I was enjoying walking my dogs in memorial park this evening and saw a huge group of dirt bikes and go carts rip down memorial drive and shut down the intersection to do a u turn and pop wheelies. I saw this worthless cop just sit at the intersection and not do a single thing.
Tf do HPD even do??
They go after people making minimal traffic violations who will be easy to pull over and will pay their ticket.
Laws always go for easy
There is a group of like 30-40 dirt bikes and four wheelers that pass my house at least once a month near nrg. They love running red lights and popping wheelies in major intersections like Fannin or Kirby and 610 🥲
It’a definitely a safety concern esp since at least half of them never wear helmets usually. We have gotten used to them now tho 🫠
They do it here downtown too. The funny thing is, one of the guys used to be my neighbor and I found out because he had a friend who'd bring their dirt bike up to the 3rd floor and keep it outside his unit then one day I saw him hobbling around on a mobility scooter with a broken leg.
Oh, and he's one of those annoying neighbors that stunk up my entire bathroom like weed and cigarettes because our vents were connected. Maintenance already knew about it but the leasing office wouldn't do anything about it. 🙄
They do it like every weekend down westheimer but I swear it’s like a hundred of them, it has to be an even number though so they can all make out at the end
i got stopped at san felipe and post oak a couple of weeks ago while they performed for like 3-4 minutes. i enjoyed the novelty...briefly...as i don't live with it.
No doubt it's a cool thing to see when you don't live with it but it gets annoying when they intentionally disrupt traffic.
Sounds like it might be time to put a wire or cable across the road. Or maybe a net.
Saw them at midtown all ran the lights. Was infuriating
You can't call them that anymore.
🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊
wtf do those nazi plebs have to do with dirt bikes?
there are cameras in the tunnels. But I doubt that there will ever be any investigations until someone gets run over and killed. The ATV's are illegal on city streets.
If the mayor and had ever wanted to.get back some credibility they'd do something about this shit.
Best we can do is tear up the bike lanes and rainbow crosswalk.
Funny enough, the mayor lives right next to Memorial Park so he’s more likely than not to actually do something about this, only because this would personally affect him
Why? How would they help? Arrested kids for riding wheelies on their dirt bikes? This happens in literally every city. You see it all the time in downtown Dallas and Chicago. What would they get out of chasing them down and giving them a ticket?
They are impeding traffic. Blocking the entire road. Dricing recklessly. People got shit to do. They need to get from point A to B. These people are intentionally blocking roads. Yes, give them all tickets and revoke licenses as needed. I'm sure there are more charges that can be filed for this type of organized disruption for repeat offenders
How would one cop catch all of them to write tickets?
they can certainly make an effort. This is not a complicated concept that police enforce the law.
Unless the cop is going to run one over with his car or shoot them he isn’t going to catch any of them and will only cause more damage and panic trying to.
This is one of those things that is annoying and frustrating, but very hard to do anything about.
Last year Conroe brought in like 100 officers from neighboring areas to deal with a planed street takeover and arrested 59 people.
Make an effort? That’s the whole point I’m trying to make. A cop making an effort in a situation like this puts more people in danger. The riders are annoying yes. A cop isn’t going to catch them and especially not all of them. Chasing them at high speeds puts everyone else on the road and sidewalk at risk. It’s really not a hard concept. Would you rather a 300lb motorcycle riding wheelies that only hurt themselves when they wreck or would you like a 4500lb car chasing them that may hit a pedestrian or wreck into someone else for something that’s really just an inconvenience? On a Sunday I might at. It’s not like people are racing to get to work on a Sunday afternoon.
If you’re pulled over driving an unregistered vehicle then it gets impounded. You don’t need to arrest the kids, but you can seize the equipment.
The trouble is being able to stop a dirt bike without putting pedestrians at risk. If you’re dumb enough (and skilled enough) to be ripping wheelies on a dirtbikes, do we really think they’re pulling over as soon as the blue lights flash?
Most of the time it doesn’t. They just tell you to take it home. This is something that happens all the time with kids in electric dirt bikes or people on street bikes with no plates. Police have real crime to deal with. When there’s a murder and nothing gets done you guys cry about it when cops aren’t doing anything. Yet you want them to waste more time with traffic stops because you don’t like people riding dirt bikes.
