On July 17, at 5 p.m. on the South Side lakefront bike path, I was jumped from the side and beaten with a baseball bat. The assailant was a 15-year-old punk in the act of robbing my bicycle.
Then on July 19, at 8 a.m. on the same path, a 60-year-old woman was assaulted in a robbery of her bicycle. She suffered severe injury with a broken hip and broken shoulder.
These violent events are not random. They are occurring with regularity, according to the police.
The bicycle path south of McCormick Place is extensively used, by women who ride alone, by South Siders who commute to the Loop, as well as by the fast movers who stretch out on the expanses of the scenic trail. Currently, the bikers are being picked off singly.
Bikers need to learn to watch the trail more carefully and report at the many accessible phones teenagers visibly sauntering along with bats and sticks in hand. The bikers need to know the bad spots on the trail (for instance, the small playground at 45th St.).
They need to watch for incidents in progress, and come to a fellow bikers` assistance, if only by shouting to make their presence known and getting to a phone. A fellow biker who intervened and startled the criminals in this manner saved me from additional injury.
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