Black Biker Gang Behind SUV Attack in NYC

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.

{snip}

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.”

{snip}

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.”

{snip}

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.

{snip}