I was picking up my 14-year-old from her middle school. As we walked to the car, a Harley-riding motorcyclist [not shown, obvs.] came burbling into the parking lot. He was wearing sunglasses and a skeleton-face bandana that covered his face. A dad coming to pick up his child? Well . . .
I’ve never seen a biker at the school before. I didn’t see a second helmet. As far as I could tell it was a single seat Sportster.
I asked Lola if she recognized the bike. She said no. When the bike disappeared around the side of the school, just ahead of a line of school busses, where the parking lot ends, where no one waits for their kids, outside of anyone’s sight, I got a bad feeling . . .
Should I have gone and investigated myself, disarmed as I was? Maybe. Instead, I went into the school to report the biker.
I walked right in; the school’s front door and subsequent office door are never locked. I reported my suspicions to one of the women manning the desk. She went to tell the Vice Principal.
The vice principal wasn’t in her office. As someone went to find her, the woman returned her attention to the kids clamoring for bureaucratic dispensation.
My nerves got the better of me. “I think this is more important than dealing with students,” I said. “Are you going to call the police?”
I don’t know if I waited for an answer. I called them myself.
“Police, fire or emergency?”
“Police.”
“Where are you calling from?”
“XXX Middle School.”
“What’s the address please?”
“I don’t know.”
Silence. Seconds ticking by.
“I’m at XXX Middle School and there’s a suspicious person on a motorcycle. I need to speak to the police now.”
“This is the police,” the operator said, defensively. “I need to get the address.” Pause. “Is it XXXX?”
“Yes. I guess.”
I gave her a description of what I’d seen. I confirmed my name and phone number. She said a deputy was on his way.
Two minutes passed. Then another minute. And another. And another.
The Vice Principal came out of the school and walked up to me. I filled her in and asked if she knew if any of the parents picked up their kid on a bike. Not that she knew of.
“Did you call the police?” she asked.
She retreated into the school, satisfied that I’d made the call.
Another minute went by. And another. I reckon five minutes elapsed since I called 911, at least seven minutes since I raised my concern with school staff.
The Vice Principal returned to the parking lot and walked slowly towards me. She told me that it was indeed a parent who’d come to pick up his kid. “He’s just parking around the side of the building.”
I called 911 and told the police to stand down.
Adrenaline distorts time perception, but at least ten minutes elapsed since I walked back into school to voice my concern about a suspicious person.
No officer ever showed up.
Spree killer Nikolas Cruz spent six minutes shooting students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
When I told Jon Wayne Taylor about my frustration with the school’s slow response he said, “We’re on our own.”
The terrible part: it isn’t me on my own. Its my daughter.
Take your daughter out of the free fire killing zone.
Exactly
Around here, the cops are nearby when school is let out. Guess they make a quota on busting drivers who don’t stop at crosswalks and roll through stop signs.
Me? I’d a stopped the biker right there embarrassing the hell out of my daughter, and making a big public stink about it. I’m too old and cranky to ask for help. I just hope for forgiveness. Plus my wife taught me long ago that if someone gives you that creepy feeling when they are around kids, they are guilty no matter what. So by our rules, there’s still something off about creepy skeleton faced motorcycle dad. And there always will be.
In Texas, if you stay in the parking lot, sidewalk, etc you can continue concealed carrying:
…for reference, the law section against carrying on K-12 school grounds:
RF may have let his imagination run away with him. But, even tho I’ve never met him, I have been reading this site for years and he seems pretty level headed to me so I believe that if his hackles were raised, it wasn’t an impulsive decision. He noted he’d never seen the biker or dad before, there were not two helmets in the bike, skull and cross bone face guard, it didn’t look like it had room for a second passenger and the biker did kind of act suspicious by parking somewhere else. So, based on all that info, he erred on the side of caution. He didn’t go off half cocked causing panic and alarm. He didn’t call the police right away. He calmly went into the school and inquired if anyone knew of this parent. And in fact no one at first had. He didn’t immediately jump to conclusions based on the man’s appearance. He has obviously studied patterns of behavior of the parents who and go and which parents come and go and saw something that seemed out of place as well as the other facts that didn’t seem to add up and made a judgement call. To me the most disturbing part of this story is the lax attitude everyone in the school seemed to have concerning safety. Wtf. The admin people seemed completely distracted. The doors were wide open. No one recognized the man at first. So, thank you RF for being vigilant and asking questions.
Furthermore, just because this guy turned out to be a parent, it still doesn’t mean he had the right to be there. Plenty of kids come from split homes where one or the other parent is not allowed contact with the child. Doesn’t mean they won’t try something stupid. We all know laws only stop the law abiding.
Can you imaging if you’d said nothing because you were afraid to offend someone and, God forbid, this guy DID do something tragic? Where our kids safety is concerned it’s worth asking the right questions.
I think we are all naturally feeling a little more on edge about the vulnerability of our kids at school, especially public schools. My son is 11 and in 5th grade. He was in Kindergarten when Sandyhook happened. And I was volunteering in the classroom That day. And afterwards I thought if something like that had happened at my sons school and I had not been able to do anything to possibly protect him. I never would’ve been able to live with myself. It is completely unacceptable to me that schools are gun free zones and furthermore that law-abiding parents with legal conceal carry permits are not allowed to carry to protect her children on school property. The school district we are in held a “safety meeting” after Sandyhook to discuss what they could do to increase safety at the schools. They talked about all kinds of happy horseshit that we all know won’t protect children. But when I brought up the idea of parents being able to conceal carry the school board converged on me and I thought that they were going to escort from the building. Needless to say that idea did not go over well. It was at that point we decided to pull her son from public school and he now attends a private school where parents can be and are armed.
The ineptitude of our government at every level is frightening. We cannot rely on them to protect us or our children. If I were in RF’s situation, my child would not be returning to that school or any other public school.