You think the guy sitting at memorial park in an HPD cruiser is pulling double duty as a homicide detective? Come on man, that’s a silly argument.
They’re already present, in an HPD cruiser, and on the clock. It’s not a waste of time or resources to deal with it when you see it, unless you think the tow truck drivers should also be interviewing murder witnesses.
Deal with it how? That’s what I’m asking you. How does one officer deal with it? They cannot catch them. Bikes accelerate far faster, squeeze through tight spaces, and those go off road. What should the cop do? Do you want a 4500lb vehicle barreling down the streets where there are pedestrians and families in cars that would get killed if they accidentally hit them? What do you want this cop to do. That’s what I want to know. You want them to just start firing bullets at them for riding a dirt bike?
you somehow missed the poster's first sentence. It was one of 3 sentences, and not extremely long nor complicated. Here it is again: "I was enjoying walking my dogs in memorial park this evening and saw a huge group of dirt bikes and go carts rip down memorial drive and shut down the intersection to do a u turn and pop wheelies."
Put it to a vote. Can shoot if they evade arrest
You want to shoot kids for riding dirt bikes? And they are the gang members right?
So are 99% of those bikes.
here is the first sentence of the post: "I was enjoying walking my dogs in memorial park this evening and saw a huge group of dirt bikes and go carts rip down memorial drive and shut down the intersection to do a u turn and pop wheelies.". "Go carts" is synonymous with ATV's. The photo only shows less than 7 vehicles, so all the others must be out of the photo. In fact, there could have been way more ATV's than motorcycles.
the new law banning scooters from downtown also bans all ATV's from all city streets. They can be impounded and sold off.
Dirt bike people are pretty skeezy FYI
One cop car isn’t going to do diddly squat against a group of off road capable bikes/quads. So the options are 1) chase them endangering other innocent people 2) call back up and ignore many more serious calls for a minor nuisance 3) sit tight and patrol the memorial park as he was assigned.
I’m not a fan of reckless riders/drivers either but I get why that cop was doing his assignment vs pursuing them.
Maybe an especially athletic agent (say, a sidelined college football player) could take up the ATV “lifestyle” and make connections on the inside to penetrate the group’s inner workings and stop their bank robberies.
Just hope they don’t become friends and respect each other
It's all about family.
Man, that would make a great movie.
Thank you it’s original idea of mine.
I get what you are saying, however are we also saying since it’s difficult to catch them, that can just do whatever they want and oversight isn’t at possible?
People will strategize at their pace to make sure they can capture or track down the riders. You can’t expect a safe chase with tens of teens on high powered bikes. People will get hurt.
These guys literally don’t give a shit if cops are there or not. They get into groups and start getting a mob mentality of if there’s not enough cops will just start circling the cop car itself. Happened over on Westheimer a while back with the critical mass
If police chase them it puts more people at risk. If they don’t the only people at risk is mostly themselves. Do you really want a 4500 lb car barreling through stop lights for something that will end up being a misdemeanor?
Fleeing from police is not a misdemeanor
No but it most likely gets plead down to one if caught. Again cops don’t chase bikes unless the person in it is running due to a violent crime. A 4500lb car chasing motorcycles doesn’t do the rest of the people on the road favors. These are dirt bikes but some bike do 150mph at the twist of a throttle. Cops would need a Bugatti to catch up to them. It’s just not worth putting everyone else at jeopardy.
Sounds like the type of vehicle that should be illegal if standard policy has to be to not enforce any traffic regulations against them.
Thank you!
Sure. Actually every vehicle should he illegal. Everyone should walk or we have good public transit. Because cops don’t chase a lot of cars either if it puts people at risk. If some ass hole decides to run from a cop then the cop rams your family on accident and kills them would you still want them to chase everyone?
Cops attempt traffic stops and chase people all the time but nice strawmen.
Traffic stops yea because 99.9% of people pull over. Many parts of the US literally have no chase ordinances meaning they only chase if the person running is suspected of a violent crime. There’s other ways of tracking them down. Chasing and putting everyone else at risk is insanely stupid to do.
