March 13, 2006
Columbia Heights Cyclists Beware
A faithful reader tipped us off to a Craigslist posting that may be somewhat disturbing for those of us that ride our bikes around town. Titled "Bicyclists: Have you ever been struck by a hurled object while riding?," it reads:
I have been. My leg is broken right now as a result of being struck by a brick that was hurled at me from the balcony of an apartment building on 11th Street. The cops haven't done anything for me because A) I don't have a postive ID of the perpetrator, and 2) I didn't stop to see if there were any witnesses. I know which building it came from and roughly which balcony, but they insist they can't ask any questions of the occupants of the building based on this. I'm quite angry. The receptionist at my workplace said she saw the exact same thing happen to a different bicyclist in the exact same place back in November. If something like this happened to you *and you filed a police report, or have other documentation*, please write to me. If I find enough people for this to look like a legitimate "trend," I want to investigate and write about this.We're not the types to trust Craigslist posting for news stories, but having suffered from some people's apparent grief with cycling and cyclists, we can see this being both true and alarming. So, if you know something of incidents like these, please let us know.
|
Disturbing indeed. I'm in the process of moving back there now, & looking forward to the bike commute downtown (via 11th street) as a nice way to save a few bucks vs. metro. I realize there are lazy bastards on bikes out there giving the rest of us a bad name, but yeesh, a street war now? Can't wait for the arrival of my handlebar-mounted antimatter cannon...
I've heard about this a few times before. Last summer, my partner saw a couple of Mormon missionaries on bike being pelted with rocks and water bottles by a group of young kids near 14th and Girard.
This happened to a friend of mine, too, who was pelted with rocks and bottles by a bunch of kids while riding down 14th Street in Columbia Heights past the Boys & Girls club. There seems to be a pattern here of groups of kids bombarding unsuspecting cyclists. I wish the police would take this seriously and arrest these kids because it's scary enough riding a bike around DC without having objects like rocks, bricks or bottles thrown at you. What is this, the Wild West???
I was hit with stones thrown by two older kids ducking behind the walls of Meridian Hill Park while bike-commuting up 16th Street about 2 months ago.
Even if the kids were arrested, they'd be back chucking rocks the next day. Basically, a juvenile has to kill someone to be incarcerated in this city. They know they won't face any punishment (by the cops or their parents), so they see no reason to stop breaking the law.
Kids in Columbia Heights also like to throw rocks at Metrobuses.
Great...I ride my bike to and from work at least 3 times a week. I go down 11th everyday on my way. I'd love to know exactly which building it was, so I can be on the lookout. Can't the cops go into the building and knock on doors and question people? Maybe that would create an environment where the purpitrator would not feel so comfortable throwing bricks at people.
They can put a woman in prison for failing to make her son attend school.
So if police can't hold kids and mini-gangs of them for assaulting people with bottles, bricks, and rocks, could they consider holding the parents liable for this, too? Sure, many parents don't seem to care about parenting...but making their failures affect them instead of random cyclists might change things for the better.
IndieCognition: That's MoCo. The District doesn't do things like that, though it might be time to consider it.
Sounds to me like it's time to round up a posse.
Years ago, I kryptonited some little puke's neck to a stop sign for throwing a rock at me. I let him go after a while (mainly because I wanted my lock back). Next time, I'll just buy a new lock.
On a slightly different note: can all of you bicyclists please, please, please get off the 16th street NW sidewalks? Pedestrians are a little tired of getting plowed over...
Celena - Unfortunately, unless the bicyclists are actually creating a hazard they have as much right to use sidewalks as pedestrians do.
See Rule 1201.9
http://ddot.dc.gov/ddot/frames.asp?doc=/ddot/lib/ddot/information/bicycle/pdf/18_DCMR_12.pdf
Chris,
Duly noted. Perhaps 16th Street bicyclists need to read over Rule 1201.10 and 1201.11..
Guardian Angels for DC?
Wow. About 6 months ago a four-inch hunk of asphault was thrown at me at about 14th and Girard at about 10p on a weekday. Thankfully it just missed me. I thought I was alone, this is very disturbing.
I ride every day up and down 14th, if my experience is somewhat common I might have to find another route home from work.
-N
Hello, dcist.
