Another Random attack

uberwolf

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0218/breaking8.html

today's Times wrote:

Gardaí in Dublin have appealed for witnesses after a 39-year-old cyclist was assaulted with a baseball bat by two men in what appears to be a random attack during rush hour yesterday evening.

Gardaí at Kevin Street in Dublin are investigating the incident which happened at Victoria Quay at around 5pm.

They are seeking two males who were travelling in what may have been a light coloured Peugeot 206 car who assaulted a male cyclist with a baseball bat.

The cyclist was travelling from James Joyce Bridge onto the quays where the assault took place.

The injured man was removed to St James’s Hospital where he received medical treatment although his injuries are not thought to be serious.

A garda spokesperson said the gardaí were trying to establish a motive for the assault but said that it appeared that it was a random attack.

The gardaí are asking for anyone who may have witnessed the incident to contact Kevin Street Garda Station at 01-6669400, the Garda Confidential Line 1-800-666-111 or any garda station.

FFS. Scum. Surely they have camera's on the entire quays.

Redjeep!

Worrying. Very worrying.

(link deleted as my thread was merged with uberwolfs. We both posted at exactly the same time)

Caroline_ie

No words to describe my disgust, this is a disgrace. I don't understand how people can take pleasure hurting people.
... I hope the cyclist is ok.

I bumped into ROK_ON the other day who told me there was a bunch of idiots egging cyclists and joggers in the park the other day as well.

ROK ON

Terrible. Hope person recovers.

Maybe not as serious but I was pelted with eggs 2 weeks ago on Khyber Pass in Phoenix Park. Lads in a small car drove at me and let fire with a load of eggs.
Now that road is a no through road for cars so they were waiting to ambush cyclists joggers etc.
Scum.

Lumen

How many of you carry a gun as part of your cycling equipment?

enda1

Let's just wait and see the reason.

There's nothing to say it was because he was a cyclist that he was attacked, so chill a bit before the facts come through.

DBCyc

Total scumbags. I cycle that way a couple of times a day. Poor bloke, hope he makes a speedy recovery.

Lumen

enda1 wrote: »

There's nothing to say it was because he was a cyclist that he was attacked

Does it matter?

niceonetom

Lumen wrote: »

Does it matter?

To the victim? Probably not.

To me? Well, yeah, it does.

If the guys in the car had an ulterior motive of which we are ignorant then the bike is totally incidental, but if they set out to teach a cyclist a lesson it's a whole different picture, one which might conceivably involve me, or any other cyclist.

Was a guy on a bike beaten up? Or a guy beaten up because he was on a bike?

DBCyc

enda1 wrote: »

Let's just wait and see the reason.

There's nothing to say it was because he was a cyclist that he was attacked, so chill a bit before the facts come through.

Irish Times wrote:

A garda spokesperson said the gardaí were trying to establish a motive for the assault but said that it appeared that it was a random attack.

The Gardaí seem to think that it is random and there was no motive. This has happened many times before with objects been thrown at cyclists and cyclists being pushed off the road by scumbags in vans. Just search this forum.

blorg

As has been mentioned on here before people have lost eyes from supposedly innocent "egging."

lukester

blorg wrote: »

As has been mentioned on here before people have lost eyes from supposedly innocent "egging."

Nurse blinded


Re the attack, if it was crims beating up an associate, then I'll sleep easy tonight. If it was a random attack, I will start packing heat.

MadHatter

Pure scum alright. Hopefully someone got their reg and they can be found. Find it hard to believe it was totally random though, wonder did the cyclist do something, quite possibly unknowingly, to light the very short fuse these guys obviously have?

ROK ON wrote: »

Maybe not as serious but I was pelted with eggs 2 weeks ago on Khyber Pass in Phoenix Park. Lads in a small car drove at me and let fire with a load of eggs.
Now that road is a no through road for cars so they were waiting to ambush cyclists joggers etc.
Scum.

A Nissan Micra by any chance? The missus was out for a cycle on Sat in the park and got hassle from 4 lads in a Micra, including verbal abuse, hand brake turns in front of her and aggressive driving in her direction. She came across a couple of park wardens on Military Road and told them of the carry on - the wardens ran to their car to go find them only for the idiots in the Micra to come driving up the road in their direction.

The wife didn't hang about to find out what happened but ended up cutting her cycle short due to all the hassle.

Explosive_Cornflake

blorg wrote: »

As has been mentioned on here before people have lost eyes from supposedly innocent "egging."

I nearly lost an eye alright. Egg from a car going the other way.
Cornea was cut 80% of the way through.

hawkwing

Was in the park Tue at 1710 and a small light blue/green car (maybe micra/punto as i was a bit away) pulled into the Papal Car Park and started doing ridiculous spinning and reversing etc,then about 5 lads got out for a while and were doing all sorts of messing,shortly after the wardens were closing up the carpark and they left. i waited for a while before going running as they looked like trouble and didn't want to cross their path.

