Yes, you can definitely (and reasonably) criticize Sung Ho Cho for riding his bike in New York’s Ft. Washington Park after dark. But he’s a New Yorker with all of the rights and privileges pertaining thereto. And in exchange, he’d apparently bought into the Bloomberg/Kelly party line that the police are there to protect you, which means you have no need to carry a firearm. After all, they’re always only minutes away. What can possibly happen in that short a time? According to nydailynews.com, “Cho was riding on the Hudson River Greenway near W. 164th St. after sunset on Aug. 24 when he was sent flying to the ground by a clothesline that thieves had set up between two trees.” . . .
Cho said three men beat him until he was semiconscious. One attacker even used brass knuckles, causing serious lacerations.
“I’m thinking, ‘I’m bleeding to death,’ ” Cho, 40, of Fort Lee, N.J., told the Daily News, showing off a grotesque rope scar on his neck. “I didn’t know if I was going to make it or not. Thank God I’m alive.”
Cho said three men beat him until he was semiconscious. One attacker even used brass knuckles, causing serious lacerations.The News piece details other similar attacks that have taken place in the same area, all after dark. All tell similar stories. All except one.
One cyclist said he wishes the thieves would come for him — because he’d have a surprise for them.
“I ride with my gun,” said Jose Urena, 44, a Corrections officer from the Bronx. “It’s very scary on this path at night. That’s why I never leave my gun behind.”
It’s nice that as a corrections officer, Urena has the option of armed self defense that’s denied the majority of his fellow New Yorkers. Meanwhile, Cho’s found himself an attorney and is suing the city over the lack of police protection in the park.
“They created this situation that was completely unsafe,” said Cho’s lawyer, Rosemarie Arnold. “They set the stage for this robbery to occur. They wrote the script for this assault and the attackers just played the part.”
And Cho is prepared to play his, too.
“I would not go back on that trail again at night unless I had a firearm with me,” he said.
Good luck with that, Mr. Cho.
Let me see. What word do I have to change to get this past Mr. Arbitrary Spam Filter? Because he gobbled it TWICE.
“Cho’s found himself an attorney and is suing the city over the lack of police protection in the park.”
(Laughter – not what was originally here). I’m really feeling his frustration. Obviously the route was crawling with An Why See’s Finest every other time he rode through there!
Good luck indeed. Mr. Cho should run for Mayor. Only the self anointed “people of importance” are allowed to carry.
And, he won’t win. Various cases have established that the police don’t have a duty to protect you. If he goes back to the trail with a gun, he’ll be in violation of the law. He’d be better off fighting the law.
What his attorney is trying to do, based on the wording of his statement, is to finesse this issue by contending that there was a “dangerous condition of public property” that was the direct proximate cause of his injury (you know, like a crack in the sidewalk that you trip over and break your arm), a dangerous condition the city “created” by having inadequate lighting and inadequate police protection. Unfortunately for him, this song has been Sung before–unsuccessfully.
^ I see what you did there
Nicely done, Mark.
IANAL.
But his attorney has a case. Filing a lawsuit against a gun manufacturer because someone shot you is a losing case. But filing a lawsuit because a gun manufacturer produced a gun with a known fault that could have been the reason you were shot….. you have a case.
His attorney is not saying that the police have a duty to respond or that as a taxpayer he has an expectation of police protection. Those are losing cases. The very nuanced position his attorney is advancing has a chance. Undoubtedly, it will be an uphill battle. But it is worth a day in court.
If Walmart, Costco, Target, whatever… .chose to ban guns on their premises, that is certainly within their rights as property owners. But as public merchants, they have the inherent responsibility to ensure the safety of the occupants. If someone gets shot, robbed, or assaulted inside your imposed “gun-free zone”, then you are liable. Your company should have adequate safeguards in place to ensure compliance with your policy.
Now, it is a jump in legal logic to hold a govt entity liable for their actions. But it is a battle that must be fought.
If Mr. Cho wants to exercise his fundamental right to defend himself, unfortunately his best bet for now is to leave NYC and emigrate to the United States of America.
+1
It sounds as if he was surprised, knocked off his bike to the ground and ambushed by thieves, before he would have had a chance to present a weapon. Aren’t we supposed to avoid getting within contact distance?
No wait… Some guy in Florida managed to draw and fire to defend himself, while on his back and being beaten. Maybe it would work after all.
Come now, using evidence? We are trying to have a common sense gun discussion here involving emotions, feelings, and firearms knowledge gleaned from Hollywood. Bad form, good sir.
