Prior to the latest two incidents resulting in personal injuries and assault, Baltimore's dirt bikers were more of an intrusive nuisance than a legitimate safety and injury threat ("Dirt bikers 'getting out of hand,' Baltimore City Council president says," June 14). But given their blatant disregard for traffic laws and any show of civility on our city streets, it was inevitable that their actions would result in terrible harm to innocent victims.
This will happen again. I can understand the city's "no-pursue" policy, but I contend there are other options, especially given the level of danger on our streets and the overall negative impact on the city's image. These dirt biker gangs (an appropriate term for any organized group of persistent lawbreakers) are not entirely random individuals. They are organized and identifiable. They have identified leaders and spokesmen. I wish I could say that a simple mutual dialogue between the police and the dirt biker groups would resolve the problem, but I know it won't. They are adamant about continuing to terrorize our city streets. But now they have crossed the line — inflicting serious hit and run (potentially life-long) injury to an 18-year-old and physically assaulting and hospitalizing an innocent citizen.
Since these actions are criminal activities and since these groups are (even loosely) organized, then by definition their leadership and every participant is guilty of "aiding and abetting" a crime — in simple terms, they are all accessories to the criminal acts and can be charged as such. Surely our police officers know these individuals, especially their leaders. We need to treat them the same as any other organized crime group — drug gangs, theft rings, etc. — and use the same police tactics to put pressure on their leadership, obtain information from informants and other gang-related police actions that will clearly send the message: "If you participate, you are as guilty as those committing injury or assault and will suffer the criminal consequences."
Absent any legitimate threat of this sort, we will only see this activity continue and result in further injuries, assaults and most likely deaths to innocent citizens and visitors.
Jerry Cothran, Baltimore