Road Rage
We have all read or watched the news about road rage. The latest episode was in New York City. Alexian Lien was in his vehicle with his wife and child when they became surrounded by a motorcycle club. Videos showed the motorcyclists taunting the driver by slowing down in front of the vehicle.
Alexian finally panicked and ran over one of the cyclists who sustained serious injury. In a rage, several of the motorcycle club members chased Alexian until he got trapped in a traffic jam. Once cornered, the club members smashed his windows and drug him out of the car and beat him with their helmets and kicked and stomped him with their boots.
Several calls were made to 911 during the episode, but the police did not respond. Even worse, they were riding WITH the club. At least 3 officers have come forward and said they were there. One was working undercover, and admitted to seeing the beating of Alexian by 5 club members but did not stop them for fear of being discovered. One of the other two officers was actually part of Internal Affairs, the division of the Police Force that investigates misbehavior of Policemen! Wow. How would you like to be the Chief of Police in NY right now and have to sort this one out?
What I find odd is that now prosecutors are saying that the question is why did the officers wait to come forward? My thoughts are, why did they not do the right thing and stop the madness?
Sergio Consuegra was late for church and came upon the scene. He stepped in between the men assaulting Alexian and said, “That’s it guy, let it go! Let it go!” They stared at each other for a moment, then the rage subsided.
What lessons can we learn from this tragedy?
- If you are a policeman, on duty or off duty, under cover, plain clothes, or uniformed, you have a moral responsibility to stop violence. That code supersedes your directive.
- It took one lone unarmed civilian to intervene and stop the road rage. Evil will back down when confronted head on.
- The bikers who participated in the mauling and taunts take no responsibility for their actions. Until they accept responsibility for their actions and show remorse, all they can expect is severe punishment.
- Had this happened in Texas, there is a good chance that a few people would have ended up shot. But who knows, had the bikers seen a gun, they might have thought twice about messing with Alexian.
- Several of the men who were involved in the beating are career criminals. Why are they on the streets again and again? Who do they have to assault or kill before the justice system quits letting them out. I realize this is a delicate issue because of prison overcrowding, but when we release violent people back into society time and time again to free up space, what are we accomplishing?
I pray for our country that we come to our senses, that we take responsibility for our actions, and that we turn our hearts back to God. We can’t face evil on our own.
Shalom!
Dan Skognes