The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Paraguy on October 02, 2013, 06:49:39 AM
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I am sure most forum members have seen what happened in NYC when a guy was driving his wife and 2 yr old when a group of 30 motorcycles started intimidating him (not sure of why, maybe the driver of the Rover instigated but doubtful.) There was video and several stories from different perspectives are coming out.
I would like to get analysis of the situation and how it was handled, what would have given it a better ending and how the aftermath should be handled. It is horrible what happened, the driver has stitches and a motorcyclist was run over and surely the wife and child are traumatized, but there are lessons here to be learned and I wanted to hear what Forum members and moderators thought and could share.
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Lesson number 1. Don't try to go up against an SUV or any car if you are on a bike!! That takes some serious retardation.
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When the guys were beating on his windows with there helmets I would have turned my front wheels to make a sharp right turn then put it in reverse and stomped the gas pedal and backed over them.
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I don't have all the details nor have I seen the full (probably) video. What I have seen doesn't seem too far off what I would have done. An SUV is a much better defensive weapon than a gun. Plus, it's easier to justify. Run over them like he did. Once they caught up, do it again if necessary. Beating on my windows once I was stuck, would have likely resulted in extreme countermeasures. My objective would be to get out alive and quickly.
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From where the video on TV started what looks like a freeway/expressway, to where they cut the video - beating on the SUV in tied up traffic, I'm wondering how or why he got from A to B. I don't know if that freeway dead ends into street traffic or he took an exit.
If you are on a freeway with room to maneuver, stay on it! When stopped by heavy traffic, leave room in front. If it's not there, make some.
Demo derby types bash with the rear end as much as possible to stay running.
They may be able to get some swings at the windows but my car/truck will be anything but a still target.
Edit: If you decide to make room your insurance probably will not pay since it was intentional.
My wife not getting her head bashed in is worth it IMHO. YMMV
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The SUV did make an exit...the video showed a couple of bikers a bit past the exit at the time.
Also, when the video starts, it shows a biker in front of the SUV, appearing to be going very slow and looking over his shoulder at the SUV.
The impression I got was that it was an attempt to delay or stop the SUV...what happened before that would be crucial in determining who precipitated the conflict.
It was evident that the SUV did not want to be stopped or delayed
If I were in an SUV being pursued by a group of bikers, I'd be looking for a moderate traffic area on a one way street hand head down it the wrong way. You risk some vehicle damage and maybe injury, but the bikers are facing serious injury or death.
Also a LOT of calls to police about the direction and circumstances would be going out.
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The video I originally saw on GMA looked like the SUV hit one of the bikers then tried to run .
If that's the case the bikers should have beat him worse.
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It looked like there was a biker in front of the SUV trying to make him stop. The driver of the SUV driver didn't want to stop and get jumped by a gang. I don't blame him.
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It has me thinking about a 30-round mag as a backup mag for the car gun.
Don't know what was going on inside the SUV but someone should have been on 911 vectoring the police to the scene.
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Don't know what was going on inside the SUV but someone should have been on 911 vectoring the police to the scene.
They were, but hey it's NYC. The police didn't get there fast enough.
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They were, but hey it's NYC. The police didn't get there fast enough.
Fewer innocent people get shot that way.
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Theres a lot to be said for poly carbonate windows, would have been funny to see the dude try to smash it with his helmet then.
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I watched the video on The Blaze last night (finally), and the summary of what I took away from it was that the driver of the SUV is an idiot!
What I saw started just before the bike got hit, slowing down intentionally, looking to get bumped by the SUV. Why? It looks like they've done this before.. What does getting bumped by a car get you if it doesn't get you killed?.. I don't know..
After that, the driver panicked and jumped the bike. "More than ample" opportunities to use the truck to trip up a few bikes and knock them down like dominoes! I have no idea why he didn't, other than internal restraint.
Something I want to know is why the guy didn't have his doors locked?! The first stop after jumping the "trap" bike got his door opened up for him. The door wasn't even locked at that point!! Why!! After not taking advantage of huge opportunities to get these obviously aggressive bugs off his tail, he takes an off ramp, in NYC!!! Did he think he wouldn't catch a traffic light, or that an audience would inhibit the aggression of these guys? HE STOPPED!!!
All I can comment on is what I saw, but these guys on the bikes are doing this intentionally, and feeding off of each others aggression and the sound of the bikes.. Oh, and that guy with the camera reminds me of the guy we all encountered while in a fight on the ground and some putz walks up and kicks you in the back or back of the head, saying "Hit him again! Hit him again!" while you're dealing with the problem and can't get your hands on him at the moment. Gutless wonder/wannabe..
The SUV guy could've got hurt any number of ways as this played out, but as it was, he did this to himself.. The thing weighs three tons and it's not out of gas! He tries not to hurt them, then he stops, twice, AFTER he knows they're trying to hurt him!! He needs to be slapped after he wakes up from his coma!! >:(
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Theres a lot to be said for poly carbonate windows, would have been funny to see the dude try to smash it with his helmet then.
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(http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/hollywoodstuntztwitter.jpg?w=680&h=453&crop=1)
The profile photo for the @hollywoodstuntz Twitter page. A neighbor says it's biker organizer Lao on the bike.
The organizer of the wild motorbike rally that terrorized a West Side family runs a website taunting the NYPD — from the safety of his mommy’s home in Queens, The Post has learned.
