nothin The Masked Maniac Rides | New Haven Independent

The Masked Maniac Rides

The masked man darts through traffic on Elm Street on his scratched bicycle, dubstep blasting from a black boombox on his shoulder. Hollow plastic eyes survey the block by the New Haven Green, passing by idle teenagers at the fountain. His white mask deflects the wind — and the stares.

On his daily commute down Whalley Avenue, Elm Street and Grand Avenue, he rides along one of the most stratified spines of the city: from the deteriorating Whalley strip, to the multimillion dollar Yale Art Gallery, to China King across from the Graduate Club, to a Fair Haven barrio. His electronic music cuts through polite chatter and the urban hustle.

The driver of a car ahead starts to inch into the bike lane. The masked man weaves into the bike lane, stopping the car. He tilts his ghost-like mask and stares down the driver, then gives a thumbs-up to the cyclist next to him, who isn’t sure whether to be grateful or terrified.

Beneath the mask, Sabir Abdussabur is fuming.

It’s not the driver — that’s business as usual. Shortly prior to the ride, when his mask was off and he was in his role running an activist group, a librarian at the public library had interrupted a meeting to insist that he and his organization move to the Young Adult” book section.

The handful of young activists, dressed in business casual attire, had been quietly discussing a $1,500 grant application for their upcoming citywide youth arts and empowerment event.

Either on two wheels in a mask or in a suit as one of New Haven’s youngest community organizers, Abdussabur confronts stereotypes about his appearance daily.

The library incident shows there are so many stereotypes that come with age,” he said. They don’t take us seriously. With a mask on, they can’t tell our age. I’ve dealt with stereotypes being slapped on me my whole life, and for most part I’ve risen above many of them. Wearing the mask, it allows you to remove race from the equation.”

A 21-year-old Muslim black man, Abdussabur finds himself navigating an intersection of age, race and religion. When he wears his mask, he becomes the self-proclaimed Masked Maniac,” experiencing the full range of reactions from civilians and police.

Flying down city streets, this enigmatic icon confronts the city with a radical question: How will you treat someone you don’t understand?”

Pulled Over

The Masked Maniac blasts music on New Haven’s streets at all hours as he weaves through traffic.

Flashing lights and sirens interrupt his adrenaline high as law and order veer into his lane of liberation. Abdussabur estimated he was pulled over 24 times in 2014 alone.

Despite the police’s annoyance and repeated threats, he hasn’t received a single ticket in the roughly two years he’s been riding with the mask and boombox. He carefully calculates his actions to stay out of trouble. If he were just wearing the mask, he could be pegged for criminal intent, he figured; with the boombox, he calls sufficient attention to himself to remove the perceived threat.

He polices the police, too. He is involved in the city’s anti police-brutality movement. He reports police officers, many of whom live outside the city, who he believes are abusing their power, for driving recklessly or harassing civilians.

They’re not really doing their job the way they’re supposed to,” he said. It’s more of being like a military state than it is of them being a part of the community.”

Eventually, he said, the police got used to me.” Most interactions with police this year have been friendly. One afternoon last week, as he spoke in an interview, an officer walked up to him at a Starbucks, where he works, and struck up small talk.

Abdussabur knows many officers from these stops — and from family barbecues. His father, newly-promoted Sgt. Shafiq Abdussabur, has been on the force for two decades. (His mother, Mubarakah Ibrahim, is an internationally-known Muslim speaker and fitness trainer who has appeared on Oprah and supped with President Obama.)

Growing up with a parent in law enforcement and knowing law enforcement your whole life — and you do what I do … you start having issues with officers in general. But you don’t mind being around certain people who just so happen to be officers, whether in uniform or not,” Abdussabur said.

He said he wants masked bikers like himself to serve as a Guardian Angel-style force, deterring crimes with their imposing presence and loud music. Some people have told him that he offers comfort when they’re walking alone at night. In his ideal world, a city would have fewer police and more community-led safety efforts like this.

Meanwhile, he aspires to join the police force himself one day. He said he hopes they’ll let him keep the mask.

Superhero

Abdussabur did his usual rounds dressed as Spiderman for a few nights when the second film came out last May. Though his music, cycling, and anonymity stayed the same, the reactions changed. Parents sent their children to meet him, pedestrians smiled and waved, and police officers high-fived him.

