Description
4 off-road vehicles tearing up the Clinton Ave. School fields afternoon of Sat. 4/5/14 Brazen riding on sidewalks and near kids' playgrounds. Disregard for safety all-around. Tired posting about this since nothing seems to change (although it seems the NHPD is doing their job here).
Mayor, any thoughts? Or the scofflaws can have their way and disrespect the quality of life of the community. When taxes go up will this magically go away?
32 Comments
Lee Cruz (Guest)
Kathleen Galo (Registered User)
Fair Haven! (Registered User)
I too am deeply unhappy about the sense of lawlessness the bikers create. I would like to use the Clinton School fields to play baseball with my children—but having been on the fields with my kids when the bikers were tearing it apart, I feel like families have been chased from the field. Who in their right mind would want to put their kids in that situation?
So, what do we do? Does anyone think that the Mayor's office even looks at this forum? Or anyone from the police department? There are so many threads about this, and NOTHING seems to have changed since the handful of arrests last summer.
Does anyone have ideas on how can we get the mayor's attention on this? Perhaps this is far beyond the power of the mayor's office and we need resources and attention at the state level? I wonder if wider media attention would help? The problem seems to exist in various forms in multiple cities: The "12 o'clock boys" film about the Baltimore bikers; and this recent Times article about NYC: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/nyregion/warm-weather-brings-out-banned-vehicles-and-officers-pounce.html
I welcome any and all thoughts about how concerned citizens might organize to find a peaceful way to get these bikes off our streets and out of our parks.
FairHavenRes (Registered User)
Lawles is as Lawless does (Guest)
“If, with the dirt bikes or the motorcycles or anything, people are breaking the law and harassing their neighbors, the N.Y.P.D. will step in and we will do it aggressively, because that’s how you keep order.”
NHPD & Mayor Harp -educate yourselves with the above article in NY.
Apparently Harpo does not want to keep order in New Haven unless its perks and contracts to friends and constituents.
NewHavenJude (Registered User)
Catherine (Registered User)
I saw them on Rt 80 near Walmart. They had white handkerchiefs covering their faces and were driving wildly, doing wheelies. This was Sunday at around 4pm.
I'm a renter, I was drawn in by the nice old houses on Quinnipiac. But I'm going to leave. The area could be nice but I guess too many dirt bags live around here.
FairHavenRes (Registered User)
Jude I think the difference is in the fact that if a police car were chasing you, you'd actually stop. These riders don't, thus it's incredibly difficult to catch and identify them. In a car vs dirt bike chase, the dirt bike will win--they can outmaneuver a car every time. Personally I don't want to even see that chase happen in a neighborhood (okay, once in a while I do :)
The neighbors of these riders KNOW that they ride and KNOW where they live, but aren't saying anything. That needs to change!
NewHavenBorn&Raised (Guest)
NewHavenJude (Registered User)
NewHavenBorn&Raised (Guest)
BB (Registered User)
BB (Registered User)
NewHavenBorn&Raised (Guest)
Fairhavener (Guest)
BB (Registered User)
doug (Guest)
Willy (Guest)
Willy (Guest)
Willy (Guest)
Willy (Guest)
Fairhavener (Guest)
So we know who they are, where they live (presumably), the color makes and decals of
their bikes since residents have risked their well being and posted photos, we know where they ride, how they ride (recklessly and illegally always, we now we know their names and even their hangouts and we get to watch them in high definition on YouTube.
Oh and I forgot that a group New Haven residents from all neighborhoods got together to plan in how to help pass legislation to increase fines effectively closing a loophole on the laws against this type if reckless endangerment.
Lastly, their are also likely hundreds of calls to NHPD non-emergency (203-946-6316) and 911.
NHPD and Mayor Harp--what else can we as community residents do here? Unless one risks an altercation with these packs of unafraid teens--and clearly NOT much frightens then by way of laws--I am not sure what else the community can add to there efforts. This has been going on for much too long.
NewHavenJude (Registered User)
Police District Manager for East Shore (Registered User)
FairHavenRes (Registered User)
FairHavener (Registered User)
Sargeant: I know you guys are doing GREAT work with limited resources. The community really appreciates you and the members of your patrol teams, I personally, after several conversations with you and members of your team get the difficulty of the issue and understand (and I personally agree with) the no-chase policy.
I only wished you received more help on this, if the idea is to help build commerce and increase economic activity in our residential neighborhoods (in addition to downtown) a focus on all crime including quality of life crimes is needed.
Mayor De Blasio said it best when asked about this same issue, and the way NYC is dealing with it recently: “Everyone has to follow the law in this town (NYC).” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/nyregion/warm-weather-brings-out-banned-vehicles-and-officers-pounce.html
NewHavenJude (Registered User)
NewHavenJude (Registered User)
New HavenBorn&Raised (Guest)
Kathleen Galo (Registered User)
Fair Haven! (Registered User)
Thank you, NHPD for the comment here, and for all your work so far.
Thinking about legislative angles: does anyone have ideas about specific people in the General Assembly to whom we could write or submit petitions asking for more resources dedicated to solving this problem? Is this issue being actively taken up by anyone in the state senate or house?
Or does anyone know if Murphy or Blumenthal are interested in working on this issue?
(And in the meantime, I'll google and post whatever I find...)
Closed FairHavener (Registered User)