That does not explain why you wouldn’t even attempt to pull anyone over in this post
Not if they're already on parole. Which....
I mean definitely not, but I also do not want the liability of people out in front of me doing wheelies/etc in an area illegal to do so. I’m terrified of getting a ticket not putting on my turn signal at 3am w/ no one else on the road, bc it’s technically illegal. It does seem unjust that people can blatantly break the law bc they are difficult and risky to catch. And I have actually been pulled over at 3am for that reason with no one else on the road, exhausted on my way home from work. I had to do the whole prove you aren’t drunk crap freaking out that the cop that had his lights off parked behind bushes wouldn’t believe me bc I was dead tired. So no I do not want anyone to get hurt ever. But should we just go ahead and say out loud that they get to do what they want, where they want, when they want?
The thing is a drunk driver is more dangerous than a motorcyclist riding wheelies. Wheelies hurt themselves. So yea when you’re out exhausted at 3am cops will pull you over for literally anything because keeping a drunk off the road is worth it. If it was one guy on a motorcycle riding a wheelie they probably would try and if they run just let them go because most places aren’t even allowed to chase. The repercussions are higher doing that for everyone than they are the biker. A group of guys on dirt bikes is not going to get caught.
Another thing people don’t realize and this isn’t one of these situations but you see groups of sport bikes riding together on the highway doing wheelies from time to time and it’s usually sanctioned with police escorting them. The guys who do it actually do good stuff for the community. Just happened in Dallas. The delivered a trailer full of toys to the children’s hospital. The whole ride there they all rode wheelies and did stunts. Cops let them no matter how annoying it would have been to you because they are still doing good for the community.
So yes pick and choose based on a case by case basis what is and isn’t illegal I feel is where we landed. I believe that some of these people are in sanction and escorted doing a good deed. The ones that have jumped in front of me weaving through traffic downtown throwing energy cans and similar trash in the street were not. You have every right to your opinion, I’m not debating that at all. Maybe I should just get a dirt bike so I can do whatever I want on a public road and stop complianing
They threw energy cans? You want me to believe that? How exactly would they ride a dirt bike and drink an energy drink while also using the clutch? It would be a pretty hard thing to do with only two hands considering one needs to use the throttle and the other has to work the clutch.
Fuck dude idk, but I’ve seen trash hit the street more than once, I couldn’t even begin to tell you how bro. I can’t even ride a regular bike, I don’t know how people hydrate and stay on those either
Item two ain't happening anyway. We know this based on the massive fraud and backlogs of cases hpd refused to work. It ain't workload.
Instead he pullled me over for doing 45 in a 35 through the tunnels, keeping the streets safe!
Exactly WTF are the cops going to do get into a high speed chase in Houston??? They have 0 chance of catching a dirtbike
There was a recent police chase with one where the suspect was hit by a car and died…. HPD did the less violent thing and let the higher ups make the call
People demand something be done, then complain when something is done and someone gets injured or roughed up fighting police or running away.
The police cant win either way.
Are either of those things even street legal?
Why do you care?
Why don’t you?
"Street legal" is a system designed to profit off the poor man, in a city where the average person's car costs more than it should to stay legal because the roads are poorly maintained.
One hits a certain point financially and the concept of fines, tickets, etc simply become maintenance fees for fun -- the average joe is fucked if they accidentally go 10 over, meanwhile the city gets their profit stream either way.
Your point about our cars costing more to own bc of the poor roads here is a good one I’ll agree with that.
But being street legal is largely about the design of the vehicle in question and specifically re: safety features both for other drivers as well as the person operating the vehicle in question. Example: I don’t want to be on Memorial behind a dirt bike or ATC that may or may not have blinkers. That puts me at risk both from a safety standpoint and exposes me to liability in the event I hit them.
If this area weren't nice and pretty they wouldn't be interested in ruining it. They already have the Galleria.
Collect overtime and kill people with thier vehicles costing us taxpayer money
I can understand how people feel legitimately by this, but "dirt bike gang" is objectively hilarious out of context
One of those gangs shot and killed a father who was picking up the food for his family a few years ago. It happened on Westheimer at 8 PM on Friday night.
