With the news in a tizzy about 2.5 attacks in 8 days along the Monon Trail in the fifty block stretch between Fall Creek and 86th Street, Indianapolis Police Chief Paul Ciesielski grandstanded up and down the trail on Thursday on a bicycle with a posse of other officers, acting surprised when the media showed up to interview him. (Gosh, how did they all know he'd be there?)
Meanwhile, the state legislature had already taken a step to improve my safety on the Monon. As of yesterday, I no longer forfeit my Second Amendment rights by using its smooth asphalt instead of bomb-cratered side streets to run errands around Broad Ripple.
Since Chief Ciesielski and his Flying Squad aren't going to show up at my doorstep to escort me wherever I go, I reckon I'll just escort myself.
.
Comming next from 5.11 tactical bike shorts.
ReplyDeleteSend a licensed carrier down there once an hour and watch the crime graph crash down.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully? I'm not worried about the crime graph. I'm only worried about me.
ReplyDelete(For the number of users and size of the park, the Monon's probably one of the safer parks in the city. It's just that when white taxpayers get attacked in a tourist-trap neighborhood, it draws attention...)
Tam,
ReplyDeleteSomebody had a better idea back for bicycle protection back in 1899...
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh98/lew2au/warbike2.jpg
Not sure where you mount your water bottle...
Dann in Ohio
"Oh my, HOWEVER did you journalists know I and my officers would be demonstrating how safe this trail is when armed people are riding on it? And remember this in the next election(oops, did I say that aloud?)."
ReplyDeleteI notice he wants to spend a buttload of other peoples money on cameras, too.
"Oh my, HOWEVER did you journalists know I and my officers would be demonstrating how safe this trail is when armed people are riding on it IN A GROUP OF FIVE OR MORE WHILE WEARING POLICE UNIFORMS?"
ReplyDeleteFixed it for you....
Hmmm, Q-Bike?
ReplyDeleteDo what you've gotta do... to hell with the rest of them!
ReplyDeleteShoot, shovel, shut up.
ReplyDelete"...Metro Police Chief Paul Ciesielski put on biking gear and joined four other officers riding from 75th Street south."
ReplyDeletelol
They are one step closer to "Bear on Patrol":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=polUjeT0wLo
Actually until Alan Gura gets "bear" incorporated, you are exercising your Article I, § 32 rights.
ReplyDeleteYou know what you should do next, right? As the Monon is an MSR for the fairgrounds, you need to organzie a Wookie Ride from Rose Hulman Cottage to the gun show in August.
Send a pic to the Indy Star. I'll bring scary long guns. They'll have a collective stroke.
Shootin' Buddy
>> ... the Monon is an MSR for the fairgrounds ...
ReplyDeleteMesh Scaleable Routing? Google wasn't very helpful.
MSR=>Main Supply Route, aka a road or pathway for hippies and men in sandals that infest Broad Ripple.
ReplyDeleteMy great-uncle was troubled by two men who began to verbally harass him during on his early morning bike ride to the Railroad yards where he worked -- in the 1930's. The heckling escalated tothe point of "Gonna take yo' money and bike,foo'"
ReplyDeleteOl' Kirk had two nickle snubbie breaktops. Next morning he rode by the house reallll slowly with a shiny holemaker in each fist atop the handlebars.
That was the last he heard peep-boo-shixx from that particular porch. Today, he'd be jugged as a sacrifice to the peculiar Quixotic crusade of 'get those guns off the streets'.
Well, hell: that's where guns belong: on the street where the human rubbish that pester civil society may have the opportunity to be exposed to better manners.
"I reckon I'll just escort myself."
ReplyDeleteTrail Ranger Tam!
I'd say you're good to go for any BG's. Not so sure about the GG's though; considering IPD's recent Driving While ________ history, I don't think I'd want to share a narrow secluded bike trail with their 2-ton cruisers.
AT
"The heckling escalated to the ..."
ReplyDeleteYea... Been there before.
Predators need to test-their-prey/whip-themselves-up-into-a-frenzy before they strike. Talking nice does not help when this mob/pack psychology goes too far. The trick is to identify this pattern early and leave before the downward spiral is irreversible.
Yet another reason to be armed... *sigh*
The upside of this kind of frenzy escalation is that it gives you time to count your opponents and mark the leader.
"Why you lookin' at me that way?"
ReplyDelete"Just planning out the action order."
I am looking for a solution for practical carry while pedaling. What the Google has revealed is not too convincing, and $80 for a rig that may not work is too much of a risk.
ReplyDeleteI am willing to trade down in firepower and concealment, just so I can comply with the first rule of gunfights. And be able put down any pitbulls that escape from meth-head and/or banger hideouts.
Foxmarks.
ReplyDeletefor dogs,I suggest Grizzly-strength spray or a wasp-hornet spray. Either one will severely discourage the average aggressive fanger. Learn the physical rules of spray dispersal, tho.cost you a can of product,but knowing how it works is worth the price. Spray cans can be carried in a drink holder on the handlebars.
The actual armament is going to be for the dog owner, who is incensed that his penile-extension-dog is now non-aggressive and in considerable discomfort.
Since many bikies are smitten with skin tight Lycra, that sorta precludes a lot of effective anti-personnel devices. I wear non-bikie stuff. Baggy shorts,loosed shirts, etc.
I also have a variety of back or belt pacs that are very zip-accessible. You could carry a folded Kel-tec in the some of them. if you are a commuter, the assorted saddler/fender bags are easily used, as well.
if you don't have to look like a Tour de tight-pants-France contestant, then there's lots of options to carry both four and two footed mammal repellant.I do think a cell phone with cops on speed dial is a good immediate post-dog/pre-owner precaution, too.
if y';r going to be assaulted by an VIOLENT idiot, having it on a 911 tape doesn't hurt the the self-defense argument. That's just my NSHO. Any readers are welcome to devise their own outlook.
Foxmarks,
ReplyDeleteI wear the same clothes on my bike as I do the rest of the time, and so the 1911 in a Sparks VM-2 is in the same place it always is...
Ya know, sometimes I think that grumpy old spinsters and grumpy old bachelors are the last rational people left on this planet.
ReplyDelete