Are New York Biker Gangs Above The Law?

by Jack Baruth

Published: October 3rd, 2013

Last week, a group of motorcyclists “boxed in” a Range Rover on the freeway, apparently so they could “shut down” the road as part of a larger celebration. Alexian Lien, the Rover’s driver, struck a motorcyclist who brake-checked him; afterwards, he was chased into the city, dragged from his vehicle, and beaten savagely in front of his wife and two-year-old daughter. The District Attorney for NYC has elected not to prosecute the biker who allegedly smashed Lien’s window and dragged him out of the car for the beating, causing outrage around the country.

Now, new information has come out suggesting that the city may be willing to effectively cede control of its streets to those same bikers.

The Post is reporting that NYPD officers have been told not to pursue biker gangs due to community-safety concerns. “The department also doesn’t have the manpower to police the rogue riders, who get together for pop-up outings and often use unregistered bikes.” This will not be reassuring to New Yorkers who have just watched one of their own take a beating from these bikers — particularly since Mr. Lien, with his Range Rover, his Columbia University education, and his job working for Credit Suisse, appears on the surface at least to be one of the “insulated” Manhattanites who have largely been sheltered from the city’s criminals since the beginning of the Giuliani administration.

While there are certainly sound reasons for a “no-pursuit” policy, and they have been discussed on TTAC in the past, offering a blanket policy exemption to motorcyclists engaged in intimidating or criminal behavior is likely to embolden people who, at least in a few cases, feel that it is completely justified to brutally assault a man in front of his two-year-old daughter. Slate, on the other hand, has taken this opportunity to shift some blame to the victim and argue that this was not a biker gang but rather a bunch of fun-loving stunt riders who should be handled lightly. Regardless of that rather nice distinction, the public is already demanding some effective action from the NYPD — and deciding to let bikers go as a matter of policy is unlikely to impress them.

#BikerGangs #Enforcement #NYC #Police

Jack Baruth

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3 of 249 comments

CJinSD on Oct 05, 2013

Vigilante Justice, coming to a theater near you!

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- NoGoYo on Oct 05, 2013
  
  Starring Ghost of Charles Bronson?
  
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Lou_BC on Oct 05, 2013

@Landcrusher - if you are talking about lawmaking and knee jerk responses,yes I am all in favour of letting calmer heads prevail. I had posted a response to the "emotional" which disappeared from this site so I'll try again. The pro-gun types are saying that the anti-gun types are emotional. I was pointing out that in that context or any context, you cannot totally remove emotion from the equation. If the "dirty Harry" types want to open fire on all of the bikers, was that an emotional response? To be truly effective at opening fire in a crowd least you were to be overwhelmed by your assailants requires calm. I'll try to be more specific next time for you. pshs101 seems to think that there are those that are hating on the person that "won" the fight or came out better in the fight. In his twisted logic, that means I am hating on the SUV driver because he got some bruises and the other an SCI. No one really "won" this altercation or came out less bloodied.

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