Maxina Ventura – January 29, 2019
Subject: HIT AND RUN AT DURANT AND TELEGRAPH
From: beneficialbug@sonic.net
To: Jacquelyn McCormick <robleroad@gmail.com>, James Mcfadden <jpmcfadden925@yahoo.com>, Sustainable Berkeley Coalition <sustainable-berkeley-coalition@googlegroups.com>, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin <mayor@cityofberkeley.info>, Berkeley City Manager <manager@cityofberkeley.info>, Susan Wengraf <swengraf@cityofberkeley.info>, Ben Bartlett <bbartlett@cityofberkeley.info>, Sophie Hahn <shahn@cityofberkeley.info>, rkesarwani@cityofberkeley.info, Cheryl Davila <cdavila@cityofberkeley.info>, Kate Harrison <kharrison@cityofberkeley.info>, “rrobinson@cityofberkeley.info. Lori Droste” <ldroste@cityofberkeley.info>Cc: Berkeley-Disabled <Berkeley-Disabled@yahoogroups.com>, Andrea Prichett <prichett@locrian.com>
To all whom I hope will be concerned:
Tuesday, 3/22/19, the day of the march in protest of decimation of healthy trees in People’s Park, maybe 40 of us gathered and headed out of the park to go down Telegraph to UC first day of classes, to let people know what had occurred. We had two massive banners, one at the front, and one at the back of the march. It was a perfectly peaceful march until a young driver for whatever reason (entitlement? Out-of-control and not fit to be on the road? Perhaps drugged?) headed into the back of the march at the intersection of Durant and Telegraph. Suddenly, I heard shouting such as, “What the hell are you doing?” and “Stop! Stop!”. Our little march was a bit spread out and I was maybe in the front third. I was maybe 50 feet north of Durant. Obviously, something bad was happening and I tried to get to the intersection as quickly as possible. I was trying to get down the sidewalk full of students and others so I did not witness him driving into Jake’s bike and totaling it, but once I got back to the NW corner of Durant and Telegraph, I heard Tony howling in pain. Jake came up from the curb cut and said this guy had rammed into his bike and that, he’d had to jump out of the way to avoid being run over himself. His bike was completely mangled. The fork of the bike was bent far out of shape, as was the front wheel, which clarified the speed/velocity of the driver in the car. Jake was holding part of the car’s fender which had fallen off after the driver smashed the bike.
When I had turned from where I was north of the intersection, I saw this driver stopping and starting (like a bucking bronco) and then I saw him turn the wrong way onto Durant. By the time I got closer to the intersection I saw the driver hop the curb and then when I got to Durant I saw people trying to block this person after he’d driven over Tony’s feet. They were yelling at him to stop, and people were yelling, “Get his license plate number!” Finally, this out-of-control driver succeeded in careening down the street wrong way, past anyone trying to stop him.
Several of us stayed around well past Tony being taken by ambulance. We were trying to give witness statements and most of the cops there were beyond uninterested. I was stressing the out-of-control aspect of this driver’s actions. Totally impatient with a little march (probably 40 of us). I was pointing out that when I taught my 3 young people to drive I stressed again and again that if something’s going on, just pull over and cool out before ever getting on the road again.
I waited and waited to give a witness statement. Let me stress here that, these cops were not calling out anything such as, “If you witnessed, please stay and give us a statement.” I basically had to foist myself upon them to get them even to take a statement. I cannot emphasize enough that though there were a few around, they were not actively trying to take statements, only relenting when people said we needed them to take our statements. But in what I saw that Jacquelyn McCormack sent out, you’d have no way of knowing what went on, in spite of people trying to get info to the people who are supposed to be taking statements. There was a sense of hostility from the cops. Someone had just been run over and they didn’t want to be bothered.
I was giving a statement to two cops, and the one said in a harsh way, as though to be interrogating me, someone who’d waited around for quite awhile to give a statement, something like, “What’s your contact info?” I gave him my business card which has on it my phone number and my website info. He demanded my address. You tell me why he would need that? But I have nothing to hide, so gave it, and he walked away as I was trying to give them both my statement.
Here’s what struck me:
– They showed zero compassion about Tony
– They showed zero compassion about Jake losing his means to his work
– They showed zero interest as I talked about witnessing this person stopping and starting, bucking, obviously out of control
– They showed zero interest in my describing seeing this guy jump the curb, though I did not witness him actually running over Tony since there were so many people on the sidewalk at that NW corner of the Durant intersection. Tony was sitting on the ground, but I could see the car as the driver was speeding across the sidewalk before jumping back into the street (wrong direction)
– They showed zero interest in listening to Jake as he described how he would have been run over, too, had he not jumped out of the way. He tried to hand the cop the piece of the car fender which had fallen off when the driver smashed into his bike. He certainly showed zero compassion for Jake’s distress over losing his means to working for his job.