And it’s too bad many bikers reading this article felt offended by his reaction. That’s your issue to deal with. But RF didn’t pass judgement on this person, he added it all up and something didn’t seem right. So he did what any parent should do. Question when something doesn’t seem right, or seems grossly out of place. Had more people done that in the Florida situation, maybe they tragedy could have been avoided. And also, maybe don’t act suspicious or do suspicious things if you don’t want people to be suspicious of you. 🤔 if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, There’s a good chance it is a duck.
Everyone here should read two books, The Gift of Fear and Protecting the Gift. Same author whose name escapes me. Mr Farago listened to the inate fear we are all born with and did the right thing.
Gavin DeBecker.
Excellent books.
I would add Left of Bang to that list so that you can learn how to properly use that gift of fear.
The “duck” was guilty of the pre-crime of wearing a scary mask while riding a bike. And he almost got swatted by a POTG. It was a good thing he didn’t have a shoulder thingy that goes up.
Amen. Worst case first thinking. Completely biased on a stereotype. The only thing scarier is the older white male in a white van. BTW 85% of school shooters are students and already inside the facility when they act. School shootings are one of the rarest gun crimes.
If your justification of pulling your kids out of school is school shootings, your very misinformed. They more likely to die of cancer, ATV accident, and good lord riding in a car is exponentially more dangerous.
If you have other reasons, fine, but that’s a silly one. Unless you live in South Central or some similar area, but then, move, because a drive by your house with them studying at the kitchen, is still a concern.
Put her somewhere SAFE…
There is no such thing as SAFE. This is a dangerous world. Train them well, Pray. And hope for the best.
That being said, some places are safer than others. As are some schools. I decided a long time ago that concealed meant concealed. And that I’m my own first responder.
Robert, I won’t fault your actions, we are all different. But I would have investigated before raising an alarm with the school staff and even approached the guy if he looked like a threat and engaged him. And I probably would have been armed. Even at a public school. Unless there are armed guards with metal detectors I leave my noisy cricket in my pocket.
Way to be observant! Most around you probably didn’t blink an eye at a guy wearing a mask at a school…
“There is no such thing as SAFE. This is a dangerous world. Train them well, Pray. And hope for the best.”
Unless you live in a certain 6 block area in Chicago, you are safer in America today than any day in the history of the country.
It was much much safer in America in the 50s and the 60s. Most people left their doors unlocked kids played outside roaming the parks and streets till their parents turned the porch light on to signal it was time to come home. Most rural schools high school boys drove pickup trucks with a gun rack in the back window with a gun in the rack to school.
Every one thought this was normal.
No, no it wasn’t.
I don’t get why people feel the need to constantly feel fake nostalgia about stuff that is easily researched. You can look up crime stats, murder rates peaked in 30’s, ’74 and ’91, The decade of the 50’s homicide rates averaged 4.8/100k, for the 2010’s, 4.8/100k, and national reporting was much worse then. During Vietnam all crime rates peaked, but crime rates have fallen off of a cliff since the 90’s.
You know what you couldn’t do in the 50’s, vote at 18. Lynching was a thing, Polio was still a problem, etc. The 50’s were only like Ozzy and Harriet, on TV.
Scary. I’m glad that it didn’t turn into anything serious, Baruch Hashem.
over react much?
Was there an assault rifle on the handlebar?
I’m a biker too, I wouldn’t appreciate it too much if some yahoo called the police on me for wrong place/wrong time.
The pic is a Honda Shadow, not a Harley
He said it “appeared to be” a Sportster. Honda has gone to a great deal of trouble to make that happen.
Type of bike does not change the potential problem. What father picks up their child from school on a motorcycle but doesn’t bring an extra helmet?
As for “assault rifle”, much damage can be done with a Glock 19 and a couple of extra mags.
“As for “assault rifle”, much damage can be done with a Glock 19 and a couple of extra mags.”
Even With the slower bullets ? >/sar>
It’s Texas. He ain’t gotta wear a helmet. So he could have given his helmet to his kid.
I am a biker, and I get offended by douchebaggery. Showing up with a skull-face bandanna at a kid’s school is douchebaggery. It fits under the whole “play stupid games, win stupid prizes” category. Yes RF overreacted, but then again, everyone around Nicholas Cruz under-reacted, so I don’t blame him.
Take the skull-face off when you’re at a school, d-bag.
Good grief.
The kid could have her helmet in a locker.
Bikers *always* park away from cages.
And that Honda Shadow… Not Sportster… is set up for two-up, pegs & all.
Honestly, I would delete this entire essay out of shame.
signed… a biker.
Fair enough. I overreacted. But I still think the police and the school under-reacted.
I didn’t mean to bust your balls too hard; I have Kids too I understand.
Maybe the school and police should station a car at the school during drop off and pickup hrs. They run speed traps in school zones anyway.
Bingo, when I was a traffic cop, one of my primary responsibilities was to be at the schools every morning and afternoon.
My motivation was to keep the kids safe. (My ulterior motive was for any potential bad guys.)
(Teachers and parents who were doing 11-? Over the limit always got tickets. The kids? Always got warnings)
I’d say you did the right thing Robert.
Janitor, custodian, cook, contractor, school district computer tech….
Hey man don’t beat yourself up. I think that sometimes you just get a gut feeling and if that’s strong enough you have to act. In good conscience how could you not act on such a feeling? I also think that sometimes fate gives us little reminders. Sort of a kick in the pants to keep you aware. A coworker just had a police helicopter hover over his neighborhood in the middle of the night and he just then realized he had nothing to calm his scared family. He came up to me the next day and said “I’m going to buy a gun this weekend”. When fate kicks your pants (or gut) you might want to listen. He learned that he needed protection and you learned that we are really on our own.
Normally you are pretty on point RF and I can certainly appreciate your concern for your daughter and her school. That being said, it’s definitely an over-reaction. Honestly, this doesn’t sound much different than someone calling the cops on an open carrier just because they got bad vibes. Better safe than sorry I guess especially around your children.
