I’m sure most of you’ve seen the news about the NYC bikers who go by the name Hollywood Stuntz…
They mounted up Sunday for their end of summer ride to Times Square. A ride that resulted in a road rage incident in Manhattan on the Hudson Parkway between the bikers and the driver of a black Ranger Rover, his wife and two year-old child.
One biker, Christopher Cruz, 28, was charged with reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly starting the incident by cutting in front of the Range Rover then slowing down while staring at its driver, causing the car to bump into the back tire of the bike. The driver, Alexian Lien, pulled over then was surrounded by Cruz other bikers who hit the vehicle and spiked its tires, police say.
Lien then pulled away, frightened for his family, plowing into three bikers and over one of them, breaking his legs and causing spinal injuries that left him paralyzed.
The bikers continued to chase the Ranger Rover, cornering the SUV after it became stuck in traffic. A video shows one of the bikers smashing the driver’s window, whereupon they dragged him out and beat him as his wife and child looked on.
If you’ve not seen the video here’s a link.
http://nypost.com/2013/09/30/bikers-attack-suv-after-driver-rams-riders/
This is an interesting story for me from several perspectives. Being a car guy, I love Range Rovers. I have a friend who deals in wholesaling high-end exotics and luxury cars. Before buying a Cadillac SUV, I asked him about the Rover. He said, “Paul, I don’t believe in service contracts, they rarely pay off for the buyer; but if you buy a pre-owned Rover, get the maintenance contract!”
Range Rover driver Alexian Lien & his wife Rosalyn Ng
I’m also a biker guy, an interest fostered by my dad. He was a rider and one of the first things he ever did for me was to put a 3-hp Briggs & Stratton engine on my tricycle. I’ve been riding ever since. Last time around I had a Fat Boy and a Gold Wing. I put 28,000 miles on the Wing in 18 months, so I’m not your typical weekend “put on the Harley shirt and go for a ride” type. My oldest son is a sport bike rider and knows most of KC’s version of these biker gang guys around town.
We see groups like that in Kansas City – often number from 25 to 100 bikers – who take to the Interstates to “stunt.” And there are reports of them shutting down all the lanes of 435 to do so. They’ll lock down traffic and then wheelie down 435 or where ever they happen to be with no respect for other drivers or the law.
And while there are cries from the biker community to arrest the driver of the Range Rover, there are some clues in the video that tell me he’s not to blame.
The first one being the taking of the video itself.
It’s common for crotch rocket dudes to strap a GoPro camera to their helmets or bikes to capture their stunt activity for posting on YouTube later. In this case, there are signs that the camera man was a ring leader of the biker gang.
When the video gets to :30 seconds, it shows a rider pulling alongside the Range Rover who slows down as he looks into the driver’s side window. You can’t tell intent, but it’s clear he slowed at the window, looked inside, then immediately pulled in front of the Rover and rapidly came to a halt, causing the Rover to bump the rear of his bike.
The driver pulls away and the chase ensues. At :50 seconds the first attempt at surrounding him takes place and you can see him lunge forward over at least two bikes as he leaves the scene again.
At 2:45 it’s a full on chase and it’s easy to see the rider wearing the camera is giving instructions, pointing ahead of himself and patting the top of his helmet, indicating, you go ahead, I’ll say back and film.
As the video rolls to 3:35 you see the first attempt to stop the driver of the Rover and he’s surrounded by bikes and riders but he escapes again. At 4:56 he’s surrounded and an attempt is made to open his door.
The end of the video is where they succeed in catching the Rover but the actual attack has been removed.
Here’s the question of the day:
If you were surrounded by these guys and had your wife and toddler in the car, what do you do?
Most accounts said the driver called 911 several times and reported the erratic riding, but they make no mention of whether or not he also reported what he felt was the impending danger to himself and his family.
Plaza Latte Land bikers
What rights do you think the biker dudes had, other than parking illegally in front of Latte Land?
What rights do you think the driver of the Range Rover had?
Me?
If I’m surrounded in the same exact way, in same exact circumstance, I’m running over as many bikers as I need to in order to assure my family’s safety.
Your thoughts?