The one who stayed around when the other one had walked off after interrogating ME about my address, showed zero interest in hearing my description of this driver being obviously out of control, and even less interest as I tried to get him to understand this from a mother’s point of view. I explained that, as a person who’s taught my children basic driving skills, I feel it’s important to stress that this person made every mistake on the books, completely totaling the bike of someone who uses it for his work (and lucky that guy jumped out of the way), and more importantly careening over a sidewalk and running over a human being’s shins/feet. Tony was in dire pain, moaning, howling in pain. And this guy careened down Durant the wrong way once he drove back off the sidewalk.
– HOW DO I COME TO THE CONCLUSION THERE WAS NO INTEREST? IN SPITE OF MY EXPLAINING WHY IT WAS IMPORTANT TO INCLUDE NOTES ABOUT WHAT I EXPERIENCED AS A PARENT WHO’S TAUGHT KIDS TO DRIVE, AND WHAT I SAW BOTH FROM ABOUT 50 FEET AWAY, AND THEN FROM THE NW CORNER AND THEN RIGTH BY TONY, HE TOOK NEXT TO NO NOTES, AND AS FAR AS I COULD SEE, DID NOT TAKE MY NAME. THE OTHER ONE DID BUT WALKED OFF, BUT IF THEY ACTUALLY INTERVIEWED 14 PEOPLE, ARE THEY GOING TO MATCH NOTES ABOUT WHICH NAMES GO WITH WHICH STATEMENTS? HE WAS TOTALLY DISMISSIVE AND YOU MIGHT ASK HIM WHY. NO STATEMENTS ON PAPER ALLOW A COMPLETELY OUTRAGEOUS REPORTING AND THEN ACCEPTANCE BY THE CITY. YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU’RE WORKING WITH HERE
No wonder other city people have no clue what happened. Yes, Tony is black and homeless and disabled. Apparently some of those who run this town see him as expendable, because that is how at least a couple of the cops acted, and how dismissive some city people were when they got a report. A younger cop seemed to be trying to take down some notes from some others, but if he wrote anything that told the story of what actually had gone on, it seems not to have been included. And nothing from my statement was included in what went out to city people. The idea of collecting witness statements is to put together a full picture of what occurred. The cops were completely negligent, and some apologist parent is helped to let his out-of-control son apparently get completely off the hook.
– PLEASE INTERVENE AND DO NOT LET THIS KID JUST WALK AWAY. THE DAD BLAMING OTHERS FOR DAMAGE TO HIS CAR? WOW! MAYBE MAKE THE KID PAY FOR THAT $2000 THE DAD SAYS IS THE COST OF DAMAGE.
Consider that THE DAD MADE TIME THAT VERY DAY TO GET THE CAR ASSESSED FOR DAMAGE COST BUT APPARENTLY, HAS NO INTEREST IN THE PEOPLE HIS SON HAS DAMAGED
– PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS BE THE OUTCOME OF SUCH GREAT ENTITLEMENT. WE DO NOT WANT THIS KID ON THE ROAD. HIS LICENSE SHOULD BE YANKED, ANGER MANAGEMENT THERAPY SHOULD BE ORDERED, AND THE FAMILY NEEDS TO TAKE CARE OF THE DAMAGED INDIVIDUALS. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR SON, Mister
So many disabled people are hit in this town by drivers texting, altered by Wifi and GPS/WLAN (here’s an excellent short video of an experiment from Mainz University in Germany: https://vimeo.com/244746945 ) and in this case who knows what other factors are at play, but the father’s reaction as reported makes very clear that, he believes his son, and apparently cannot imagine his son doing anything bad, or is a complete enabler of his son doing anything he pleases.
Some of the powers-that-be seem to be conspiring NOT to look at the truth, and NOT to hold accountable an out-of-control young person who runs over a human being and then does what? Blames people for marching to demand an end to the decimation of the trees in a park? We’ve had decades of trying to hold off the university’s disingenuous moves to encroach on the park, the needed green space and meeting space of thousands over decades (we’re hitting 50 in April). Just as a reminder, UC owns a lot of Berkeley and has many places to plunk down YES… needed housing. It does not have to be there, just like their tennis courts didn’t need to be there (and are a block away), just like their volleyball courts were not wanted by actual users of the park (UC PAID UC students to play volleyball there in ’91 as no one else would. They wanted media saying it was needed. Eventually, we succeeded in getting the world’s biggest litterbox out of the park.
The lie UC keeps stating is many decades old: students don’t use the park. When I hear anyone say that, I know they are unlikely ever to have set foot in the park. Because students are out there all the time enjoying the grass, the sun, the shaded areas (so much less shade now).
Let me register here that, I am completely offended at the negligence and at the seeming lack of any compassion for a lot of people threatened with harm, with one whose work life is harmed and could have massive emotional harm at being so nearly run over himself, and above all for a person already facing really tough circumstances (he’s homeless, he’s disabled, he’s black) who was run over, was in tremendous pain, and while he was turned back out onto the streets from the ER, probably will suffer longterm soft-tissue damage which could further complicate his life.
Sincerely, Maxina Ventura
2304 Roosevelt Ave. #4
Berkeley 94703 900-1160
This is what I just [sent] to a bunch of city people. — Max