Plan B Forum

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Crit ... 475879.php



Critical Mass event turns ugly in the Marina district

By Evan Sernoffsky

Updated 4:00 pm, Monday, August 31, 2015




A YouTube video showing a tense altercation between Critical Mass cyclists and a driver in San Francisco’s Marina district captured a man pounding a woman’s Zipcar and smashing her window with a bike lock.

The video was purportedly shot Friday night at 8:16 p.m. on Marina Boulevard at Lyon Street during a Critical Mass bike ride.

About a dozen cyclists were seen riding against traffic on Marina Boulevard when one person stopped in front of a dark-colored station wagon and yelled, “Hey! Stop that! No, no, no, no, no.”

The man’s buddies then surrounded the car.

“You ain’t going nowhere,” another man is heard saying.

“You f— hit my bike,” the original rider shouted to the driver.

“Selfish, bitch,” someone else yelled.



The cyclists then lectured the Zipcar driver for several minutes while Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta” blared from a speaker attached to another cyclist’s backpack.

Apparently the driver had enough. She backed up and tried to drive around the pack only to be blocked again. Meanwhile, several other drivers appeared to keep a safe distance from the altercation.






Finally, the Zipcar slowly pushed past the group while one rider landed four blows on the side of the car with a U-lock, smashing the driver’s side window.

San Francisco police officials said they were aware of the video, but were not looking for the lock-wielding man because apparently no police report was filed.

“If a victim does not file a report, there is no crime that we can charge the person with,” Officer Albie Esparza, a San Francisco police spokesman, said Monday. “The person needs to file a report for an investigation to be initiated.”

A Zipcar spokeswoman said she was aware of the incident and that “the well-being of anyone involved is our top concern,” but she declined to comment further on the incident or identify the driver.

A YouTube user who goes by the name bike42363 posted the video Saturday. It had more than 14,000 views by Monday afternoon and was inspiring an enthusiastic discussion in the comments section.

“Wow. You guys are pieces of s— for doing that,” YouTube user One TwiztidMunky wrote in part referring to the rowdy Critical Mass cyclists.

“It was a protest Einstein,” user drie wiel fired back.

Critical Mass is a monthly protest ride that happens on the last Friday of every month in San Francisco. The demonstrations began in the city in 1992 but are now held in nearly 300 cities around the world, according to the organization’s Web page.

On its website, SF Critical Mass tells participants “Don’t ride into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road” and “Don’t pick fights with motorists, even if they’re itching for one.”

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky

Video

To see the video of a Critical Mass rider attacking a motorist, go to http://bit.ly/1hP7QtT

sounds like there was a reason for the driver to fear for their safety.

full speed ahead in that case, let the bikes fall where they may.

(and I m a bike rider)

I saw that this morning. The behavior of those cyclists is not unusual. Quite a few of the Critical Mass participants are assholes. In fact, I've never heard anything good about any of them.

The movement started out as a protest because there weren't enough bike lanes in SF. Many bike lanes have been added by the city but the idiots keep protesting anyway.

Well, to answer your question Dale, I live in The Outer Sunset (and work from home), and unless I have some specific reason for going downtown, (for business, or because we're going to a see a play, or go to a specific restaurant etc.) I pretty much avoid the rest of the city as much as possible...

And The Outer Sunset is really quite different from most of the rest of this town...

Very suburban; very civilized...

As for these Critical Mass Visigoths...

I guess it's deja vu all over again...

The very first post I wrote at the Cafe Darte was on the subject of these self-entitled me-first-fuck-everybody-else "Spoke Heads"....

Nearly 20 years later, and TCTUTKHBDTMDITSAF still hasn't figured out how to deal with them....

No big surprise...

This is the same burg that spent 15 years trying to figure out how to put pay toilets on the streets, and still managed to get it wrong....

But as I said, out here we're pretty much removed from most of the local government stupidity...

This is the same burg that spent 15 years trying to figure out how to put pay toilets on the streets, and still managed to get it wrong....

Remember they were made in France?

Another SF government fustercluck

Three or four people act like assholes that is "SF Insanity" to you?


How do you deal with having such a tiny brain that bullshit overgeneralizing bigotry overcomes it so easily?


yrs,
rubato

Yes, I still see that rubato is still his charming self, in spite of my long absence.

IRL: you must be one miserable person to be around.

POOR BUSTARD!

Police in San Francisco continued to search Tuesday for a Critical Mass cyclist who smashed a Zipcar driver’s window with a metal U-lock on Friday while wearing a T-shirt reading “Non-violence is our strength.”

The unidentified assailant landed repeated blows on the vehicle and shattered the driver’s side window, coming within inches of hitting a woman behind the wheel in the head.

The back of the cyclist’s T-shirt was emblazoned with the quote attributed to famed California labor leader Cesar Chavez, who once said, “in some cases non-violence requires more militancy that violence.”

Whatever that means?

TooFunny!