You’re ridiculous. You called the police because you saw a biker with a scary facemask. Do you call the police every time you see someone with a hoody also? You are in the same category as people who call the police every time they see somebody legally open carrying. Pathetic.
I must be terrifying them based on how I dress when I ride.
Over-reacting jerks like you cause problems where there are none. Seems how there was no sign of a threat, except a boogyman on a motorcycle (oh my) with, gasp, a BANDANA over his face, OH NO! So, when the police respond the way you wanted them to..(within seconds with the s.w.a.t. team apparently) because you didn’t like the way someone looked and where they parked, and the situation spirals out of control because EVERYONE is already on edge and some poor bastard gets shot over you being a over-reactive pussy who was too much a coward to go ask someone what was up? If I was that parent I would have smacked you like the bitch you acted like. Whatever happened to minding your own damn business ?
Minding your own business is the polite thing to do. It also gets people hurt or killed. Maybe he did overreact by calling the police, but he could just as well have confronted the man. Not saying he should start a fight, just ask if everything is ok, where the second helmet is, basically just chat with the guy and get a better feel of the situation. Is he just a father picking up his son or daughter, or is he there to start trouble, rev his motorcycle and do burnouts? A good way to read someone, is simply talking with them.
All of you (many of you) think RF over-reacted?
All he did was see something that seemed odd, at least to him, and reported it to the authorities, who did SQUAT about the report for ten minutes. It took the punk in Parkland only 6 minutes to kill 17 and would 12 more.
See something, say something. It’s not like RF whipped out his Wilson Combat, ran behind the building and held the guy at gunpoint until law enforcement showed up.
I only call the cops if somebody (or some dog) needs to be shot.
Never call a cop on someone you don’t want shot especially someone you love.
Or just walked to the corner and get an eyeball on the while on the phone to say, Crap Mayday Mayday, or never mind.
But to just mosey around looking for a vice principle for a while, chatting with some others, then calling the police with a general, umm I’m at a place, what’s the address, I don’t know…
If I recall, Robert is in Austin, so Austin ISD alone has 130 schools, and the neighboring suburbs probably have as many, plus private schools, so when you call 911, you expect the dispatcher to know where XXX elementary is before the location info from the cell pops up is ludicrous. PPPPPP
I don’t think they did. The police get ridiculous calls all the time and they shouldn’t treat them seriously.
“A guy rode a motorcycle next to the school” does not deserve much of a response, if any. Just like “there’s a guy wearing a gun!” in an open-carry state doesn’t.
Thankfully, even the police and the school workers reacted appropriately to an inappropriate call/complaint. I still can’t believe someone would admit openly to such prejudice behavior. Every bike/leather shop for the last 20 years has been selling those bandanas. Nice to see freedom loving RF knows how to grossly over-react to someone making him uncomfortable by simply exercising his freedom to choose a different mode of transportation and dress than most (not all) parents. Thats some serious snowflake behavior right there. Sickening.
I used to live in that small blue dot in Central Texas. Used to….
When seconds count, the police are only (fill in the blank) dead bodies away.
It’s all over-reaction until it ain’t. You didn’t hand anyone a piece of cardboard with the word “crazy biker” on it, so, all good.
“Should I have gone and investigated myself, disarmed as I was?”
Why were you disarmed? That’s on you.
“Fair enough. I overreacted. But I still think the police and the school under-reacted.”
That’s probably because everybody that’s there everyday has seen this guy regularly and so their alarms weren’t going off.
“I called 911 and told the police to stand down.”
“No officer ever showed up.”
You told the police to not come. Why are you surprised they didn’t?
My wife and I board a couple of horses at a stable half a mile from the local John Deere farm implement dealership. One day, after dark, we went to the stable to administer medication to one of the horses. On the way, in between the stable and the dealership, we noticed two people sitting on the ground next to the road. They were still there when we started back home half an hour later. I called 911 to report their presence and suggested that a deputy sheriff check them out. I emphasized that I did not see them doing anything wrong but it was a strange place for someone to be sitting.
“Normalcy bias” is assuming that something out of the ordinary is innocent and not dangerous even though you have no guarantee of that. An obvious example is ignoring loud popping noises because they couldn’t possibly be gunshots.
This is just one of the many reasons not to have your kids degenerate themselves at a government school / indoctrination camp.
Better to hide them at home in your own personal indoctrination camp.
“Better to hide them at home in your own personal indoctrination camp.”
Time for you to be schooled about what homeschooling is actually like.
“Compared to children attending conventional schools, however, research suggest that they have higher quality friendships and better relationships with their parents and other adults. They are happy, optimistic, and satisfied with their lives…. As adolescents, they have a strong sense of social responsibility and exhibit less emotional turmoil and problem behaviors than their peers. Those who go on to college are socially involved and open to new experiences. Adults who were homeschooled as children are civically engaged and functioning competently in every way measured so far. An alarmist view of homeschooling, therefore, is not supported by empirical research.” -Homeschooling and the Question of Socialization Revisited, by Richard G. Medlin, Peabody Journal of Education, Volume 88, 2013- Issue 3
Failure of the “Greatest Generation” to properly “indoctrinate” their babyboomer spawn during the 50s/60s on the subject of enlightened Western civilization and culture resulted in most of the problems we have today.
neiowa, could you elaborate on the failures of my parents, who I thought raised me pretty well. I assume you’re criticizing the job we boomers have done with our children as a result, but I’ve never heard this theory, so I’d like to learn more, before it’s too late (I’m 71.)
It’s more than a little ignorant bias to judge a rider by their appearance, but most people are ignorant about riders. At the same time, I understand wanting to protect one’s child from harm. I’m firmly for repealing the gun free school zones act, I think it’s the ideal first step in the right direction. After that, I think requiring teachers to carry is a step back in the wrong direction, but offering them subsidized training, and maybe, MAYBE, blue line discounts is the right next step. Requiring someone to carry a gun when they don’t want to is not a wise decision. If they were applying for a job as a security guard, fine, but these are teachers who never signed up for this.