Wouldn’t happen the same way here. This being Kansas or Missouri, surely the driver would have just pulled out his gun.
I suspect more than a few of these gang banger bikers were armed as well. Not really any good options available for the SUV driver other than to go all out bowling for strikes.
I would have run over all fools stupid enough to get in my way and the door would have been opened with force on fools that try to get in. Makes me seriously think about a heater in the glove box.
And I do ride bikes but do not condone anything these ballonheads were doing.
I hereby officially designate September 29th as National Mowing Day.
I had probably 50-60 of them come by on 435 in KS. I slowed so they could put as much distance between my vehicle and them as quickly as possible.
How many people have ended up in the morgue because they said, I’ll show them?
He said, she said until independent witnesses come forward with the whole story.
Studies show the more expensive the car, the less courteous the driver.
Moral of the story is if you go looking for trouble, trouble will certainly find you.
These squids use traction control, double-clutches and other technical advances by the motorcycle manufacturers to compensate for their poor driving skills. Using heavily traveled roads as your own Joey Chitwood Speed-O-Rama is enough to get you a trip to jail.
Even NYC has areas which are deserted where those anxious to cleanse the gene pool can pretend to be racers.
If I’d have been driving the Rover, there would have been a hell of lot more bikers with injuries.
The squidiots don’t understand what picking a fight outside of your weight class means.
most of the bikers I encounter on the street/road are very courteous.
They obey the laws…and I know many of them from longbranch
on 87th street and have done work with them over the years.
I volunteered with johnny dares bikers for babies and they
are great great people. They have a different lifestyle than I do..
I respect that but I’ve been to a biker party before and they
are crazy wild.ave
the ones who really are bad are the cyclists who think they
own the road. Around roundabouts they act like theyre in
the tour d france. They’re arrogant…unruly and seem to
want to snub their nose that they’re actually traffic when
I see many on college disobeying the lights and signals.
I know its probably just a few…but it seems the ones
in joco are especially bad.
I give them the benefit of the doubt because if I hit
them i’m the one going to have problems…but
they need to follow the rules.
gota agree with you Wilson on the safety of family first…
but the laws don’t see it that way…and with the kooky
laws in many states…you might find yourself with assalt
or felony attempted murder charges. My advice….pull over
call the police….and let them take charge…
once they enter your car or you feel they are attempting to harm
you or your family…then you kick some ass.
but ya gotta be careful these days…the laws very often
protect the agressors.
I drive defenisvly all the time…when I see things like that…I
slow down and stay away. Getting involved only creates problems
for me and I’m not risking everything I have unless they’re
f*cking with the family.
So you can just run over someone you already hit with your SUV as long as you got a kid with you? Excellent I’m gonna start today! Where do you live?
Yeah mfer you threaten my family ill blow your face off with my .357…you’ll never have had a chance
I would have locked my doors!
And closed your eyes and prayed to Jeebus. Let’s see how that works out with your wife and kid depending on you.
Here is a New York Post article.
http://nypost.com/2013/10/01/cops-bust-bike-thug/
Colin Flaherty who srote “White Girl Bleed A Lot” did some research on this bike gang and some others.
by COLIN FLAHERTY
Here is what the local newspapers did not report about the mob of dozens of motorcycle riders who chased, stopped and beat the father of a young Asian family on a Sunday afternoon in New York City: One, the mob was black, says the police report. Two, this is merely the latest of several such examples of racial violence on wheels, witnesses say.
Except this one is on video. All six minutes and 27 seconds of it. Recorded on the helmet-cam of one of the members of the black motorcycle mob.
“The newspapers say it was a motorcycle gang,” said one veteran member of New York’s law enforcement community. “That makes you think it was a white gang, like the Hell’s Angels. But it was the total opposite.”
Cops busted the psycho biker who allegedly started the confrontation that ended with an SUV driver being badly beaten — as sources said another cyclist hurt in the mayhem may be paralyzed for life, sources told the New York Post Tuesday.
Biker suspect Christopher Cruz, 28, of Passaic, NJ, was charged with reckless endangerment, reckless driving, endangering the welfare of a child and menacing in the attack on Alexian Lien, 33, who had been out with his family for a Sunday drive in Upper Manhattan.
As the video begins, a black Range Rover is heading north in the direction of Harlem. Driving is Lien, his wife and child are also in the car – now being pursued and surrounded by more than 50 bikers.
It is not clear what, if anything, happened before the video begins.
Twenty-seven seconds into the video, a biker performs a “brake check:” In moving traffic, he pulls his motorcycle up to a few feet in front of the Range Rover then, looking at the rear of his bike and the front of the car, he slows down until his rear tire contacts the car’s front bumper.
The Post picks up the scene:
“One biker then pulled directly in front and slowed down, forcing the SUV to stop, and the others converged on the Range Rover, laying their bikes down on the pavement to block the vehicle.
“The panicked dad then gunned the engine and ran over several bikes before speeding off with the pack in hot pursuit, police sources said Monday.”
Others say several members of the black mob attempted to open the SUV’s door.
With bikers signaling to each other, the high speed pursuit continued for another 50 blocks until “during one of the stops, one of the bikers slashed one or more tires on the SUV, forcing the driver to exit at West 178th Street in Washington Heights,” said the Post.
Finally, stuck in traffic on West 178th between Wadsworth and St. Nicholas avenues, the bikers surrounded the SUV, and several men attacked the vehicle with their fists and helmet, breaking at least one window. The bikers slashed the father’s tires while one opened the driver’s door and tried to pull the terrified dad out, sources said. The Range Rover came to a stop there because of heavy traffic and the deflated tires.
The video stops. The Post continues: “The crew then beat the man in front of his wife and child. The victim was rushed to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital with two black eyes, and also needed stitches on his face and chest.”
Video from a camera on one of the biker’s helmets shows a man with a Guyana sticker on the back of his blue bike watching as another biker smashed Lien’s window with his helmet.
The New York ABC affiliate called it a “brawl.” The web site Heavy.com said it was a case of “road rage” on the part of the SUV driver.
The video quickly went viral, with some people insisting that one or two of the bikers were “white or Hispanic,” despite the police report to the contrary. While others chastised the driver for antagonizing the bikers.
Despite initial reports that one biker sustained minor injuries, later it was learned the rapper Jay Meezee is hospitalized and may be paralyzed after the SUV allegedly ran him over.
Meezee’s father is a prominent Boston-area Hispanic evangelical minister. But his son’s appearance and music are racially ambiguous: The lyrics – and his frequent appearances on black radio – are full of N-Bombs and contain stories of prison, drug addiction, violence and life “in the hood.”
He also appears in several videos with large groups of motorcycles tearing through downtown streets. His motorcycle helmet brags he is “reckless.” And his pictures display him proudly showing off concrete burns typical of injuries received in motorcycle accidents.
His friends have set up a website to pay for his hospital bills. Many blame the SUV for running over Meezee for no reason whatsoever: Meezee was just trying to help his friend.
They chastised the driver for antagonizing the bikers.
“Sure wish I could have seen the whole video of that a– hole getting his a– kicked and dragged all over the street for being such a piece of s—,” said one commenter on YouTube. “Got some money and think they’re untouchable and can do whatever they want. Lucky that he only got his a– kicked and not killed.”
But several other New Yorkers also took to YouTube to report their experiences with that – and similar – mobs.
“I saw these a**holes in the city yesterday before the incident, Running red lights and causing traffic like they own the streets. Nothing but Thugs on bikes! I would’ve done the same,” said one.
Another spotted the same mob all over the city.
“These savages drove throughout Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and The Bronx yesterday. They were on sidewalks, they were going against traffic. They were looking for trouble and unfortunately for this man and his family, they were picked on.”
And not just yesterday:
During the warmer months, these gangs – comprised of hundreds of cycles – take over the West Side Highway (here) and the FDR. This has happened to me (and my family) twice. The cyclists harass the drivers, speeding up, slowing down to a crawl, weaving in and out, clogging traffic.
They surround the cars. Their intent is to intimidate, to harass and to cause an altercation. On one occasion, my wife and I were so frightened we pulled off and drove local. They were looking for a fight.
Michael Joiner could not help but notice the difference between how the press treated this roving band of dangerous bikers and the bikers who participated in the “Two Million Bikers” rally on 9/11 in Washington, D.C.
“In Washington recently, we had miles and miles of bike riders who were scorned or ignored by the liberal media,” said Michael Joiner, an actor and a comedian. “But the media is protecting the black bikers who terrorized this innocent family. I only wish Ted Nugent had been driving.”
I was in the wind for many years, had a Harley in the 70s, then a Norton 750 Commando, a Triple Lunger Triumph and sold my last Harley a couple years ago, a Night Ranger.
They were a lot of fun when I was young, but pretty dangerous. I was hit three or four times on my bikes. Teeth knocked loose, broken bones, the worse was a crushed heel and a severed Achilles Tendon. Ouch.
There were times when I rode with a pretty rough crowd out on the East Coast. These guys went to specific bars and were in no way on their way to choir practice.
I thought, even back then, that they were violent for the hell of it and I quit hanging around with them.
The worst, was a group called the “Confederate Angels”.
I was lucky I didn’t get killed.
These guys are looking for trouble, and, like Orphan says, if you look for it just a little, it will find you.
Chuck some day if I ever make it back to KC I want to buy you and Orphan beers and pick your brains. I was only a sperm until the very end of the 70s but from what I hear from grey beards the late 70s/early 80s was a rough spot for the biker lifestyle and a lot of people got burned out/ran out/beat down/killed. The scene is a lot different today but still carries the scars.
We sybarites look forward to the return of another prodigal son with cold ones in hand.
🙂
Sorry Paul, I forgot to answer the question.
I run them over, then put it in reverse and run them over again.
They got what they deserved. If any of them had died, fuck em. Imagine how terrifying the situation must have been. Guy is outnumbered 30-1. He doesn’t know if they are armed. He knows his tires are slashed and at the very least they are going to beat the living shit out of him. You know his wife is screaming hysterically and the baby is crying. Shit is getting bad. Criminals are beyond brazen. Somebody is going to go Bernard Goetz on some assholes that deserve it.
I don’t know and I don’t care what happened before the video starts. More than likely, the guy in the range rover probably didn’t move over for them or maybe cut one of the riders off. Whatever.
As soon as the bunch of idiots surround my vehicle and I have my family in the car, I would do anything and everything to keep them safe.
The only mistake this guy made was getting off the freeway. Despite the flat tires, he should have continued on at a safe speed till the cops had the chance to arrive.
Glad he wasn’t hurt any worse than he was, and any of the “bikers” that were hurt deserved it. Like wish he could have taken out more of them.
Video of the motorcyclist being released from the NYC hospital:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRYmKQeIiNs
I watched the video…couldn’t tell if this cycle gang was a black gang or not..
but regardless…if they did this…its jail time…
they did break the laws many tmes driving between stopped lanes…
how freaking dumb can you be?
and the head guy was famous for doing stunts on the streets…no wonder
the dudes in the hospital….
Lane splitting is the way to ride, it should be legal in all 50 states. I do it all the time, saves me from sitting in traffic.
Lane splitting should not be legal. It is dangerous as drivers are not expecting to see a motorcycle come between them and another car in the adjacent lane, plus the view of the bike is shrouded by the cars that close to them. A driver looking to change lanes might not even see them. Motorcycles should be subject to the same rules as cars. Motorcyclists counting on the drivers of cars to be more responsible than them are putting themselves at a great risk. They should, on the other hand, be even MORE defensive than automobile drivers. Their lives depend on it.
There are words to properly describe the disdian I have for riders who split lanes! Its all I can do to contain myself and not just open a car door when you see them coming, 60mph, when traffic is nearly at a stand still, plowing through their 45″ of “lane.” In states where it is legal, it shouldn’t be.
As far as I’m concerned Lien got less than what he deserved. Just because someone rides/drives like a jerk doesn’t give you the right to run then over – you use common sense and slow down. And when you hit someone you stop you don’t try to run them over. Call the police like a normal person don’t panic and run people down. If you watch the video at that time nothing was happening they were just standing around and he decided to run them over – that’s an attempted murder charge at least.
I think you misunderstand what this motorcycle mob had in mind and I can personally tell you- NO GOOD.