I am the original Craig's List poster. Thank you to whoever cross-posted me here and thank you to all those who are adding relevant comments to this space.
My incident occurred across from Cardozo High School on 11th Street, and the object was thrown from a balcony on a building called the Garfield Terrace.
So far, from my CL post, I have received replies from three others who have had the EXACT same experience. If you're reading this and realize that it applies to you too, please follow the link above to the CL post and e-mail me your story from there. I am working on getting this story into the media and can use all the supporting incidents I can find.
Thanks much.
(Also, to the poster who chose this opportunity to change the subject completely and complain about bicycles on the sidewalk... this is not the time or the place. I am a responsible bicyclist who was riding in a *bike lane* when this happened. Your posting this here strikes me as VERY poor taste. Please start your own thread.)
What the hell is wrong with these kids? Then again, when I used to commute through Alexandria, VA a motorist tried to force me into a row of parked cars with his suburban.
I can understand the frustration some might have with the behavior of a few riders, but is this a reason to throw objects at all bikers?! It's bad enough that we have to watch out for the busses, cars, and peds that don't respect our lane of traffic.
Andrew,
I am sorry that you were the victim of this assault. You in no way deserved it and I hope the police find the perpetrator.
My commentary was intended as a sidebar. As innocent as you were in your incident, many bicyclists are out of control in this city.
Celena, I think that's a result of the priority given to automobiles in the city. For cyclists, there's not an easy answer: ride on the sidewalk, and pedestrians yell at you. Ride on the road, and risk death. Perhaps if the city devoted a little more space to bike lanes, bikers would encroach less on peds; the problem is ultimately the deference given to cars.
Beach Drive in NW DC and Maryland has signs stating "cars and bikes share the road," yet one sees aggressive drivers trying to force bikes onto the (nonexistent) shoulder all the time. Better than being clocked with a brick, to be sure, but qualitatively not too far removed either. Anyways, this is scary stuff, and hopefully there are enough bike cops on the force who understand that a brick can kill a cyclist in traffic.
Chris,
I don't know what area of 16th Celena is referring to, but I'm sure that some of 16th is in the "Central Business District". I am a responsible bike rider, and the best thing to do is adjust your route to the more bike friendly areas. I take 13th St. to/from work most of the way because bicycles have full right to the right hand lane.
Ryan,
People being lousy drivers is no excuse for cyclists to not slow down on crowded sidewalks. Take a walk down Columbia Road during rush hour for evidence of this.
I often bring my dog to the field on 11th Street in front of Cardozo High School and have been warned by several of the other dog owners that there have been kids throwing rocks from behind that same wall at people walking their dogs and joggers as well.
What kind of city is this? Why won't the cops knock on doors?
Again, not to beat a dead horse, but don't dare try drinking coffee on the Metro? WTF?
Near the same location about two months ago I saw a pair of kids try to pull a cyclist off his bike. This happened at about 7:00PM near the top of the hill. They were pretty surprised when I showed up right behind the guy and fled.
How often is stuff like this happing at that location?
Two days ago, I was almost spit on by some people in a car going up New Hampshire the other day - though I have luckily never encountered bricks.
I also ride to work on the 16th street sidewalks and while I make every effort to yield and slow down for foot traffic, I have seen some bikers who zoom past Malcolm X at out-of-control speeds. Without designated bike lanes I think this will be sadly inevitable.
OK... I JUST got home from playing with my dog at Cardozo High School. Just as I got there, kids started throwing rocks and bricks at passersby, and slmost hit a guy on a bike. He stopped and called 911. They continued throwing things and were hitting the poles and sidewalk near where we were with the dogs. I called the cops as well. One car came and it was literally like a scene from Cops. One of the kids changed his shirt, another jumped out a 2nd story window to get away.
The cop drove away after about 10 minutes with no one in the back of his car, saying that he couldn't just knock on every door.
I didn't get hit, but had several rocks and bricks brick thrown at me tonight around 5:30 pm. The rocks came from Garfield Terrace, on the east side bike lane of 11th St, north of Florida Ave, south of Clifton St. From the height of the balcony, if one had hit, it could have been serious, as you know. I stopped and called the police. An officer showed up within 10 minutes, and a bunch of witnesses who were across the street at Cardoza witnessed it also talked to the officer. The officer said he couldn't do much, although I had a good description of at least one kid who continued to throw bricks at me while I waited for the police. The officer did drive around to the back of Garfield and talked to some residents there, but all of the kids had scattered of course. I have the card of the police officer if that would help you out at all.