You will get enough of a percentage of teachers to start carrying that the element of uncertainty will be enough to deter a shooter. That’s exactly what you want. For schools to be just as much of a risk of armed citizens stopping a shooter as any other public place. If it doesn’t work, I’d be surprised.
“Most” of the Harley posers are morons who aren’t qualified to be on anything larger than a Vespa. More so than even the utes on the Jap crotch rockets of a generation ago. Checkbook nonconformity by conforming.
“Harley Compatible” https://youtu.be/5l35kvxliwE
I retired my Harley’s for Indians, then they went under for a while, and I’m looking to add to my Chief with one of the new brand Indians. I don’t want to support HD with their new outsourcing to Thailand bit, plus I did some data work at the HQ a few years and always got the feeling that the whole branding thing was just a nod and wink to ramp the margins.
Requiring someone to carry a gun is certainly wrong. The last time we saw such things in America, it was called “the Draft.” Armed teachers and staff would have to be limited to those who want to do it. Some additional training and practice at school expense would have to be part of the plan.
As to profiling a motorcycle rider, I was one of neiowa’s “posers”…on an Electra Glide, for over twenty years and 130,000 miles, ranging from San Diego to Montana to the Gulf Coast to Newfoundland. I always dressed for comfort and safety–and that never required looking like a wannabe bandit. Problem is, if you look like an outlaw, you should be prepared to be treated like one. A couple times my daughter asked if I could pick her up at school on my motorcycle. No. I understood her reason. She wanted her friends to see her with her “cool” biker dad. Still an unnecessary risk.
I had friends whose son dressed, acted and got tatted up (this was before it went mainstream) like a gangbanger. Neither they or their son could figure out why the cops were always giving him a hard time. 🙄
If you look like trouble to get attention, don’t be surprised when you get it.
Disclaimer, I live in a small town where there are 2 biker bars now, and I have to put up with a lot of jackassery on the roads, except when I’m driving my Ford F-150 Supercrew. Then they get all careful about rules of the road and such. I guess physics is a bitch.
This must be what winning looks like to a terrorist or school shooter. Some poor guy cruises in on a “bitch bike” to pick up his kid and gets swatted by a nervous nelly. I could see it in California, but I thought better of Texans. (imported or not).
I’m a biker too. But I just got a bad feeling and thought it’s better to be safe than sorry.
And what kind of idiot where’s that bandana mask driving into a school? I sure wouldn’t.
Q: “And what kind of idiot where’s that bandanna mask driving into a school?”
A : A Harley rider
Sorry, no. I’m a Harley rider, and I have at least 1/3 of a brain and wouldn’t show up to a school looking dangerous or threatening.
So let’s reword your answer:
“a Harley-riding douchebag.”
There, better, isn’t it?
Fine, but there are plenty enough that it isn’t suspicious of anything but being a dumbass.
Someone who doesn’t like the taste of bugs…
Keep your piehole shut mouthbreather. Get a windshield (but that logic violates the poser rules).
“Ride like I do or I insult you” is pretty high on the douche/tool scale level. It’s basically the same thing as your average middle aged guy who bought a Harley at 40 and tells everyone else how there’s no other motorcycle worth buying and questions your manhood if you choose to ride any other brand or type of bike.
I’d try scaling it back a bit.
My comment was too harsh as well. You put yourself “out there” and do a great job with this site. Sometimes it gets personal.
As someone who worked in schools I can attest that not a day goes by without someone thinking something is dangerous/suspicious. It may be an odor, a sound, or person. You name it, someone thinks it is a cause for concern/evacuation. That may be part of the problem.
Any REAL biker would have walked up to the guy and said ” Hey bro, whats up?” That simple. Just because you have a bike or ride doesn’t make you a biker…you’re proof of that…shame on you.
Robert, take your kid out of school and home school. She’ll get a better education and you can always be armed to protect her. Which is more important, your child’s well-being or the ridiculous rules you have to follow when you’re at the school? If that man had been a danger you would have been unable to do anything about it. That’s why you’re upset. Why go through all the trouble to learn how to shoot and get an LTC when it won’t do you any good because you’re following the stupid and unconstitutional laws and rules? You can do it! And this advice includes anyone else who is reading it. Please stop letting leftists indoctrinate your kids while at the same time not doing anything effectual to protect them!
One of the more absurd features of the biker subculture is the tendency to legitimate the poseurs role to such an extent that the guy in I’m-a-bad-ass-outlaw-biker-see-my-scary-mask drag could easily be a local dentist who thinks he’s making a statement because he kinda gets off on a little pretend rebelliousness. The only people who don’t think it’s all a bit embarrassing are the bikers who think wearing a skeleton-face bandana is cool. Scheech. That guy was such a dork.
I would file that under similar circumstances as walking into a gas station still wearing your full face helmet. To me that is asking to be regarded as a robber.
You’re right about a Honda Shadow being a bitch bike.
That’s a big guy on a little bike. Looks like a monkey trying to love a football.
He’s on his bike though. It’s running, and it’s propelling him forward.
You’ll find more Harley’s parked by the side of the road than Hondas by a 100:1 ratio.
Harleys are sh_t mechanically, goofy old-school for no reason, sh_t. Expensive sh_t to boot.
And riding one doesn’t add even a line to your resume.
I like’s me a 1400 Suzuki Bandit, big enough for bigger-people two-up riding, and it’ll wheelie in every gear.
*GSX1400 or Suzuki 1250S Bandit (with the preference on the Bandit)
I’ve never owned a Harley. Had a Victory for several years, and it never gave me a lick of trouble. Bought a new Indian Vintage 2 years ago, and it’s been absolutely trouble free. It’s also way more comfortable for my long tall frame. And quicker than most stock Harleys.