Jamie Lao, 29, has been orchestrating the annual group “crotch rocket” rides through city streets since at least 2007 through his now-suspended websites, HollywoodStuntz.net and Blockstarzent.net, which are registered to his parents’ Ozone Park home.
This year’s motorcycle rager led to the beatdown of Alexian Lien in front of his horrified wife and toddler.
Leo bragged just before a 2010 event that he had “no worries from the NYPD” and has posted scores of YouTube videos showing hundreds of bikers tearing down city streets en masse, popping wheelies and revving their engines as they go, with nary a cop in sight.
Lao’s Twitter account, @hollywoodstuntz, features a picture of a rider on a blue Yamaha, its front wheel raised defiantly to the sky with an NYPD squad car in the background.
A neighbor said it is Lao in the photo.
“It’s not his fault,” Lao’s dad, Juan, said of Sunday’s violence, defending his son, who scampered through a back entrance of the home Thursday and hid in the house to avoid a reporter.
Apparently more comfortable behind a computer screen, Lao hit Facebook, Twitter and forums like bikenightusa.com, stuntlife.com and stuntride.com, urging bikers across the country to attend his annual “Hollywood’s Block Party” and “tear up the streets.”
Asked if his son was involved in the incident, Juan Lao said Jamie didn’t attend, adding “you’re just wasting your time.”
But several neighbors said the rally started at the Lao’s two-family house on 103rd Avenue.
“There was about 300-400 bikes,” said one neighbor who asked not to be named. “It’s disturbing to see 300 bikes, the neighbors were terrified. All the smoke went into the houses. Everybody was traumatized.”
Another said bikers congregated at the Lao’s “all day long.”
“They were very noisey and they were on top of the cars and everywhere. It was terrible.”
“Oh my god I hate them. For the past 4-5 years he’s been an absolute nuisance. They are annoying as hell,” said neighbor Jennifer Rodriguez, 36. She claims Lao and his biker buddies have terrorized her family.
“It’s been a nightmare. My mom is handicapped and my dad has a heart condition,” she said. “They [bikers] will go up to her and like play chicken, trying to scare her.”
“Sunday the whole street was covered,” Rodriguez said. “They cover all the sidewalks. People with kids and with dogs, they go right up to them like they are trying to scare them. You can’t say anything or else they will start a fight. I had to go out on Sunday and I had to wait 20 minutes until they left.”
“They scratch cars, they bump into them, they have no regard.”
Retired firefighter Distinio Lois, 77, defended Lao.
“He’s a good kid. He’s a motorcycle enthusiast. I have known the family for years, they are good, hard working people,” Distinio said. “You can’t help if there is a bad apple in the group. If a friend did what they did, he’s not responsible. You can’t turn around the blame if he’s the head [of the rally.]“
“They never bother anybody,” he said of the bikers that come to the house every year. “They are respectful, they don’t leave anything behind. It’s just a social gathering until they go away.”
On his website, Lao brags that he is “on his way to stardom” and calls his events an opportunity to “show off the most insane stunts the thousands of bystanders have ever seen.”
A YouTube video of Lao’s 2012 NYC rally depicts hundreds of bikers – men and women – on motorcycles and three-wheeled ATVs speeding through Midtown in broad daylight, weaving through both lanes of traffic, popping wheelies and blowing through red lights as stunned pedestrians gaped from the sidewalks.
This year, cops — who confirmed that Hollywood Stuntz organized Sunday’s terror ride — were waiting for the mob and prevented them from taking over Times Square, busting several and confiscating a number of motorcycles.
Lao also posted footage of a Halloween ride from last year, where riders roared from Brooklyn to Manhattan, hogging roads and swerving dangerously close to cars.
Neighbors said they didn’t see the NYPD outside Lao’s house Sunday – but cops did make a stop at Charlie’s Chop Shop, an Astoria motorcycle shop where Lao and his pals, including rapper Meek Mills, are regulars.
On Thursday, Charlie’s had its gates pulled down and appeared closed, but bikers and mechanics were in and out of the store.
“There were dozens of cops here on Sunday,” said Jimmy Katsaros, 50, who works next door at GoPro, a plumbing firl. “They pulled in looking to check out the chop shop…There were guys on bikes right outside and they sped off.
“They didn’t want any part of those cops.”
“This is very bad for everyone involved,” said another GoPro worker. “It’s all wrong.”
Henry Jiang, 21, pulled up to Charlie’s on his Kawasaki Ninja 300. He said he isn’t affiliated with the Hollywood Stuntz crew, but defended them and blamed the road rage on Lien.
“The media has been spinning it in a way that makes all motorcyclists look bad,” he said.
“The entire situation could have been handled differently. I don’t roll with that crew [Hollywood Stuntz] but I feel that they shouldn’t be labeled as thugs because of a few bad apples. The biker that got the most hurt was innocent.
“ You shouldn’t judge a person because they are on a bike. There are lots if reckless drivers in cars too.”
“I feel that most of the fault was with the driver of the SUV. Maybe it could have all been talked out. He didn’t have to hit the gas and take out everyone. That was reckless.”
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LOL
armoredvehicles 2 hours ago
Also, for the record, if Miley Cyrus wants us to armor her vehicle we will charge her double. Just sayin...