stop being racist.
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.
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.
@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.
"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.
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).
"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
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.
"a visible quick barrier," rapid police response, blah blah blah. Which Smokey and the Bandit movie did you get that one from?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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