Joe R, I bought a 1989 Electra Glide Sport in 1989. Rode it for over 20 years and 130,000 miles. Generator failure at around 50k was the only non-maintenance service I ever had done. I’ve also owned Suzuki and Honda motorcycles. The Suzuki was reliable after a carburetor mod to “fix” an emissions control feature. Suzuki was an innovator back in the 70’s and 80’s, too. A friend of mine had a GT750 three cylinder 2-stroke water cooled motorcycle (aka the Water Buffalo.) It was so heavy he could not put it up on the centerstand.
The Honda (a Gold Wing) had an intermittent internal oil leak that caused a cloud of smoke if the motorcycle was left parked on the side stand. Honda was never able to fix it and indeed even denied it was a defect, even though I never saw another Gold Wing with that problem (and a tech on the side said it was not normal and they had never encountered that either.) That was when I bought the Harley.
I saw an article several years ago. Average annual mileage for Honda, Suzuki, and Kawasaki was 3,000 miles. Average for a Harley was 16,000 miles.
That must have been a Harley article. I’ve used my rice bikes as daily drivers. Drove a tiny Honda 400cc for a whole year while I worked on a Jeep I had at the time. I’ve owned a Harley, It was ~ ok, but If you trailer until within 350 miles of Sturgis because of the ride, you should rode a Honda Goldwing.
I don’t like bikes that are like helicopters (maintain for 8 hours for every 1 hour of flight).
I’ve always liked the Suzuki Bandits, they had a more upright ride and it was a big and powerful enough bike to hold me and someone else (most rice bikes have a max gross weight of ~350lbs and I got 3/4ths of that on my own).
Unarmed you did the correct thing. You should know work up a plan with your daughter if there is a next time.
She has a plan: run or ambush.
Gotta expand the plan, throw in some flanking moves and a head-fake. : )
Seriously man, calm down. I ride, and as someone already stated….I’d be pretty frustrated with someone calling the cops because their imagination has gotten the best of them. Do you know every single person in the surrounding area to determine who is good/bad?
Thought not. It’s people like you who make gun control possible. Your letting your fear get the best of you. Take it from someone who has lost two children within a day of each other; you are not in control of shit. Unless you stay by your child’s side thier entire life, you will have no say in what happens to them. And even if did remain by thier side, you STILL don’t have a complete say in what happens to them. Stay optimistic, stay vigilant, but never succumb to fear.
A weird thing happened today, nothing.
Here’s hoping it stays that way.
I have children as well rf, and I absolutely would have done something similar.
There is absolutely no shame in wanting to protect your children.
Its called Virtue Signaling.
There are 13,500 school districts, and 42,000 schools in the US, that is 7.5 million school days a year, so the thing that didn’t happen is the thing that doesn’t happen millions of times a year.
That’s the problem with 24 hour news, people feelz things are dangerous, not true, but feelz, you know, like a hysterical gun grabber.
As I sit here, beverage on the table (water with lemon) next to my helmet and gloves, bike in the parking lot, face shield around my neck and my pistol with spare mag on my chest I wonder… what made the guy suspicious?
I’d be pretty ticked if cops harassed me over shit like this just because I must be a badass biker dude. Seriously, we get enough shit/hate/inconsiderate treatment from cagers as it is. Don’t add to it.
I ride with a veterans motorcycle group. I’m sure we looked really scary when we rolled up to a school for a Veterans Day assembly we were invited to. A couple of us were wearing skull masks because it was bloody cold. But the kids in that school weren’t the least bit intimidated. They were quite friendly and surprisingly respectful. We did get sideways glances from a few parents though. But nobody called 911. Colorado is like that.
Yeah, I run with a face shield sometimes, under my helmet. If not it’s around my neck to keep my motorcycle jacket neck puffed up (and to prevent it from chaffing). I’ve never had a problem with it (also Colorado).
Mostly kids see my bike and are much, much more interested in the bike than they are in me. I get a lot of little kids who say things like “Cool bike!”.
I live in a fairly small town and the cops know me so they don’t bother me around here. I don’t speed, pop wheelies, lane split or do any of that other stupid stuff so even my electric blue sport bike doesn’t catch much attention from the cops in other towns. It’s the people from Boulder who drive a Prius, Volt or other “save the whales” type car that are usually a problem.
Boulder you say, that’s why my back hurts, I ordered a mattress from Denver Mattress, but they sent it Boulders and left out the mattress, a river bed would be more comfortable
We don’t do it often, but I get a certain sense of satisfaction from the horrified and disgusted faces of the Boulderites when a group of us rolls through. And the favorable, sometimes longing gazes from more than a few of the ladies as they stand next to their neutered, metrosexual significant others. My wife is from Boulder, and I like to say that I took their token conservative away.
“My wife is from Boulder, and I like to say that I took their token conservative away.”
You are officially the guy who can say that he snagged “the one”. Also, that saying is hilarious.
<——Colorado guy. No bike. Feels shame now.
A lot of things scare me a lot more than an OFWG with a “scary” bandana riding a Harley… I mean I can relate to something getting a guy a little on edge or spooked, in my opinion that’s the time to maintain awareness and get out of the area fully realizing that you might be being a little irrational and that 99.9% chance it is nothing. And shoot, we often give the cops a hard time, but on the flip side how much harder does it have to be when adults call 911 because they saw a boogeyman!
@strych9
I ride almost daily in New England myself (best record is 202/365 days ridden) but come on dude, cagers…
I’m not supposing you fall into this category but I just don’t get the whole look like a bad ass by accessorizing (like skull bandannas, chains, German helmet, etc) but at the same time my bike has never left the garage in under 65 degree weather because I must focus on the chrome in a way that would make Mr Myagi blush..
I love to ride, but I don’t understand the try hards and posers who must cultivate the bad ass outlaw biker look while doing nothing even remotely close to live up to it. I’m not that so I don’t try to look like that…
I don’t really get that whole “look” thing either but if that’s how people want to roll that’s fine by me.