ROK ON

@Madh. Couldn't say make but it was definitely a small car as I drove after them before they got away. Probably dumb on my part.

Golfanatic

i was nearly kicked of my bike bout 2 weeks ago coming from glenageary post office into monkstown when two scumbags raised a foot and kicked my bars and me in the kidney, saved my self from near certain death!!! i was wobbling all over the place, i would of been killed by a car and they just walked on laughing

Drapper

believe it or not the folowing two happened to me in the last 2 weeks:-

1. Shot out the window of the car with a pellet gun at the new roundabout in the phoenix park while almost stationary. The lads were in a jap import toyota starlet I think. Noting bad, but a bit of a shock...

2. On the carpenterstown road, I was flashed with I think was a green lazer, like some player was dazzled with in the premiership last year. straight into the eyes.

Thank god my bike control is grand but it was shocked by both events.

There are allot of arseholes out there looking for 'a laugh' that couls cause serios injury.

D

SleepDoc

Sickening attack, the poor man. After years of cycling in Dublin without major hassle, in the last two weeks I have had eggs and potatos thrown at me (missed on both occassions). Hate to make generalisations, but the kids that threw them were from a certain socio-economic grouping.

Caroline_ie

SleepDoc wrote: »

the kids that threw them were from a certain socio-economic grouping.

Maybe they should start cycling the bikes they steal ...

Ghost Rider

In part, we may have our enlightened friends in the Herald/Herald AM to thank for the upsurge in attacks on cyclists. Random, the attacks may be. Unmotivated, I suspect they're not.

blorg

MadHatter wrote: »

Pure scum alright. Hopefully someone got their reg and they can be found. Find it hard to believe it was totally random though, wonder did the cyclist do something, quite possibly unknowingly, to light the very short fuse these guys obviously have?

I can guarantee these **** do it totally randomly, my girlfriend is regularly pelted with miscellaneous items although not eggs so far. I've had similar myself but not so often.

Think about it, the cyclist hardly did something and they "just happened" to have eggs to hand in the car. No, they got the eggs to go egging.

EDIT: sorry, forgot OP was about baseball bats. Sounds possibly less random all right although not outside the bounds of possibility.

MadHatter

blorg wrote: »

I can guarantee these **** do it totally randomly, my girlfriend is regularly pelted with miscellaneous items although not eggs so far. I've had similar myself but not so often.

Think about it, the cyclist hardly did something and they "just happened" to have eggs to hand in the car. No, they got the eggs to go egging.

EDIT: sorry, forgot OP was about baseball bats. Sounds possibly less random all right although not outside the bounds of possibility.

Yes I was referring to the original incident with the baseball bats when questioning the randomness of the attack. Having said that, my initial interpretation of the incident was that these guys got out of the car and assaulted the cyclist. On re-reading, it doesn't indicate the exact nature of the assult, so possibly that just whacked the guy from behind as they were driving passed - hence it could have been totally random.

Agree that the egging incidents are pre-meditated, the only element of randomness is the victim of the attack.

Iron Enthusiast

Last year I was cycling down the hill at the back of the Phoenix Park when I passed a blue punto and heard an almightly clatter.

Turned out the passengers in the Punto had fecked a €2 coin straight at my head. Coin took a chunk out of my helmet, so if it had struck my face it certainly would have shattered bone. (I was doing approx 30mph downhill and the car must have been doing something similar, meaning the coin was travelling around 50/60mph when it struck).

It really makes me angry when the people who actually make the decision to get up and do something with their lives / time, are the victims of the ignorant behaviour of scumbags who add nothing to life:mad:

I'm cutting this rant short before it turns into an essay......

DirkVoodoo

Zero tolerance, that's the only solution. Guys like this don't know the meaning of the word "consequences". Firstly anyone using their car for assaults like this should be banned for life, car taken away and crushed into a little cube, then send them off to do charity work for the next 10 years or help rebuild Haiti, see how f**king lucky they had it up until now.

seamus

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Zero tolerance, that's the only solution. Guys like this don't know the meaning of the word "consequences". Firstly anyone using their car for assaults like this should be banned for life, car taken away and crushed into a little cube, then send them off to do charity work for the next 10 years or help rebuild Haiti, see how f**king lucky they had it up until now.

IIRC there was a guy on after hours a couple of years back going mad because him and his mates were driving around Donnybrook throwing eggs at people and were caught by the Gardai. He was facing a criminal prosecution for assault and a driving ban and was complaining that it was only a little bit of harmless fun and that he was being "picked on" by the Gardai.

That's the problem here - these kinds of idiots have no idea about the basic physics behind these things.