They are total pieces of shit.
yea, dirt bike group sounds more politically correct.
The ghetto supporters will tell you to let them be....ignore them
I know that Houston passed House bill 1442 to seize vehicles for illegal street racing and reckless driving, which basically stopped the streetcar takeovers and racing in Houston. So thankful it worked. Wonder if this bill applies to dirt bikes too? Is a dirt bike considered a vehicle? Maybe they, too, need to be confiscated before this will end.
The usual suspects
Who do you mean exactly?
They scatter pretty easily, one cop in an SUV might corner one but it could be risky. Occasionally they go after them but it's a nice evening and all. No need to be a worse cure than the disease.
Used to see the dirt bike gangs on a weekly basis riding down westheimer during afternoon work traffic.
Here’s the deal with police pretty much ignoring them. Those dirts bikes are so nimble there’s no way a police car could catch one. Let alone 40 of them. The police are stuck between a rock in hard place in chasing them because…
A.) if they chased them and someone gets hurt people will complain “why did the police chase them?”
B.) if they don’t chase them people will complain “why aren’t they chasing them”.
In other words, a certain group of people are always looking to complain about something. Especially when it comes to the actions (or inaction) of police.
It’s a risk vs reward situation.
“Worthless cop” bro tf he supposed to do?
Houston will be a completely feral city within 10 years.
It pretty much already is.
Most places have no chase policies when it comes to motorcycles. A cop can’t catch them. A high speed chase to try and catch them puts everyone on the roads life at risk. A 300lb dirt bike riding wheelies is only a risk to themselves for the most part. A 5000lb explorer chasing them and accidentally hitting a car kills everyone inside. It’s not worth it to do anything.
These groups of guys on ATVs and dirt bikes are a huge safety concern in Houston and in most major cities. We need to allow the police to do what they do in the UK—chase them and then hit them with their patrol vehicles to stop them.
Hitting them is the only way to stop them other than shooting (which I am not advocating for).
And no particular order here are the ramifications unattended consequences of a policy like that.
People will die. People will get hurt. HPD officers would get injured. The public would get injured
increase risks across the board for injuries and deaths. For police suspects and the public.
Increase across the board for all parties involved or not involved in property damage.
Increase in HPD maintenance in Fleet vehicle cost
Increase in Hfd maintenance in Fleet vehicle and cost
Increase in response time for both HFD and HPD to non-related events
Reduction in the availability officers across the city. Reduction and availability of EMS across the city with knock on effect lasting hours.
Increase in city property damage, payouts and legal fees
increase road maintenance and repair.
What's the difference in your mind? Genuinely asking tbh. Both are pretty much a high risk of death
Box of roofing tacks in the middle of the road would fix a lot of this. And btw you can put roofing tacks in empty cans and leave them around places like that. This is why I don’t run over empty cans in the road anymore.
I mean to be fair, what is a single cop supposed to do? Run one of them over? That sounds like a win for the family when the lawsuit's over with and a win for the media raking over coals for months.
4 wheeled vehicles are easier to chase after, 2 wheeled that can vanish in traffic not so much. Personally I think send a chopper after them like LAPD does in these group chases, but idk.
don't cops have radios? They used to use their radios to fight crime. It is an effective law enforcement tool, if they just actually decide to use it.
So... What exactly did you want the cop to do here? It's not like they'll pull over if the cop tries to do that. Then there'll be 40 dirtbikes and ATV's weaving through traffic instead of being assholes in a group.
The other option is what? Just ramming them with their car? Seeing how many one guy can take out? We get on cops that try to do too much and react to things too aggressively, we should at the very least be able to applaud an officer that realized that trying to interfere would make a situation 1000X worse for the public than it currently is.
Something should be done. But really it would take a police task, not just one officer.
Yns
hpd has a no chase policy for these kind of vehicles. these kinds of chases frequently lead to deaths and as shitty as they may be, they shouldn’t be dead.
There was a South Park episode about this.
Gangs 😂😂
Seriously. HPD is a fucking joke
I think you’re confusing what the actual problem is.
Not really - the bikers all should meet gravel with their faces. The real issue though is there are no repercussions. Confiscate these obviously illegal machines and these hood dipshits wont do it again. It’s a free for all in that park and it’s honestly unsafe.