And yes, I say “cagers” and yes I say it for a reason. It is my experience that big ass work trucks are the safest vehicles to ride around. The second safest are the older gents with muscle or hot-rod cars. Third are people with ricer sports cars (like me!).
Yeah, technically those are all caged in vehicles but the thing that ties them together is that generally, the work truck guys have insurance reasons but the others want to keep their car nice. They put money into it and it’s not something they want dinged up.
Now, IME it’s the assholes in a Prius, Volt, Yaris, four door economy sedan (particularly the Malibu for some reason), soccer moms in SUV’s etc that are fucking dangerous. They don’t pay attention to other cars never mind look for bikes and so, no I don’t like them and I have a derogatory word for them. Just yesterday I was running around on a bike. I was sitting there waiting to make a left from a left turn lane when this fuckstick in a Yaris comes from my right, blows his stop sign, cuts across two lanes of traffic, cuts me off right as I’m starting to move (coming within a foot of my front tire) then fucking stops, rolls down his window and starts screaming at me about how irresponsible I am because I’m riding a sport bike.
As he speeds off I notice the back of his car is completely covered in lib-tard stickers. So yeah, he’s a fucking “cager” and a douchenozzle to boot. I don’t like people who drive like they own the road. They’re dangerous and self-entitled assholes and unfortunately, as soon as I get out of my little town they are COMMON (I suspect due to all the Californians moving here because they were pretty rare just five years ago). So yes, I have a term for them.
Virtual school her. Better than Wilson’s stupifying machine.
And if RF had shook his head and done nothing and then heard gunfire from behind the school, what would the comments be like then?
The point here is not the biker per se, but the lack of any response from the school admin to a report of a suspicious person.
Carry your gun, Concealed is concealed Unless the school has pat downs or metal detectors I carry. I Follow the doctrine of competing Harms (thanks massad ayoob)
= Carry / might break the law, Be first responder stop threat, save lives
= Unarmed / obey law, stand by helpless as people get shot up.
It WASN’T a suspicious person, that’s the problem. Neither the police nor school officials should lose their shit just because someone else is losing it.
Rant mode ON
That’s the main issue, no one was losing it. RF intimates that he wasn’t, that it was curious, funny, not dangerous. If he was losing it,and really thought it was a threat he’d have done something else. And, his wink-wink-nudge-nudge, I don’t think was to say he was not in possession of his gat, maybe not on person.
So if it was really an issue, did he truly not have access to a defensive tool in the car? and if he did, then it was obviously not enough of a concern to actually get it.
It just looks like a case of, again, Virtue Signaling, that the school/cops/somebody aren’t prepared and aren’t I, a very observant POTG, am or something .
So was this a story, or what? If the point is when seconds count, police are minutes away, we already knew that, and as a POTG, why weren’t you practicing vs preaching. Its not like RF doesn’t have access to something like a website with lots of discussion about this topic.
Rant mode OFF
What a bunch of maroons
I am a Biker in the old sense of that term. I belong to a Motorcycle club, I have visited schools before to talk about what a Veteran is and also have given a limited explanation of the effect of PTSD and other factors that may be effecting their mother or father or both who served in a war zone. We have also given rides to Make a wish children and supplied toys and a Santa to children who might not have a Merry Christmas. I already face constant harrassment from Police, I don’t wish to have that increased because someone fears that I am a maniac coming to shoot up a school. I am a person who would give his life to protect other people’s children.
Sort of like calling the cops because you saw a black dude in a wealthy neighborhood. What is it about children that makes otherwise rational adults flip full retard?
If you show at a middle school with a skull bandana covering your face, you can reasonably expect the police to take an interest in you.
Better safe than sorry.
If you want to wear a get up like that out on the open road that’s your business. If you are so numb as to wear it into school yard where you could easily and understandably frighten small children you deserve to be rousted by the local constabulary, if not ran over by a stressed out mom, driving a suburban who’s pissed cause you freaked out her six year old. I’m not advocating that but if I was on her jury…
Running over someone because of a clothing choice seems a bit extreme, no?
I mean — yeah, the guy’s a douchebag, it was a stupid thing to do. It’s up there with wearing a “F THA POLICE” shirt into a police station. Someone being concerned is a somewhat reasonable response. Whacked-out momma running him over? No.
Yeah, and if I was on the jury of the guy who put a dozen rounds through her windshield and splattered her brains all over her kid… see where this goes? It’s a hop, skip and a jump to plowing people down in a grocery store parking lot over feelz or having someone light up a car when a pansy soccer mom turns her SUV into a murder machine over nothing.
Sorry, “scary mask” is not a reason to run someone over. Ever. It’s people like you who give POTG a bad name and why motorcycle have tension with car riders.
Besides, if it was one of those Molon Labe skull masks it would be getting cheers.
We’re not talking about a grocery store parking lot. You go into school yard intent on terrorizing people’s kids and a moma grizzly mauls you, you asked for it.
Wearing a face shield on a bike, as people have done literally for decades, is now someone who is “intent on terrorizing people’s kids”? Bullshit. Seriously, snowflake much? Wear your sisters jeans on the weekends? Or do you just put fruit in your beer and talk out your ass?
99.99% chance it’s a guy on a motorcycle wearing what he normally wears on his motorcycle. Would you flip shit and say it’s OK to run him over if he wore a full face helmet? I suspect not. How about a “scary” skull with two crossed rifles and the words “Molon Labe”? If someone ran that guy over you’d probably be the first person screaming about how unjust it was. Keep in mind that a black helmet with a reflective visor and black leather jacket just might be “scary as fuck” to some soccer mom. “I had some feelz I didn’t like and MY KIDZ WAZ WITH ME!” is not a justification for anyone to flip out and run someone over. Ever. That’s called “murder” and it’s illegal. The person you attempt to run down is fully justified to take your life and the state is fully justified to incarcerate you for the rest of your life because you’ve gotta be some kind of paint-chips-for-breakfast moron to even start thinking this.