MadHatter

These egg attacks seem to be a lot more common than I had imagined. :mad:

Until now I've always cycled without glasses, unless it was particulary sunny and I'd wear dark shades. The other day I ordered some cycling glasses with interchangeable lenses. Having read all this, I'll be making sure to wear them all the time from now on.

tomasrojo

Ghost Rider wrote: »

In part, we may have our enlightened friends in the Herald/Herald AM to thank for the upsurge in attacks on cyclists. Random, the attacks may be. Unmotivated, I suspect they're not.

Perhaps Councillors Gerry Breen and Bill Tormey could make a statement. Clearly someone has decided to deal with the cycling extremists directly. They could give the gentlemen a medal.

</sarcasm just in case it's not obvious>

gimmeaminute

Someone should talk to Joe. Then we can have the offenders burnt down by his listeners.

dubmess

About a year ago I was sprayed in the face and all over my clothes with shaving foam. 4 lads in a car.

Thankfully none of it got in my eyes and I was able to pull over and stop safely. Had to get my suit dry cleaned though

I'm a courier and used to close calls, but this really shook me. The wilful disregard for another person's safety was chilling.

Captain Havoc

Egging is common, particullarly in the summer time. Had supermacs cups thrown at me from some guys hanging out the sun roof of a 4x4 the other evening while I was walking. The scariest situation I have experienced is a group of D4s in a VW golf driving up my gary on Killiney hill, shouting at me. I've had my bottom pinched, which I admit I liked. A beer bottle was thrown at me last year (in a place totally stupid to be going through in the dark, the quays in KK), I was locked myself at the time and went back to discuss the situation, which the next morning I realised was totally stupid.

Zero tollerance, I admire your sense of humour Dirk.

Jawgap

the worst I've had flung at me was on one of the few hot days we had last year when one helpful citizen decided to spray me with Coke (a-cola, not the Bolivian marching powder).

The subsequent 30+km in a sweaty and sticky state was unpleasant to say the least. I stopped at a shop and bought some water to wash away what I could, but still not nice.

Other than that anything else thrown at me has missed!!

az2wp0sye65487

WTF is wrong with some people?!?

Why would; or how could anyone decide to do any of what's been mentioned here??

I've only recently started cycling myself, and can only imagine what could happen if you're flying down the road & lose balance / concentration because some idiot decides to throw something at you...

eightyfish

This is horrible, really horrible.

I am glad I have a heavy lock just under my saddle.

DirkVoodoo

Captain Havoc wrote: »

Zero tolerance, I admire your sense of humour Dirk.

Deadly serious, no time for that kind of carry on. Send them off to work in some of the poorer areas of the country/world doing volunteer work and maybe they will get some level of respect for other people. Whatever about speeding on the motorway, which is still dangerous, but using your car as a means of assaulting people for fun should show any judge that you are totally unfit to drive, ever. It's not like it might even be considered accidental, or a rush of blood to the head like overtaking stupidly or taking a corner too fast (not excusing these, but no one sets out of their house thinking "I'm going to drive aggresively and knock someone down), it's totally premeditated so the best deterrent is to let people know that IF you try it, you will never drive again.

kona

Bunch of ****ing cowards.

This country is full of them, on their own they are nothing more than sheep, retarded sheep.

5 miunutes alone with them. Thats all you would need, that and a sadistic mind, that in those glorious 5 mins, would inflict damage that will be a reminder to these cowards for the rest on their lives. Hinge joints will be the most painful, Knees and elbows, and if youve time, their thumbs and ankles.

2 lads, and a bat what the ****. I hope the cyclist went out swinging.

If noticed in the last month, with the threads here and the attitude on the roads, there is a bad atmoshpere to cyclists, Somebody is going to be killed on the road soon by a maniac who feels they own the road, unless somebody does something.

These councillers have ALOT to answer for. So does the recent increase in ****ing braindead gob****es on bikes. No lights, No sense, No stopping at Red Lights, No Manners. ****ing pricks.

Something has to be done soon.

tomasrojo

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

[..] so the best deterrent is to let people know that IF you try it, you will never drive again.

Well, not for a long time anyway. Perhaps it's just because I seldom drive, but for pre-meditated acts like this, I think a long ban on driving is not excessive. If you're stupid enough to think that this is merely a lark or a prank, you're far too stupid to be allowed to drive for the foreseeable future.

kona

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Deadly serious, no time for that kind of carry on. Send them off to work in some of the poorer areas of the country/world doing volunteer work and maybe they will get some level of respect for other people. Whatever about speeding on the motorway, which is still dangerous, but using your car as a means of assaulting people for fun should show any judge that you are totally unfit to drive, ever. It's not like it might even be considered accidental, or a rush of blood to the head like overtaking stupidly or taking a corner too fast (not excusing these, but no one sets out of their house thinking "I'm going to drive aggresively and knock someone down), it's totally premeditated so the best deterrent is to let people know that IF you try it, you will never drive again.

