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June 9, 2013

LAist gets out an early rough report on a violent incident on yesterday's World Naked Bike Ride in Los Angeles. This was along a bike path on the L.A. River where on the right is the river rather lushly overgrown and on the left is mostly industrial zones. But there is one small neighborhood park squeezed in among the auto repair shops and warehouses. I came upon the scene as all the riders got stopped up because of the incident. I was 50 to 100 feet back from the scene and could only tell that there was some sort of fight going on. After things got broken up the supposed perpetrator came walking along the bike path in our direction calling us all "faggots," which is not at all unusual. Over my many years and miles of bicycling, "faggot" is the handiest insult hurled at us by those in motor vehicles.

When we finally got rolling again and I passed the location of the confrontation, a woman was standing there holding a wooden cudgel, tapping it against a metal pole, warning us all to "keep moving." I do have to wonder who takes their kids to the park and brings along a cudgel?

Later, others who were close to the incident said one rider was hit in the face and came away with a bloody nose, and another rider was hit as well. They said the man claimed to be protecting the children in the park.

Further along the bike path some of the riders reported the incident to an officer in a Sheriff's Department vehicle who said he would patrol back along the bike path. When we exited the bike path we were met by LAPD who held us there for 10 or 15 minutes while they took a report and made a general request for anyone with photo or video evidence to come forward.

My greatest irritation was with the riders who wanted to be looky-loos and continued to hold us back even after the attack ended and it was clear that the best thing for all the rest of us was to move on out of this narrow trap.

My thousands of photos from the ride will be forthcoming in one of the usual locations. I have none of this incident along the bike path. LAist has photos from the ride which depict [gasp] nude people.

Filed under Cycling,Naturism-Nudism,Public Safety | permalink | June 9, 2013 at 11:37 PM

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