It’s not like the guy was running around in a clown costume chasing children on a playground. That would be a completely different situation. This whole “It makes me uncomfortable so it’s OK to run the person over” thing is some serious FUDD shit. Running the guy over in this case is 2nd degree MURDER.
Wear that mask into a bank. Wear it into a police station or a jewelry store. Stupid? Yes. Thinking people don’t do things like that cause they know it’s just wrong. Pull up into a school yard wearing the whole get up? Just pull it down as you drive in.
Autistic kids? Kids with emotional problems? If you can’t respect that a school is a special place, you don’t belong there. You want to be stupid around kids, be stupid with your own. As far as your name calling, misogynist insults, and what not, well I’ll just chalk it up to the fact that not everyone has been as fortunate as I have been.
Yeah, just don’t wear an NRA hat around a school either or it might be you with your face embedded in that Suburban’s grill. RF hasn’t been drinking frappuccinos and driving the kids to soccer practice in an imported minivan recently, has he?
Do us a favor. Don’t let anyone know you’re a gun owner.
How do you know the police never arrived? They were given a description to look for, not to meet with you.
One way in, one way out. I was parked on the neck of the funnel.
Slow day RF? Seriously, this is sad more than anything. We have officially had our mental faculties inhibited by all the gun hyperbole.
But if the police had shown up and run your name, found out your a CCW permit holder and your car was parked within 500 yards of a school zone……
police, good for arts and crafts (Drawing a chalk outline and writing tickets) but not much more.
Someone getting their jimmies rustled for no reason and not getting the response they wanted is not a good indication of police or school administrative response issues.
I’m still wondering what exactly made you get a bad feeling about this guy?
Was it just a general feeling or is there something you can articulate specifically? Would you have felt the same way if he was wearing a full face helmet instead of a brain bucket? Did the type of bike play into it? Something else about his clothing? Was he acting strangely for a motorcycle rider? Was there anything else going on that might account for his behavior? (For example I ride very carefully and very slowly in parking lots because that’s where I see 80% of the retardation I encounter when I ride or drive and on a bike I’m pretty vulnerable to being seriously hurt as compared to being in a car. Mommy not paying attention is a fender bender in my car, on my bike it’s probably a trip to the hospital with at least a broken leg.)
As for the school’s response… well I can see why you might not like it but do you really expect them to just know every vehicle every parent has? Is registration of each vehicle required? Are there rules for getting a new vehicle and taking it onto school grounds? Is it possible that they thought you were over-reacting? I mean, I guess what I’m asking here is what did you really expect someone at the school to do in this situation? What did you expect them to know in advance?
Lot’s of missing information in this story. Really, the only thing I can tell for sure is that the police response was kinda lackluster but then again I can also see dispatch rolling their eyes at this call too…
Mind your own business
In advance, I do not apologize for this post.
I truly believe this post was a set-up and all of you fell in. If this was as RF stated …
” … picking up my 14-year-old from her middle school.”
Then continue to do that and get you and yours to safety. Once you believe that ‘you and yours’ are out of –what you believe is in the path of harm–, notify everyone else with your or someone else comms.
Instead, RF being ‘unarmed’ with daughter in tow, chose to stay in a potentially ‘unconfirmed’ dangerous area to warn others –who we assume to be law abiding ‘unarmed on school property’ citizens.
Get you and your daughter/loved one the he77 out. If other peoples situational awareness is not enabled, it will soon be. Either after/during your trek to safety or post the beginning of an event.
You do not owe or have the responsibility to any other, than your own.
I wanted to edit the above post a could not. I needed to make my point a little clearer with a few words …
“and you call them,”
But the edit feature/button is no longer available. I ended up reposting with the additional text.
In advance, I do not apologize for this post.
I truly believe this post was a set-up and all of you fell in. If this was as RF stated …
” … picking up my 14-year-old from her middle school.”
Then continue to do that and get you and yours to safety. Once you believe that ‘you and yours’ are out of –what you believe is in the path of harm–, notify everyone else with your or someone else comms.
Instead, RF being ‘unarmed’ with daughter in tow, chose to stay in a potentially ‘unconfirmed’ dangerous area to warn others –who we assume to be law abiding ‘unarmed on school property’ citizens.
Get you and your daughter/loved one the he77 out. If other peoples situational awareness is not enabled, it will soon be. Either after/during your trek to safety. and you call them, or post the beginning of an event.
You do not owe or have the responsibility to any other, than your own.
All big time pro gun people I know don’t give a cr@pola whether carrying their handgun concealed is legal or not on school property when dropping /picking up their little ones! Also, if you are so worried about a biker driving by the school it’s time to think home-schooling imo. Who drives by the school when Mr Farago is NOT there? At some point you have to make decisions and quit being a sheep.
In my area all LEO agencies’ dispatchers (because you were most likely not speaking with “the police” but a civilian dispatcher) have immediate access to addresses with their terminals as long as you are able to name the place (business, school etc).
Assuming all the facts reported are correct, you were dealing with an incompetent dispatcher (maybe the whole agency is, that I don’t know). The officer never showed up simply because they were never informed, they never got the call (suspicious person…however they would have dispatched it).
I live in FL (gulf coast) and I trust and support LEO. However I didn’t wait the Parkland HS shooting to realize we don’t have a SWAT team and K9 unit at every block! I also know technology sometimes fail (dispatch, computer in patrol car…) and humans sometimes fail too. Home-schooling + conceal carry is my idea of adding a layer of safety. Firearms illegal on school grounds? Do you have to go through a metal detector and get a pat down when you drop/pick your daughter? I would conceal carry, they don’t have to know it, and if SHTF it’s where it should be not at home.
The guy snuck back there to burn one for the ride home man, you didn’t see his colors? Skelator Doobies MC
Interesting how many people take the side of a sketchy biker over reality. If you get a bad feeling from someone or something, it’s perfectly okay to be suspicious. It’s called a survival instinct. The above pictured biker and bike is likely just whatever a simple search yielded. Now while I would have acted differently, I don’t fault RF for being protective.