“To Serve and Protect” is an absolute joke. I stand by my original statement HPD is useless.
WE
The day a bunch of kids acting stupid on ATVs and dirt bikes enters my top 100 problems is a long, long way away.
this sub should just be called r/houstonkarens
Oh no, he let the group stay together. The horror..
When I saw this post I thought people were on the trails with dirt bikes. If it’s a decent Sunday and they are just passing through it’s not the end of the world to let a few through the red light to stay with the pack.
Except there’s people in the crosswalk they are cutting across
The horror!
you seemed to have missed this part of the post: "shut down the intersection to do a u turn and pop wheelies." Or perhaps you enjoy people shutting down intersections and causing dangerous situations.
But the electric scooters are the problem....lol
Shouldn't they ass be in the dirt somewhere. Memorial is a nature park . We'll to me its just a beautiful place not for dirt bikes
“Gangs” 🤣
Props to the police officer for not putting anyone’s lives in danger.
That's racist.
Is this your first time seeing dirt bikes and 4 wheelers? I live on the southeast side, and it's common to see em. My sons and I ride em and the majority of my neighborhood has em lol. Cops dont bother us as long as we aren't doing anything stupid.
They normally don’t leave the ghetto
What makes them a gang? Were they yelling su whoop throwin up blood as they drove past?
This is not a gang. Just a group of like minded people sharing their interests. Do you have anything better to do? Did they dishonor your family? Drive by? Or were they just enjoying the day?
no they’re black so they are a gang. seriously i’m sure they’re doing stupid shit but who fuckin cares?
Some pale people on this sub wish it was Nextdoor
The blatant caucacity. Sounds about white.
What makes it a "Gang" and potentially not a "Club" ?
Is it because there's black people, so it's a Gang? But if it's a bunch of white kids it's a Club?
When I think of a "motorcycle gang" I have never envisioned black guys. There are TV shows about this. They refer to themselves as a club to try and avoid the feds, but generally they are white.
I was attempting to say the same thing and call out racism.
My point was that if it was a lot of white people on bikes people wouldn't call it a 'Gang' and the title doesn't say "Motorcycle Gang". Calling something a 'Gang' is just naturally more negative than calling something a 'Club'. /shrug
If you already knew the answer, why'd you ask?
Crew*
Local stunt riders. I know a lot of those guys and they are mostly good people. Low speed wheelies aren't hurting anyone. The worst that happens is that you wait an extra turn at a light while the group goes by. The cops don't really care as they aren't hurting anyone. Cheap bike insurance is an easy way to keep the cops off your ass so most stay insured, so that's better than like half the car drivers on the streets.
So rolling reds is fine for all drivers?
No it's not. But it is safer for groups like this, that's why the police allow it. It's safer to let them go thru as a group instead of splitting it up and having cars stuck in the pack. They allow this all the time for other events like parades, bike rides, charity runs, funerals, etc. We do a big ride in Dallas every year and part of the benefits of the permitting we get is that we get a police escort that blocks traffic for us. Most rides aren't permitted, but the same thing applies.
No it doesn’t. Get a permit and escorts or follow the road laws.
It’s not unsafe to have cars share the road with road legal motorized vehicles. If those riders feel it’s unsafe to have cars around they need to get permits or stay off the road
You are mis understanding the crux of this issue:
life and property preservation, enforcement: tactics, pursuit limitations both vehicle, agility, and internal policy.
These guys are not following the current laws. Is it an issue? Yes, should it be addressed, it is being addressed. You just don’t like how it is being addressed (see below) Would having these guys get a permits, escorts and follow motor vehicle laws be safer for everyone? Absolutely.
realpolitik is that’s these guys don’t do that and aren’t going to. They’re willfully breaking motor vehicle laws and know it. They know if they get in a wreck or if caught, they’ll get fined, have vehicles impounded, catch a charge if the DA wants to address it. The DA sets the tone.
As it stands now, the most practical approach to this issue when it comes to enforcement, is reactive enforcement. life safety, and Property protection is to not pursue. HPD pursuit policies are strict in order to preserve life and Property.
How is it being addressed?