![]() ![]() We talk about bikes and show off.” It seemed pretty straightforward.īut I still wanted to understand why they do it, considering that it’s illegal to ride dirt bikes in the streets of Baltimore, and dangerous - there have been crashes and violent altercations between dirt bike riders and other vehicles and serious collisions with pedestrians, but no deaths recorded this year, according to the Baltimore Police Department. Though I was timid when I first approached them, they were eager to be filmed. I walked around with a camera, asking people who weren’t from my neighborhood about them, and learned that they congregated at Druid Hill Park. I wanted to profile the riders for a documentary course I was taking. Maybe that wasn’t surprising: I was attending the Maryland Institute College of Art and living in Bolton Hill, an upper-middle-class white community that tries its best to isolate itself from the adjacent North Avenue, a low-income, African-American area. ![]() Like most others in my community, I didn’t know who or what they were. On the few occasions I did see them, they were gone in a flash. (Their name is in reference to the vertical position the riders attempt while pulling off wheelies.) The rev of their motors, even at a distance, was a regular addition to the constant soundscape of helicopters and sirens. Long before I actually saw any of the 12 O’Clock Boys, a notorious group of dirt bike riders in Baltimore, I heard them. Whatever going on t heir life.is all gone. They get on that bike.they feel powerful. To jump on a dirt bike and leave all that (shit) behind, with first, second gear, third gear, all that (shit) don’t mean nothin’? Yeah, we gonna ride. Hostile environments, anger, stress, depression, and, you know, dealing with this (shit) on the day to day, on a regular basis, you goin’ to have a negative (fuckin’) outcome. Because he’s getting in that training now, imagine when get older, what he going to be doin’.” It looks good when you little guy, real small, wheeling a bike. Slow motion of dirt bike riders, one is a young kid Your momma don’t know nothing, if your momma knew, your momma be standing there. Young kids doing wheelies on bicycles on the street and parking lot.ġ2 O’Clock Boys? Nah ah, you guys got bad parents. Something you love, you’re gonna do it anyway. I broke my collarbone, I fractured all my face, and my teeth came out. When I got hit, I hit the tree and got knocked unconscious. I was on a bike since I was about six or five. The cyclist then rides past a group of young African Americans on bicycles taking videos with their phones. Helicopter in the sky, the sounds of police sirensĪ motorcycle is doing wheelies on the street. TEXT CARD: Despite the dangers, the group continues to grow. We had bikes and we were just filming ourselves, playing with the camera, and then one day, I just jumped up and was like, “We’re going to make a group. We took the dirt bike thing from looking it at just as a bike.We took it to a whole ‘nother level. Slow Motion of dirt bike riders doing wheelies You walk outside, on the corner, you see hustlin’, shootin’, stabin’, selling drugs, killin’.one of the first things you see that you actually wanna do is ride a dirt bike. