Humboldt Park cyclist attacked

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20140326/humboldt-park/machete-wield...

I'm not a violent guy, but, these idiots need a beating.

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Permalink Reply by daWillinChi on March 27, 2014 at 8:05am

Oh boy!

envane (69 furlongs) said:

Bored young males have been jumping people for forever.

I know this. Back where I grew up in Arkansas I used to run with some boys, we'd randomly stomp on some black guy that crossed our path. I'm ashamed and embarrassed of it now, but in retrospect, it was just teenage hi-jinks.

Permalink Reply by ChiBeerGuy on March 27, 2014 at 8:51am

This talk of the Knockout game is off topic. The OP on reddit suspected it was the Knockout Game not the news outlet. The whole thing is a red herring. We should be worried about random violence and what to do about it.

Permalink Reply by Carter O'Brien on March 27, 2014 at 9:13am

The problem is that if it's random, you really can't do anything about it by definition. I think what this activity is or isn't called by the media is irrelevant, it's assault and battery at the end of the day.

What people might want to consider is to stay extra aware in this general area until someone is caught & to follow your gut instincts.  If someone is making a beeline towards you, chances are low it's because they have altruistic intentions, so err on the side of caution and make sure you give yourself as much space as possible when passing groups of people. All common sense stuff, but I am always surprised to see a cyclist with say, earbuds on, isolating themselves from their surroundings. 



ChiBeerGuy 9.5 said:

This talk of the Knockout game is off topic. The OP on reddit suspected it was the Knockout Game not the news outlet. The whole thing is a red herring. We should be worried about random violence and what to do about it.

Permalink Reply by ChiBeerGuy on March 27, 2014 at 9:19am

I wondering if having a loud horn on the bike would help as a deterrent.

Permalink Reply by millenial removing Bernie tattoo on March 27, 2014 at 9:56am

Actually, these attacks aren't entirely "random" which is why Davis Moore could post five (5) statistic- and data-free articles somehow arguing that nothing is happening. Far from the media stirring it up, this is something that the advent of cell phone video and web streaming has brought to the public's attention, and MSM furiously tries to dismiss because the pattern doesn't fit their ideology. But, rest assured, if it were mostly whites attacking mostly non-whites, you'd never hear the end of "the knocKKKout game" on CNN, NYT, Daily Mail, etc.

I don't really know if these incidents are on the rise or falling, because there simply aren't any statistics on "knockout games," but then again neither does anyone else. Overall the crime rate countrywide is falling. I don't see any reason to specifcally worry about this sort of attack. Just use the same common-sense you'd use to prevent yourself from becoming the victim of any other crime. As ChiBeerGuy said, its a red herring.

Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on March 27, 2014 at 10:02am

Kimball becomes Homan at North, but yeah, this is Humboldt Park. Added to my list of HP attacks. This may actually be the incident I was looking for, even though I thought it was earlier in the decade. 

The incident I'm thinking of isn't Jana's because that's in Logan Square and much more recent. 


Duppie said:

Does Division and Kimball count as Humboldt Park?

If so, then this thread from a 2009 attack is appropriate for this thread. Graphic pictures warning!

http://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/529404-ever-have-clean-blood-of...

Steven Vance said:

I am trying to recall and dig up news stories about prior attacks on people cycling in Humboldt Park. I found a report on Chicago Fixed Gear forum (no news story) but that was in 2011. I remember one earlier, closer to when I moved to Chicago, in 2006 or 2007, where a guy was cycling down California Avenue and was hit from behind (with a bat?). 

Permalink Reply by Kris Hendry on March 27, 2014 at 12:24pm

Reading articles like this makes me scared to bike outside the boundaries I know.

Permalink Reply by Eli on March 28, 2014 at 4:24am

Steven, I think the incident you are thinking of was the 2009 attack on Christopher Dilts. His blog is no longer online but it's on the Internet Archive here. He was hit with a 2x4 or baseball bat while biking on California by Humboldt Park.

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on March 28, 2014 at 5:02am

Davis! thank you for writing the post I was hoping someone would write and doing it about eleven times as well as I could ever hope to do myself. Bravo.

Davis Moore said:

Wow. Just wow.

Besides having some weirdly (although given you prior post, unsurprisingly) racial undertones, that entirely misses the point. Those articles aren't arguing that "nothing is happening".

They're arguing that packaging the somewhat routine and fairly random assaults as some recent phenomenon such as a "knockout game" or "wilding" or whatever is a media tactic, and one that caters to a certain mentality that is always on the lookout for "the enemy", read: young black men. All of which just serves to reinforce a narrative that certain people are predisposed to certain behaviors based on their skin color. Which has another term: racism. But hey, fear sells! 

When the truth is, the people most likely to be running around randomly jumping people are young men, living in poverty, with few job opportunities, living in underserved communities, from homes in which many of the adult male role models have been incarcerated, and in which their schools have disintegrated and their general outlook with regards to their future life and what it holds for them is relatively nil.

When people have nothing to lose, no shit they don't give a fuck about anyone else. But hey, let's not talk about that, cuz that's boooooring.

And the correlation between those factors and a certain set of skin tones has everything to do with institutionalized and structural racism and the power dynamics and structures that it perpetuates.

I'm not excusing anyones actions, but just seeing a story about some young black males attacking a lone guy on a bike just to fuck shit up, and leapfrogging to the "explanation" that "it's another case of that 'knockout game' they keep talking about on Fox News" and leaving it at that, is some seriously facile and latently racist bullshit. 


envane (69 furlongs) said:

Actually, these attacks aren't entirely "random" which is why Davis Moore could post five (5) statistic- and data-free articles somehow arguing that nothing is happening. ... But, rest assured, if it were mostly whites attacking mostly non-whites, you'd never hear the end of "the knocKKKout game" on CNN, NYT, Daily Mail, etc.

Permalink Reply by millenial removing Bernie tattoo on March 28, 2014 at 7:36am


Serge Lubomudrov said:

Well said, Davis.

As I've always thought, if one treats people like animals, they will behave like animals. Why anyone surprised?

Who is treating whom like animals?

Permalink Reply by Kris Hendry on March 28, 2014 at 11:46am

Not sure of the legality but I carry bear spray. Which is much stronger than standard mace. Is Humbolt Park considered the North side or West side???

Permalink Reply by Kris Hendry on March 28, 2014 at 3:41pm

That's interesting H'.  I recently took a cab home from the office and the driver kept bragging to me that he didn't need the GPS, it's all just a grid. I consider the bear spray about as strong as whats issued to law enforcement. I took a women's self defense class back in college and they recommended it.

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