Do you know anyone in Tucson who is the victim of a random assault with a baseball bat?
If so, please call me. 520.622.3333
I have a client who was struck with a baseball bat by the passenger in a car. It was a miracle my guy wasn’t badly injured, and still more a miracle that he got the license plate. Unfortunately, the Tucson Police Department is not interested in following up and speaking with the owner of the vehicle, despite our many requests that they do so.
I reported earlier this year about “bicycle boxing,” a form of recreational violence involving hitting bicyclists with baseball bats as you drive by. There have been convictions for this type of thing in many states recently. Kids like to do it to homeless people and others that they perceive will not report the assault. They videotape the attacks and share the tapes with their friends.
I have recently heard of two other Tucson victims of this type of attack. Neither of them were able to get any description of the vehicle — all they know is they went down in a whole lot of pain. One was severely and perhaps permanently injured.
If you or anyone you know has been the victim of this kind of attack, please call me. We need to stop this guy before he kills someone, and to do that we need the assistance of the Tucson Police. So far, they haven’t shown much interest.
Let’s hope no one has to die for them to come around.
–Erik Ryberg
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:36 pm
This is scary stuff. What’s up with the Tucson police? They can at least call the guy. I’ll assume it was a guy.
I know someone who was hit in the back with a glass bottle. He doesn’t ride at night anymore.
After getting hit with eggs, i went through a phase where I would make sure to have a decent rock in my front pocket. I eventually decided against it.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
The Tuscon PD failure to go after the perp is unconscionable. Are there other avenues, such as civil action or going through the city attorney?
March 5th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Bob Mionske talked about this issue of lack of enforcement at the National Bike Summit. Here’s a recap.
September 18th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
[...] took about two cop-hours, which is one and two-thirds more cop-hours than were used to investigate last December’s baseball-bat attack on a Tucson bicyclist. The officer spent 21 minutes on that investigation (it only merited one in that case, not four) [...]
March 2nd, 2012 at 7:58 am
[...] got involved with the BAC and tracking crash reports after he read about an incident in which a Tucson cyclist was hit with a bat and the police wouldn’t do anything despite the cyclist having the vehicle’s liscence plate [...]
August 6th, 2012 at 7:30 am
[...] who have had things thrown at them or even the extreme cases of being shot with a paintball gun or hit with a bat. I always thought those were extreme cases and that things had gotten better. It would never happen [...]