How do you deal with having such a tiny brain that bullshit overgeneralizing bigotry overcomes it so easily?


yrs,
rubato

This must be yet another example of how rube never begins an unprovoked nasty exchange, and only responds to a "lesser degree":

If any cared about facts it would be obvious that I respond in kind, but far less often, and to a lesser degree. But that is for those who care about facts.


yrs,
rubato

He's such a lover of "facts"

rube.....

...noble defender of Hate-Assberry

wesw wrote:rube.....

...noble defender of Hate-Assberry

fixed

Looks like they've taken someone into custody!


Here's an excerpt from the end of the article.......many interesting connections to the HARD LEFT ANGRY PROGRESSIVES that infest The City.

SF Critical Mass’ website tells participants: “Don’t ride into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road” and “Don’t pick fights with motorists, even if they’re itching for one.”

In the May-June issue of the American Postal Worker magazine, a publication of the American Postal Workers Union, Hespelt was identified as “a Macy’s employee in San Francisco and a shop steward for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union” who was a frequent participant in union protests.

[why am I NOT surprised?]

On Saturday, after investigators finished questioning Hespelt, he was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, vandalism, false imprisonment, and maliciously and willfully throwing a substance at a vehicle, all felonies. He was also booked on a misdemeanor charge of inciting a riot, Gatpandan said.

Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Cri ... 488638.php

who is the editor at the SF Chronicle?

Turnip Greens Johnson?

Looks like they've taken someone into custody!

X2

THE LATEST SAGA IN THIS SORDID TALE........

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Arr ... to-8597606



WITH A MUG LIKE THAT, HE WON'T LAST LONG BEHIND BARS.

Based on that mustache, I assume he was riding one of these:

So you are admitting that you cannot actually find a logical way of blaming a city of 800,00 people for the behaviour of 3 people?

Pretty.

Pretty fucking stupid. But so like you, and so like LJ not to be smarter than this.


yrs,
rubato

WAIT.......THERE'S MORE!

A cyclist accused of attacking a Zipcar driver with a metal bike lock during a Critical Mass ride last month in San Francisco was charged Wednesday with three felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon, prosecutors said.

Ian Hespelt, 39, will be arraigned Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court, where he will face the assault charge along with counts of vandalism and maliciously throwing a substance at a vehicle.

Hespelt was identified by police as the U-lock wielding rider shown on a widely seen video unleashing a barrage of blows to a woman’s car in the Marina District during the Aug. 28 ride, shattering her driver’s-side window.

Police spotted Hespelt on Sept. 5 riding near AT&T Park during a Billy Joel concert. The dead giveaway, officials said, was Hespelt’s swirling handlebar mustache.

In the video, an assailant is seen riding with a pack of cyclists the wrong direction down Marina Boulevard before the encounter with a woman who drove a Subaru station wagon and had a dog in the back seat. The rider, later identified by police as Hespelt, blocks the driver with his bike while he and others begin shouting at her.

When the woman backs up and tries to drive away, the suspect hurls his bike in front of her moving car, and as she continues on, he begins his assault with the metal lock, police said.

Hespelt is an employee at Macy’s Union Square store and is active in his union, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 5. He remains in San Francisco County Jail in lieu of $145,000 bond.

According to police, the victim came forward after the attack. Her name was not released.

To view the video, go to http://bit.ly/1hP7QtT.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky

Perhaps the SF County DA might choose to prosecute to the full extent of the law resulting in some time in STATE PRISON for this gutless a-hole!


eta:

More cyclist aggressiveness in Marvelous Marin.

A Marin County tech executive who got off his bicycle and attacked a driver in a widely publicized road rage incident was sentenced to 90 days in county jail Wednesday by a Marin Superior Court judge.


Jeffrey Smock’s sentence stems from an April 16, 2014, incident in which he was accused of beating Roman Laskowski, 55.

Smock, 41, of Kentfield was clipped by the rear-view mirror of a passing truck driven by Laskowski while cycling on East Blithedale Avenue in Mill Valley. Laskowski did not stop, but Smock caught up to him at the intersection of Camino Alto.

Witnesses said Smock severely beat Laskowski even as bystanders yelled and honked their horns.

Smock was charged with two felonies — assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury and battery resulting in significant injury.

Smock pleaded not guilty, but a jury convicted him of the latter charge in June.

“He’s not happy that he’s going into custody, but that’s what’s going to happen,” said Gerald Schwartzbach, Smock’s attorney. “This whole thing took less than 21 seconds in the life of a man who is 41 years old with a wife and kids.”

Smock testified that he blacked out during the attack and regained consciousness on top of Laskowski, a possible symptom of undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from injuries he suffered in a 2012 plane crash.

In the end, the severity of the beating, which left Laskowski in the hospital, was the deciding factor for the judge in sentencing Smock.

Smock plans to surrender to authorities on Friday, Schwartzbach said, but will likely appeal his conviction.

Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale

This puke will get out in 45 days with "Good Time" factored in.