The issue of kids in Columbia Heights throwing rocks or other objects is not just about anti-cyclist anger or one or two specific apartment buildings. It's been a huge problem since I've lived in NW DC for the last seven years (and probably longer). Sometimes its gets worse, sometimes it almost goes away for a little while. Sometimes it smells of anti-gentrification, race/class issues, sometimes it just sounds like a bunch of punk kids... but it's a huge problem for the larger neighborhood.
I've had ice balls thrown at me on 17th/Euclid, rocks chucked at my house in Shaw, and seen others get harassed in Columbia Heights. That the kids see bicycles or people of different races as easier targets may be true, but I think the old line about no parental supervision, not enough effort by the legal system to dish out punishment, and the general thug=cool attitude of some of the neighborhood's kids are the real causes.
When, on the rare occasion, I find myself getting slightly nostalgic for DC, I will re-read these posts to remember how truly inhumane a place it too often is.
About a year ago riding past Cardozo High School I had some kids throw an egg at me and hit me square in the head. I didn't see them.
Luckily the extent of the damage was me picking bits of egg from my helmet for a week.
Has nothing to do with bikes, at least not on 14th street. I live at 14th and Clifton, and those kids are just hateful. They’ve been throwing rocks at people walking, driving, riding bikes, standing on their porches, whatever. And it tends to get worse, obviously, when the weather gets warmer.
Well, if this isn't enough to make me leery.
Last week I moved into Columbia Heights and 11th Street is on my walk home from work. Right up past Cardozo High School and Garfield Terrace. This rock-throwing business hasn't happened to me yet, but perhaps I should start exploring other routes.
I wrote a blog entry about this. It's pretty easy to see how the police should respond. I sent my blog entry to DM for Public Safety Edward Reiskin as well as to Chief Ramsey. We'll see if I get a response. I have before (e.g., as a result of one thread, also in my blog maybe last June and July, the city is reintroducing motion detector still cameras as a test in problem alleys in Ward 6)
In the age of digital cameras everywhere, carry one and snap some pics of the punks. Then if the cops wont knock on doors I'd resort to the Kryptonite-ing the kid to a stop sign method.
The authorities won't do anything, you have to take the law into your own hands. Pack a gun or knife and fight back.
The authorities won't do anything, you have to take the law into your own hands.
Because police inaction is the perfect excuse for abandoning all notions of civilized society!
Start a photo posse. It's the only kind of vigilante-ism that works. It should be easy enough to get video/photo evidence of this happening, since it appears to be a regular occurance. With a dozen volunteers, you can split shifts and within a couple of days, you'll have what you need to help the cops track these evil little monsters down.
Wear a helmet, though.
I agree with the camera thing - though considering the mentality of these punks, I'd be afraid of my camera getting hit and/or stolen.
You'd think they'd up the police presence after so many attacks. It's just sad.
I as well have been pelted by flying objects on 11th, same location everyone's speaking of. Last winter, I was riding up 11th and at first thought snow chunks were falling from the trees above me. But then I realized that snowballs were being hurled at me from both sides of the street, from the school and the apartment building--I was being ambushed. Snowballs seem innocent enough but when one actually hit me I realized that they pack a mean wollop. Not to mention the fact that getting hit in the head/face sure would have been distracting enough to veer right into traffic.
A year or so ago, riding down M street ( between 17th and connecticut ) I was run directly into a parked van by some laughing girls in an SUV. That blew my mind, simply for being so cruel.
Then, a couple months ago the same thing happened to me ( again M street, in Georgetown ) by a screaming woman who for all the world seemed to mistake me for a mass-murderer and decided it was her civic duty to run me off the road.
I do bike to work every day ( from Arlington ) and I pass through good areas. I follow the rules, but I do stay on the road ( as right as possible ) to best respect cars and pedestrians. But the pure HATE that I receive -- sometimes daily -- from cars blows my mind.
