rstnme wrote:
But I wouldn't call a community of joyriders thugs
I'm pretty much willing to call a group of people thugs based on their actions. A group that decides to take action on a sense of vigilante justice, in a region of the world that has a comparatively effective police force, by pulling a person from their vehicle and physically beating that person — that group of people deserves to be called thugs, independent of whether the person did something that they allowed themselves to be provoked by.
Whether the community as a whole gets to be called thugs, well, that's why I presented quotes from the self-styled leadership of that community itself. Based on what I read, it's probably a bit too far to call the community on average thugs, or a gang, but it's clear they've presented themselves as a high-risk group for such behavior, documented at least two years into the past. I certainly don't hold a system to blame that restricts that high-risk behavior from being around more densely populated areas. Honestly, I think the system has the responsibility to do that, until the community can manage to bring down its own pattern of risk to something more normal.
As for using you as a source, you give some good insight into the conditions of the environment where this specific event took place, but your description of the event itself was, by your own admission, very third-hand. You acknowledged that when you wrote it, which was great; but that meant the rest of the comments had nothing concrete to use to have any real understanding of any party involved beyond the initially linked NY Post article. And plenty of insinuation was made about whether we were giving the group of bikers a fair shake or whether a larger system was to blame. So, I hunted down the bikers' own presentation of themselves, direct from their own mouths; now each person can come to their own, better informed conclusion.
From that, I think the people condemning the group have been fair in their assignment of blame, even though some language I feel has been exaggerated. I certainly don't hold the system accountable for this. I think it's the system's job to reasonably limit risk (let's not go slippery sloping this, please), and I don't think, based on their own presentation of their character, this specific community is able to internally handle that well. So, I'm not surprised that this event occurred, just glad it didn't get to occur in Times Square itself.
Quote:
I wouldn't say a guy helping his idiot friend deserved to be smooshed by a land rover.
In one sense I recognize that you're exposed to a certain risk of consequences based on the kind of person you are and the kind of people your friends are. I think "deserve" is a pretty heavy word, but it's pretty synonymous with being held liable for your own actions, and then getting the consequences you reap from them. Based on what I've seen of the situation, I certainly don't hold the guy in the SUV to blame for anyone who got hurt.
Maybe this particular biker didn't deserve what he got, to be paralyzed and in a coma. Maybe he was the nice guy of the group. But did the group as a whole deserve for someone within it, in general, to get hurt like this? Probably. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it won't make the group actually think twice about the group of thugs that they are.