# Motorcycles Close DC Beltway Sunday Dec 27, 2015 To Play **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 29, 2015, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600 "2015-12-29T00:37:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/21 "2015-12-29T17:06:26Z")
I would think with the amount of video and planning involved, police could find at least one perpetrator. Lean on that person with terrorism and conspiracy charges to turn over on the rest. Force a plea, rise, repeat. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/22 "2015-12-29T17:08:11Z")
Removing the fencing from the overpasses would help. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/23 "2015-12-29T17:20:56Z")
Where’s Lakeisha Holloway when you need her? ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/24 "2015-12-29T18:04:56Z")
Guys, that was _awesome!_ Did you all miss the part where they made their tires smoke? I mean, SMOKE! Totally worth inconveniencing hundreds of people. Vroom vroom! Loud noises! ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/25 "2015-12-29T18:14:45Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > It’s hard to believe the police can’t do anything about it - > Your’re telling me that if 10-12 squad cars rolled and blocked off ramps, put up a roadblock, whatever that they wouldn’t catch ANYBODY? Yeah. Police routinely shut down perfectly legal protests and advocacy in the same area that is _not_ blocking traffic or threatening harm to anyone, and sometimes threaten the Constitutionally-protected participants with arrest, but these guys are “impossible” to stop? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/26 "2015-12-29T18:56:59Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > Lean on that person with terrorism and conspiracy charges to turn over on the rest. Force a plea, rise, repeat. Some guy being a dick on a motorcycle is not a terrorist, and misusing laws intended to protect us from actual harm for the sake of expediency is a terrible idea, and you should be ashamed for suggesting it. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/27 "2015-12-29T22:11:51Z")
Something similar happened here in New York City a couple of years ago. [Here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Stuntz_gang_assault). It did not end well. ---
**Author:** ![2gigch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2gigch1/32/3313_2.png) [@2gigch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2gigch1)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/28 "2015-12-29T22:25:56Z")
At a press conference yesterday the Prince George’s Police Public Information Officer stated that there are very specific situations that county police may give pursuit. Almost all involve immediate, deadly danger. Motorcycle hooligans are more dangerous when pursued than not (tendency to crash and kill innocent bystanders). She also remarked that the DC VA MD region had an auto task force that is aggressively pursuing these types of folks through investigation and seizing the bikes while they are not on the road. I know they have had some success, I don’t know how much. Finally the area where the incident occurred (Interstate I95) is the primary jurisdiction of the MD Stat Police (Forestville Barracks). Not commonly known is how damned few MSP Troopers are in the field on any given shift. On Sunday there were probably 6 troopers covering the south half of PG at most. It’s a tough thing to deal with for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/29 "2015-12-29T22:48:19Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Some guy being a dick on a motorcycle is not a terrorist, and misusing laws intended to protect us from actual harm for the sake of expediency is a terrible idea, and you should be ashamed for suggesting it. The bike riders may or may not be terrorists, but the actions may be construed as [domestic terrorism.](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2331) > [@](#): > > (5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that— > (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; > (B) appear to be intended— > (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; > (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or > (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and > (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. So once activities are categorized as such, under section 806 of the PATRIOT act, assets of said persons may be subject to forfeiture. I’m sure there are other creative ways. There is no shame in using tools that are available. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Yes this would be a stretch. If it happened, and prosecutors and police tried this method, I would have no sympathy for the bikers. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/30 "2015-12-29T23:00:14Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Some guy being a dick on a motorcycle is not a terrorist, and misusing laws intended to protect us from actual harm for the sake of expediency is a terrible idea, and you should be ashamed for suggesting it. Just one thing: Now that they’ve done their stunt & gotten their publicity, its on the web and in papers. Terrorists read the papers & they watch bad TV too. (Some people say 9-11 was partially conceived as an idea from re-runs of a crappy 70s TV movie called “An Evening In Byzantium”) “Jawad…! Look at this! The Americans… they can’t stop this! They use cellphones and social media to form flash mobs that can paralyze the Capital and all the Military Infrastructure. The Americans… they can do Nothing! No technology exits to isolate flash mobs or hunt down or track these people. Hani! What can we strap to a motorcycle…?” The agencies in the area need to find some of these bikers to make an example of. They also need to work on a technology to track large numbers of identical transmissions from any one cell phone (maybe flagging as suspicious any event where large numbers of identical transmissions are sent from multiple cellphones in a 3-tower radius in a short span of time) so they can threat-assess and trace the suspicious activity back to its source. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/31 "2015-12-29T23:20:11Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > I don’t pull this shit on my bike, why should I have to pay that? You make a good point. But you need to be loudest in condemning the behavior. Just liek there are lots of good bicyclists, but too many jerks who ride son the side walk or block traffic on purpose. The good bicyclists condone that behavior by not condemning it loudly. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/32 "2015-12-30T00:04:26Z")
How long did this last? Seems like one cop entering the interstate with lights and sirens going would have dispersed the crowd pretty quickly. He wouldn’t need to chase or arrest anyone, just appear, and everyone would split. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/33 "2015-12-30T00:11:06Z")
A couple of A10 Warthogs followed by a fleet of snowplows to push the remains to the shoulder should take care of it. And yes, to the inevitable poster… I am proposing mass slaughter of people for moving violations with no sarcasm at all implied. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/34 "2015-12-30T00:32:39Z")
That is a horrid proposal! It would chew up the pavement too much. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/35 "2015-12-30T01:37:15Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > How long did this last? > > Seems like one cop entering the interstate with lights and sirens going would have dispersed the crowd pretty quickly. He wouldn’t need to chase or arrest anyone, just appear, and everyone would split. And do it again another day. I don’t drive Beltways or intercity highways, buy am sure this kind of foolishness disrupts traffic and lives for more than the 10 minutes or so that these idiots took over the highway. It’s a pretty delicate system. While it may not be the intention of the ‘Domestic terrorism’ law. There are certainly parts of it that could be applied to these assholes. And what about that guy trying to protect his family in New York that was pulled out of his car and beaten by the same kind of group. Getting stuck in a group like this is certainly a type of terrorism. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/36 "2015-12-30T02:06:53Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > A couple of A10 Warthogs followed by a fleet of snowplows to push the remains to the shoulder should take care of it. This is a Horrible proposal! The A-10 is _much_ too fast to be effective. Cobra gunships with the [M197 electric cannon](http://i.imgur.com/YhAOtST.webm) offer a much more surgical solution and a more cost efficient one as well. It also can land and be refueled/rearmed at almost any strip mall parking lot if necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/37 "2015-12-30T22:05:44Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > You make a good point. But you need to be loudest in condemning the behavior. Just liek there are lots of good bicyclists, but too many jerks who ride son the side walk or block traffic on purpose. The good bicyclists condone that behavior by not condemning it loudly. How did you shift from motorcycles to bicycles? Furthermore: No. That is an excuse for protecting acts of bigotry against smaller groups. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/38 "2015-12-30T22:22:51Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > You make a good point. But you need to be loudest in condemning the behavior. Just liek there are lots of good bicyclists, but too many jerks who ride son the side walk or block traffic on purpose. The good bicyclists condone that behavior by not condemning it loudly. No, actually, individual people (regardless of their hobbies or activities) have absolutely no responsibility for the behaviors of other people. Insisting that they do is unfair and places a burden of “correct” behavior on people who weren’t even involved in the misbehavior in the first place. This is like encouraging black mothers to tell their sons not to wear hoodies or play with squirt guns. It entirely misses the point, is insulting as hell, and overlooks systemic prejudice towards the behavior in question (and therefore, prejudice towards the morality and relative “personhood” of the persons engaged in those behaviors). If that’s what you were going for, then by all means continue on asking certain people to show obvious signs of denouncing other people’s behavior, but it’s not a good look. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/39 "2015-12-31T01:43:08Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > You make a good point. But you need to be loudest in condemning the behavior. no I don’t. groups “policing themselves” works up to a point, but there are some people (usually 16- to 21-year-old dickbag guys) who won’t listen to anyone who tries to tell them what to do. I’m content to let them either fall into the hands of the law, or maim/kill themselves by their own stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600/40 "2015-12-31T02:13:17Z")
Tell the cops they are armed and black, then stand back. Or apply the domestic terrorism laws referenced above. Then throw them in jail and let them rot. Assholes the lot of them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycles-close-dc-beltway-sunday-dec-27-2015-to-play/741600.md?page=1)