When Tywan Samuels was doing wheelies and crashed on Sherman Avenue back in July of 2018, rumors spread that cops had been chasing him and that tactic had contributed to his death.
That turned out to be false. But protest vigils followed, and those continue to cause problems and lead to public conflicts, especially around the anniversary of the crash.
How potentially to head off that problem this summer — with neighbors’ pre-emptive intervention with the biker leaders — was the topic of discussion Tuesday night during the regular meeting of the Newhallville Community Management Team.
The meeting, via a telephone conference, was chaired by the group’s leaders, Kim Harris and Shirley Lawrence, and drew about 15 listeners.
CMT Chair Harris asked for District Manager Lt. Manmeet Colon’s update on the chronic summer problem of dirt bikers terrorizing the city’s commercial and residential streets. Colon urged residents to continue to call in sightings, especially if they constituted a pattern of gathering or riding that the cops could exploit as part of an approach for apprehension.
Then the discussion turned specifically to the memorial rides, around July 20, and focused on the Sherman Avenue location where Samuels crashed.
“We have to be careful,” cautioned Colon.“There’s a memorial there, but I think it should be moved so they don’t rip the street up and down. And that’s no way to memorialize.”
Then she added: “The community needs to speak up instead of bringing the cops in and then they [all too frequently] get accused. Every June and July they ride through there. Every weekend.”
Alder Steve Winter asked if there were any updates from Asst. Chief Karl Jacobson on increasing the fines and other requirements such as dealers and gas stations posting warning signs, as part of a strengthened city ordinance on dirt bikes.
Colon said she had no new info on the status of the new teeth proposed to be put into law, but she would search it out and forward to Winter.
Then Shirley Lawrence took up Colon’s suggestion in some detail. “We can find some of the leaders,” she said, “and tell them not to pop wheelies and burn rubber — and save lives.”
Lawrence and others engaged in a brief discussion how these groups of riders always contain “hard-heads” who could not be reached. But that the leaders were “older guys,” and it was to them the community would try to seek out and negotiate with.
It would be an approach that would make calling in the cops less necessary, maybe even unnecessary.
Other community voices (due to the echoing during the conference call, it was difficult to determine specific names of some speakers) said maybe the approach should not be specifically the CMT folks reaching out to the bikers but a local organization like Ice the Beef.
“There’s a lot of value in what Lt. Colon said, to get the neighborhood to say this is what we want, but especially [to do that] through a neighborhood group,” someone said.
Winter said he endorsed “Ms. Shirley’s idea of reaching out,” but he questioned if there were much overlap between groups like Ice the Beef and the bikers.
By some means, responded Lawrence, “We need to let them now they can’t come and cause havoc.”
There is a no-chase police policy for dirt bikers and a range of ideas have been floated — and then abandoned — such as the use of drones. Jacobson’s proposed ordinance upgrades include raising fines from $99 dollars for a first offender to $1,000, among others, based on an approach recently implemented in New London
“We’ll have a conversation” before the Samuels anniversary, said Colon, “to finding an alternative to riding up and down the street.”
These young men need a place where they can safely ride and try out bike tricks like popping wheelies and other stunts in a safe setting that bothers no one. These young people need something active and exciting to do to keep them busy and out of trouble. And something that doesn't cost a lot of money. Maybe instead of a go cart track or race car track, someone should build a stunt bike and atv ramp and vehicle trail park for young people to enjoy. Build something similar to a professional sport track so young people can race, and practice tricks and perform stunts with a viewing stand behind protective barriers for observers. It should be built in or near the city and it should have participants over 18 or guardians of those under 18 to sign an insurance waiver. It should have separate track times for different age groups. I bet you could make a ton of money charging $15-20 bucks for an hour of track time, and people would pay also to view the participants racing and doing tricks. The city would be relieved from the nuisance, the owners would make money, the young people would have something exciting to do, and people would come from all over New England to enjoy it, if it was done right. Skateboarding and bike and motorcycle tricks and racing, and atv users and car racing and tricked out cars and monster trucks were once just things young people did because they were bored, and most are now professional sports with sponsors and fans.