This is what you get when too much of your life experience and world view comes out of a television.
The truly amazing part of this story that no one is talking about is that only RF was alarmed. No one else seemed to have noticed this guy on his bike and if they did their spidey senses certainly didn’t work. I’m not impugning RF, I am simply pointing out that 99.999% of the general public kibitzes about totally clueless to their environment.
Personally I would have been armed. Unless I’m actually going INTO the school building, I do not disarm. I would have told my daughter to go to the car and I would have followed the biker and observed from a distance in order to determine if this person was a threat or not. But that’s me.
The important thing isn’t that it was an over-reaction. It is that the only way to have any chance to get off-site police to a shooting before people start getting killed is to over-react — to call before you are sure there is a threat. And even then, maybe it won’t get them there in time. There have to be guns in the hands of good guys on site.
^This^
Dispersed capability, resiliance, awareness, options gets you better results and lets you escalate slower. We don’t need more myrmidons deploying with “permission.” We need more skills spread around, informed initiative n ad-hoc communication.
The police and school personnel probably reacted the way they did because he probably wasn’t the first Snowflake that judged a book by its cover and called or notified them of the “scary” motorcyclist. If the police had come and stopped the motorcycle for looking suspicious, how is it any different than stopping a black driver in a white neighborhood for looking suspicious?
And yet, in reality, a biker like that is not really a threat to a school and children. Odds are much higher that it’s family members of other people at school.
Funny also, because the biker is a suspect at once, but any other person on site can go homicidal.
Over-reaction combined with discrimination. Well done.
C’mon, we all know the response time would be a bit faster if “pop-pop-pop” and screaming were going on. Nothing was happening, so urgency was not present on the part of responders. The point about pilice being minutes away when seconds count is valid, but what did you expect from some vague, milquetoast report? A montage of guys leaping down fire poles & hitting the Bat Signal? It’s a random, baseless complaint from a nervous nellie.
An article like this from a guy who laments “man with a gun” reports & SWATting…
If he’s on a Harley , odds are he’s a stock,broker or dentist .
This shows the reality of school shootings. It’s a belief that “It’s not going to happen here.” In a sense, that’s correct, dispute all the publicity and panicked claims, school shootings are rare.
When there is a suspicion that something might happen, the school staff doesn’t want to be pulled out of their routine. (“It’s not going to happen here.”) That someone had to “go find” the vice-principal, is strange. Very few schools don’t have staff carrying radios. Even fewer don’t have an announcement system. (It’s not going to happen here.” )
I have had at least one motorcycle for the last 40 some years, I understand bikers and “the look”.
Given today’s climate and the recent school shooting I think it prudent to consider the image I present when in or around a school.
Going to a place known to be heavily populated by anti’s, snowflakes, Moms Demand Action and brain washed kids it seems to me that to appear as a grey man would be the better option.
By law most schools are gun free (free fire) zones so I normally don’t hang around. I do occasionally have to pick up a grand kid. I don’t do it on my bike.
I don’t think every one is getting it, it is not the ‘Biker’. It is the fact that he chose to wear a mask, with no extra helmet, and parked around the corner. Along with the fact that no one volunteered that they had seen him before. Good going RF! If for no other reason, the guy was an idiot for not thinking what his actions would look like to others. Or maybe he was thinking, and thought it was fun. Either way, RF, you were on it, every one needs to be a little more aware of their surroundings now.
Se because its cold out, and RF didn’t see a second helmet, except he said he thought he saw a second helmet, sure, if he was really worried, it would have caused more than moseying around looking to talk to people.
So a funny thing happened, I noticed nothing was happening, so I thought I’d test out their preparedness by nonchalantly chatting folks up and then virtue signalling my tight tactical outlook to the POTG community.
This is slightly less bad than the guy who came on to complain about getting fired for the thing that wasn’t allowed and had been warned of, then did it again.
Police deal with these nonsense calls daily, that’s why they get to hate the general public. I’m sure the officer that was dispatched, his first thought was “Yea, I’ll get right on it after I handle these other 8 calls that have priority.
This is why cops become cynical towards the public and revert back to the first three rules they teach at the academy: #1 Never pass up a chance to use the restroom while on duty, #2 Solve no crime before there is overtime, #3. Payday is every other Friday.
Look, RF saw something out of the ordinary on multiple levels. Motorcycle rider at school (have you SEEN the way kids and parents drive in school parking lots and around schools in general??). No spare helmet (you may like taking chances, but if it’s your child, well, they are called brain buckets for a reason). Wanna be face mask. Parked in an odd place to pick up said child. No one in the lackadaisical office knew of anyone who rode a bike like that to school. All circumstantial. And enough to get you talked to by the police in most jurisdictions, if they saw it.
you’re not the police – stop pretending you are
i’m not convinced anything happened and you just didn’t make it up for clickbait
This was without a doubt the most paranoid and ridiculous piece I have ever read on TTAG.
I know Physicians who ride , wear those masks and look pretty rough on their way to work. Good hardworking Americans that are, as is trendy, enammered buy the rough and tumble biker look. You can not tell by looking at such things, the character of a person. Dear god, thinking back to my high school days , my Econ teacher was a “biker” and probably more of a decent guy than myself. My brother.. 4 tours with the 101st Airborne. Having spent his time in the killing fields of Afghan and Iraq is more passive than most of you all. But as a member of the Combat Verterans of America, looks pretty scary. My point? Your prejudice towards those with a different life style is overwhelmingly clear. And in your case the terrorists including those domestic shooters have won. They have turned you against Americans who don’t meet your expectations of normal. And a house decided will not stand. The school did not respond as you wanted because there was no threat. They have to deal with all walks of life and and realized that not every parent is going to show up in a mini van or SUV with stick figures in the back window. Pull yourself together, man up, and address your own fears with out judging others for recognizing that you are an bigoted idiot.
The redcoats will finally win if we allow gun control to continue.
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