Road take-over by bicyclists in Mid-City leads to vandalism, prompts investigation
By Rob Hayes
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MID-CITY, LOS ANGELES, California (KABC) — The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating a vandalism case that may be related to a frightening road rage incident involving a white Mercedes-Benz and dozens of bicyclists in the Mid City area on Saturday.
Videos posted on social media show the driver of a white, C-class Mercedes sedan weaving in and out of a crowd of bicyclists who had filled three westbound lanes of Olympic Boulevard near Highland Avenue.
That driver came close to striking the cyclists several times during the incident.
LAPD was called but when officers arrived, the crowd of cyclists and the driver of the car were gone.
Later that afternoon, LAPD says it received a vandalism complaint involving that same Mercedes near Wilshire and La Brea. A video posted to X shows a group of people jumping on and kicking the car as it sat parked.
LAPD is investigating that case, but said no complaint has been filed.
Damian Kevitt, the Executive Director of Streets Are For Everyone (S.A.F.E.), called the original incident with the crowd of bicyclists “crazy.”
“As a driver you have to think with the fact that if you hit a cyclist, they’re going to lose,” Kevitt told Eyewitness News. “And maybe technically it won’t be your fault, but is that worth it to know that you just seriously injured or killed a cyclist because you were frustrated?”
Kevitt also criticized the bike riders, saying that taking over an entire direction of a road is not only unsafe and rude, but illegal.
“Cyclists have a right to be in a lane,” he explained. “They actually have the right to take a full lane of traffic, but not ride all over the entire road.”
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