Now, I feel downright lucky. I've been hit five times, either by maniacs or by cars running lights ( though never really hurt ) but I've yet to be attacked by a pedestrian or have bricks hurled at me from buildings.
This past fall, my wife and I were walking up 16th beside Meridian Hill Park and had rocks thrown at us from above by two teenage kids. I called the police, yelled at them and they ran away. The police might have come, but we didn't stick around. I agree that this is an unacceptable situation, though the remedy is unclear.
I hear kids yelling stuff all the time from those apts as I ride by. I ride down the middle of the street in areas like that, preferably with traffic. Seems they're less likely to hurl bricks if there are cars around--they think cars will stop and bikers will just haul ass.
Luckily I don't ride a bike, but it's about the time of year when the rock throwing thugs come out. I live in Columbia Heights and when the weather gets warm, those who can't afford to do something else with their time, loiter and throw rocks at passerbys. I personally get harrassed when I walk my dog. They (99.5% of the time it's black kids) usually yell racist stuff (I'm Hispanic). I ignore it, but usually I respond, just as if not uglier unfortunately.
Good luck bikers.
About 5 (?) months ago or so ago I had a potato thrown at me from the drive inbetween the middle school there and the apartment complex (11th & Clifton). At the time i thought it was funny because a) they missed and b) i'm irish. However, after i thought about it, it could have seriously messed me up had it hit me, as i was going down the bike lane and it zoomed right past my face.
I stopped and looked back up and there were a bunch of little kids (probably elementary school kids) standing up there, feigning toughness, yelling whatever. I figured what did I have to lose, and rode back up toward them, and they all just scattered into the housing complex there. I figured there was no point to go any further as what was i going to do even if i caught one. When i turned to leave a little girl said to me "they just tried to throw a potato at you." I told her, sort of snapping, "I know what they tried to do." She just sort of put her head down and said, "I think that's rotten." I rode away cause I thought i was going to start laughing.
Had I been hit, i definitely would have flipped over my handlebars however.
OK... I think it's time to jog the DC Government into action. There is this thing called the MEDIA and they seem to like to get involved in situations like this. Maybe it's just me (btw I moved from DC to Northern VA years ago) but if the photo brigade gets some video there may be a Pulitzer(sp?) prize there waiting for you. Just my 2 cents worth...
This has been going on for a long time. Check out this post from the CH Yahoo! Group from June 27, 2005:
Rock throwing at a pregnant woman! - these kids need a good wooping -
no joke. They are lucky I wasn't around because I was pissed!
Currently, I call the police anytime I see this kind of behavior.
The problem is - rarely do I get a response in a timely fashion.
This of coarse makes my effort futile and all the more aggrevating
This has been going on for a long time. Check out this post from the CH Yahoo! Group from June 27, 2005:
Rock throwing at a pregnant woman! - these kids need a good wooping -
no joke. They are lucky I wasn't around because I was pissed!
Currently, I call the police anytime I see this kind of behavior.
The problem is - rarely do I get a response in a timely fashion.
This of coarse makes my effort futile and all the more aggrevating
If I go down there with my dog tonight and/or ride past on my bicycle and am hit with a brick, will I be the one seen as in the wrong if I throw it back? What if I lose my temper momentarily as I am blinded by the blood pouring into my eyes and really do something crazy like yell a racial epithet? Would I be in the wrong?
Are we supposed to just "understand" and not get angry and demand that something is done?
I like the camera idea too, but I wouldn't be shocked if someone gets theirs stolen.
If it's a bunch of punk kids, then what could be the next logical step? Calling police/media about rock-throwing in general? I don't want someone to get killed by taking a header into 11th st traffic, I'm sure they don't either, but who's gonna call the media? Most news stations live to do stories like this. "WHEN THROWING STONES TURNS *D E A D L Y*, TONIGHT AN IN-DEPTH BLABLABLA..." Worth a shot.
Andrew K, I sent my blog entry to Dep. Mayor for Public Safety Edward Reiskin. He responded. So did the Commander of the Third District (probably because DM Reiskin forwarded to him my email...). The problem is the 3D commander thinks I'm the one with the broken leg. Please contact me so I can connect you two up. rlaymandc@yahoo.com