Like Chuck said these mobs openly look for trouble any prey on people that otherwise abide by the law and intimidate them and break the law by stopping traffic ON A FREEWAY mind you so they can do childish, stupid tricks.
To say the poor guy in the SUV deserved to have violence inflicted on him is simple minded and callow at the very least. He was the victim of law breaking and was trying to get away. All the POSs that got ran over got the exact justice they deserved.
Paralyzed? Tough turds, quit playing in traffic idiot.
Nonsense. Yes, they were behaving poorly. That’s not an excuse to escalate things by deliberately running into them. When I was learning to drive we learned a lot about defensive driving – trying to anticipate what the other person will do and compensate for it. If Lien had dove that the while situation would have been avoided. It was Lien himself who put his family in a dangerous situation by not using common sense.
Hey asshole…his wife called 911 4 times you should be shot in the face
Thanks for all the great comments people; just got in from setting up for First Fridays, always a party, so Ill check them closer after 3 or 4 hours sleep!
I guess this gang, “Hollywood Stunts” and others have a history of trouble in NY.
NYPD lets ‘pop-up’ bike gangs rampage
By Larry Celona, Kirstan Conley and Kate Sheehy
October 2, 2013 | 2:05 a.m.
New York Post
They’re hell on wheels — and NYPD cops won’t touch them.
The department has ordered cops not to chase after large biker groups like the one that beat a driver near the West Side Highway because of the risk that innocent bystanders or the riders will be killed, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
[How is killing one of the motorcycle riders “a risk”? That would be a feature, not a bug. As for the “risk” that the NYPD might kill innocent bystanders, by not doing their job, the cops guarantee that innocents will be grievously harmed, and possibly killed.]
“The people who are doing this aren’t stopping when police try to pull them over,” one source said, noting that the bikers can simply jump sidewalks and mow down pedestrians to flee cops.
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.
They typically belong to motorcycle clubs that loosely organize rides up to several times a week in the summer in Manhattan.
They’re loud and can be reckless, but they are not usually involved in beating people up, one source noted.
The riders usually brag about their tricks by posting footage online.
“You go on YouTube, you could see dozens of [these rides] all along the West Side Highway, the Major Deegan, even one time in Times Square,’’ a law-enforcement source said.
Sunday’s ride was supposed to go through Times Square, but the NYPD kept it out.
Cops set up checkpoints around the area, and pushed the riders uptown — where they clashed with Manhattan Internet exec Alexian Lien, who was out driving with his family.
The group included riders from clubs such as Orion in Brooklyn and Firstline Soldiers in New Rochelle.
Two bikers who allegedly terrorized and beat Lien during a wild chase on the West Side Highway have been arrested.
Footage of their chase of the man was posted on the Web site Hollywood Stuntz — creating a serious problem for one unrelated New York company.
“It’s a mess,” said Bob Cotter, who runs the film-business firm Hollywood Stunts.
“When the news says [the Web site’s name], they don’t say its Hollywood Stuntz with a ‘Z.’ People are calling us and threatening us, saying that they want to do the same thing to us that [the bikers] did to [their victim].’’
If avoidance is not possible, everything I’ve learned and experienced in life has confirmed a simple tenet: hit first, hit hard, hit for keeps and keep hitting until they are unable to respond.
Acting on any other ‘philosophy’ is placing your life in the hands of others.
Had I been in the vehicle I would have attempted to leave the scene before the cyclists swarmed the vehicle. Failing that and they had pressed their attack I would have aggressively defended my life to within millimeters of all of theirs.
Obviously, there were problems, here is a story, about undercover cops, who infiltrated the gang.
http://nypost.com/2013/10/04/undercover-cop-stood-by-as-bikers-beat-dad/
Somebody who is scared is even more dangerous and unpredictable than somebody who is angry. Those bikers were stupid to assume the guy would not run over them and just let them harm him and his family. Even a small animal will attack if they are backed into a corner like that. At that point, you are not even thinking about the legal ramifications, but about survival.
It was only a matter of time before these nitwits got ran over doing this stupid wilding on motorcycles crap.
If I see this kind of $hit going on in front of me it is ramming speed time.