He lives in Ft. Lee, NEW JERSEY, biking in NYC. Short ride over the GWB. Those 2 bastions of 2A rights. No gun for him, ever.
And exactly what was a guy from the other side of the Hudson doing riding his bikey in a park in the Bronx at night? Trolling for a hefty settlement from the City perhaps??? Or did he have a death wish? He could have been better served biking along the Palisades. This smells like the Fulton Fish Market to me.
He was biking along the Hudson River, in Manhattan. This is a short bike ride across the George Washington Bridge from Ft. Lee, NJ. Much easier than the climb back up from the Palisades. The correction officer was from the Bronx, being interviewed in Manhattan. The reading comprehension on the web is shocking. At least you get the fact he lives in NJ, and didn’t tell him to move out of NYC.
Your reading comprehension also seems less than perfect. Sure he’s from Ft. Lee, and has to cross the Hudson River (via GWB) to get to where he was mugged. Not a walk in the Cloisters, if you get my drift. That’s a trip, and the way back is uphill too, last time I WAS THERE. And yes, I noticed the CO was from the Bronx, which means little if anything. There’s the Bronx, and there’s the Bronx.
I was a Columbia undergraduate quite some years ago, and the first thing we learned in freshman orientation was, stay out of the park – any park – and don’t go out alone anywhere off campus after dark. I don’t know how long Mr. Cho was a resident of New York or where he got the idea that this was the Peaceable Kingdom, but it’s a hard way to learn a basic lesson.
He’s from Jersey. Ft. Lee exit.
There’s a saying, “When you’re kind to the cruel, you’re being cruel to the kind.”
Disarming the kind, in the face of the cruel, should be a crime against humanity.
Setting up a clothes line between two trees makes it sound like these criminals
were, dare I say, hunting? Didn’t some irresponsible Congresswoman say that
George Zimmerman hunted down Trayvon Martin and shot him like an animal?
I doubt if any of the redoubtable elites will venture a peep about this incident.
What do you suppose the unnecessary death toll is in NY city from liberal policy?
Communism’s Black Book of Death should be amended to give fair credit to the
cruel, whose hands now hold the controls of modern liberalism, aka, Murder Inc.
I’ve been clothes lined, and it will definitely leave you flat and winded. But you could still draw if needed unless you carry in the small of your back. Best would be ankle as the first thing you do when winded like this is a fetal curl.
As is said, better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6. Even in New York.
Ankle holster wouldn’t be a good idea while riding a bike. I certainly don’t bike in pants, and having your 1lb gun spinning around at 60rpm’s would probably hurt after a while. Those jogger belly bands would probably be your best bet when doing anything remotely active.
I think this falls firmly in the “stupid places” category. That sucks. I’ve been clothelined, but by someone’s arm…not an actual line, that’s gotta smart something fierce. To make matters worse they beat him down with brass knuckles? Sheesh. WTF is wrong with people?
In Tampa today we had some dude invade 5 homes, rape 4 women while their boyfriends lie bound, he then held hostage a group of 25 people at a party near USF shooting his gat into the floor, shoot at some poor dude trying to get into his house, then get in a car chase, shoot at the police and finally get gunned down by US Marshals…and people wonder why we prefer to be armed. That’s more than 30 shoulda been a DGU’s stemming from one asshole.
but but but but…brass knuckles are illegal!!!!
Correct! Sullivan Act. That means they don’t exist.
Cho survived precisely because he was unarmed. duh…..
It’s nice that as a corrections officer, Urena has the option of armed self defense that’s denied the majority of his fellow New Yorkers.
The above arrogance from a member of the NY City nomenklatura is quite common. That’s why free states should specifically exclude NY City CCW holders from any sort of reciprocity. While I’m sure there are some good people who would be hurt by this, the majority of Bloomberg’s Crew should be considered the moral equivalent of drunken KGB officers.
Trust me. As an upstate NYer, you don’t want this trash carrying in your red, free states.
Perhaps he intends to go directly after Sullivan?
Nonsense like this is likely why I’m grateful people from where Mohammad Atta and co.hailed, have plenty of more children, while the monkeys making policy in NYC abort theirs.
I was clotheslined once from a bicycle by of all things a garden hose stretched across the bottom of a steep driveway. Even with the give of the hose and the fact that the initial impact was across my chest when that thing slid up, caught under my chin and ripped me off the bike I thought I was going to die right there. Now, I was about 10, and every case is different, but I honestly think I was incapacitated for at least 15-20 seconds. I suppose I’m giving kudos to the thieves plan, it’s brilliant, that is, in a place where no one is legally allowed to be armed at least. Around here that kind of crap would get you killed.
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