Spiderman costume or not, Abdussabur said, he always feels like a superhero. Blocking aggressive cars and riding alongside bikers, he’s something of a share-the-road vigilante.

To a degree you feel like a superhero, I’m not going to lie,” he said. You just feel it … I’m not who I am on a regular day. I can do what most people can’t.”

With the sinewy frame of a long-distance runner, he frequently pushes 30 miles an hour on his beat-up bicycle. He doesn’t hesitate to bike miles to neighboring towns to cover shifts at different Starbucks locations. The mask serves a utilitarian purpose, too — blocking stinging wind and rain from his face and sometimes even breaking his falls in the rare instances that he can’t outmaneuver New England’s notoriously aggressive drivers.

When his Spiderman experiment ended, Abdussabur donned his Masked Maniac costume: the black combat gear and white expressionless mask of New Haven’s real-life dark knight. Parents started pulling their children back. Pedestrians jumped as he passed them. No more high-fives from officers in blue.

What I do can be done by anyone — that’s the craziest thing about it,” he said. His trademark mask is available on Amazon for a few dollars. If young people follow his example under his supervision, he argued, they can challenge stereotypes en masse.

Youth Revolution

Sebastian Medina-Tayac Photo

So Abdussabur is trying to recruit more New Haven young people to join him on his night rides, with masks on.

It’s very empowering personally to have that anonymity. Plus it’s empowering physically because of the intensity we bike with. I’ll make athletes out of those kids,” he said.

His girlfriend initially pleaded with him to phase out the mask. Then, after riding with him for a while, she asked for her own mask. His younger brother sometimes joins him for night rides, as do a few other high schoolers involved in the Youth Day Project. So far, he said, these early disciples can’t keep up.”

For Abdussabur, the statement the mask makes complements the vision of Youth Day. He said his rides confront the city with its fear of not understanding, asking for unconditional acceptance. He called Youth Day an open expression of often-misunderstood identity and art.

The annual event (in its sixth year) showcases the artistic talents of local young people. It features singing, dancing, poetry, and rap. The most popular portion of the exposition, the hip hop competition, carries a $500 cash prize. The tense three-hour-long competition always has the roughly 100-person audience captivated and enthusiastic.

The organizers are all current or former New Haven public school students. Current students receive community service hours needed for graduation and future scholarships. Members of the planning team for Youth Day 2015 (scheduled for Aug. 8) are aged 15 – 21 and each hails from a different neighborhood in the city.

Youth apathy, stemming from a lack of encouragement to pursue their true talents, is a citywide challenge that leads to economic and social problems, Abdussabur argued. He said young people need creative outlets run by and for students. The Youth Day Project evolved out of an organization he started in eighth grade called The Youth Revolution, which sought to unite kids against violence, drugs, and racism in the city.

With youth violence rampant, jobs hard to find, and police cracking down on young people, those who want to succeed feel pressure to move out of New Haven, Abdussabur said. His mother even asked him to consider it. For New Haven to stay vibrant, he said, it needs radical changes, changes he’d like to help bring about one step at a time, beginning with a near-solitary quest to confront his city from behind a mask.

Tags:

Sign up for our morning newsletter

Don't want to miss a single Independent article? Sign up for our daily email newsletter! Click here for more info.


Post a Comment

Commenting has closed for this entry

Comments

Avatar for markcbm

Avatar for rickshaw1956

Avatar for Lallements Ghost

Avatar for BlueDogMom

Avatar for Chip

Avatar for Shafiq Abdussabur

Avatar for Walt

Avatar for New Haven Nuisance

Avatar for BlueDogMom

Avatar for robn

Avatar for susie the pit bull

Avatar for Walt

Avatar for upwards

Avatar for Walt

Avatar for robn

Avatar for New Haven Nuisance

Avatar for Walt

Avatar for Cyclogist

Avatar for robn

Avatar for Walt

Avatar for connecticutcontrarian

Avatar for robn

Avatar for Bill Saunders

Avatar for Walt

Avatar for robn

Avatar for Lt.Briggs666

Avatar for Walt

Avatar for robn

Avatar for New Haven Nuisance

Avatar for robn

Avatar for Walt

Avatar for Walt

Avatar for William Kurtz

Avatar for robn

Avatar for Walt

Avatar for robn

Avatar for Walt

Avatar for Walt