Now, two suspects have been charged with crimes (one of whom actually flipped off a camera in court today), and reports have surfaced that as many as FOUR off-duty police officers may have been at the scene of the attack. They all face departmental discipline.
Then there's this: Below is video taken at a previous group ride by this same core crew of riders. It was originally uploaded to YouTube as an example of their awe-inspiring badassry; after the Lien video went viral, the bikers panicked and took it down. (But, thankfully, was saved by a Facebook user.) Just… Look at this. They run red lights, they ride on sidewalks just previously occupied by kids. And at one point, they terrorize a Prius driver who had the audacity to drive on a green light. It's incredible stuff, and it reveals a lot about how something happened like it did on the Henry Hudson Parkway.
Unlike other sites, I'm not trying to make this a racial thing, at all—if you watch 'till the end you see all races united as douchebags. To me, this new video is nothing more than a clear sign that group rides of this sort really need to stop. Lien may or may not have acted irrationally in running over Mieses. We don't know; I think he was genuinely fearful for his life.
But there's no question group rides were the catalyst. And will continue to be in the future.
[H/T: R/NYC]
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