I wanna Thank this post more!

DirkVoodoo

kona wrote: »

I wanna Thank this post more!

I'm something of a nazi deep down.

I can forgive a lot of driving behaviour I see because I know as a driver I have done the same (knee-jerk impulse type stuff), I've gone too fast down the motorway, flashed my lights at people using the overtaking lane of the motorway as a "go slow lane", etc. But I can't excuse the person who packs a baseball bat in their car, goes out with their mates and looks for a guy riding his bike to knock down. Assuming the reason was he was just on a bike and they were looking for kicks of course. It's pretty sick and pretty sad and it makes me wonder about how they behave on the road the rest of the time.

blorg

eightyfish wrote: »

This is horrible, really horrible.

I am glad I have a heavy lock just under my saddle.

I condemn any insinuation that you would use a heavy lock to cause criminal damage to the property or person of someone who just assaulted you.

Jawgap

Other countries - e.g. UK - take away your driver's licence for non-motoring stuff because they realise that a licence is valued and people see its removal as a genuine punishment rather than a tap on the wrist.

I wouldn't have a problem with them doing that here - also in the UK you you are not banned, the licence is cancelled so you have to go and sit the test again- that would put a lot of manners on people.......although there'd still be plenty of idiots.

droidus

Can I also humbly suggest that publicly fantasising about acts of violence and torture against motorists (no matter how atrocious their behaviour), is not a good look.

kona

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

I'm something of a nazi deep down.

I can forgive a lot of driving behaviour I see because I know as a driver I have done the same (knee-jerk impulse type stuff), I've gone too fast down the motorway, flashed my lights at people using the overtaking lane of the motorway as a "go slow lane", etc. But I can't excuse the person who packs a baseball bat in their car, goes out with their mates and looks for a guy riding his bike to knock down. Assuming the reason was he was just on a bike and they were looking for kicks of course. It's pretty sick and pretty sad and it makes me wonder about how they behave on the road the rest of the time.

Either way its sick. Cowards.

kona

droidus wrote: »

Can I also humbly suggest that publicly fantasising about acts of violence and torture against motorists (no matter how atrocious their behaviour), is not a good look.

They were not motorists, they were two cowards who jumped out of a car and beat the **** out of a cyclist.

Im sure motorists would want to distance themselves from these Cowards.

tomasrojo

blorg wrote: »

I condemn any insinuation that you would use a heavy lock to cause criminal damage to the property or person of someone who just assaulted you.

So do I. C'mon everybody else. (This is going to be a long thread.)

Ghost Rider

I also "condemn such behaviour" but reserve the right to punctuate my sentences as I see fit without challenging the rule of law.

Jawgap

I just look on it that the people who do this are thoughtless, sociopathic idiots who, for whatever reason, don't know any better. They're not worth a second thought and certainly not worth getting in trouble over.

Chances are they will get done for something sometime - as my brother (a Garda) once said to me - "if they weren't so thick, we wouldn't catch so many of them."

kona

Jawgap wrote: »

I just look on it that the people who do this are thoughtless, sociopathic idiots who, for whatever reason, don't know any better. They're not worth a second thought and certainly not worth getting in trouble over.

Chances are they will get done for something sometime - as my brother (a Garda) once said to me - "if they weren't so thick, we wouldn't catch so many of them."

If two people pull a bat on you and attack you, If you have a heavy lock, I'd be very much For swinging and taking at least one with me to the hospital.

That way they havn't got away. They have damage, and the gards know where they are. Since they are Cowards, you just need to damage one, when the gards get them, they will sing like canaries.

SerialComplaint

dubmess wrote: »

About a year ago I was sprayed in the face and all over my clothes with shaving foam. 4 lads in a car.

Thankfully none of it got in my eyes and I was able to pull over and stop safely. Had to get my suit dry cleaned though

I'm a courier and used to close calls, but this really shook me. The wilful disregard for another person's safety was chilling.

A courier in a suit! Now there's posh. Did you charge higher rates than other couriers?

Back on topic, I'm wondering is there anything we can do to ensure that those two darlings with the bat don't get away with it. Maybe some kind of event at the location of the incident to try and find witnesses? Or a Facebook group to spread news of this, and warn people (cyclists, drivers, peds) to keep any eye out for this stuff and alert the Gardai immediately?

Doctor Bob

Heard about this in work today; just saw the thread now. Cowardly, shameful and downright disgusting behaviour.

I agree that carrying eggs smacks of premeditation. But how many people just happen to have a baseball bat in their car?

gman2k

A lot of internet warriors on this thread, yawn.
Real life is different of course, you generally don't know you are going to be attacked, attacker has the advantage, shock and dazed is the usual after effect for the victim, not I'll bate the head off two lads with my heavy lock etc etc.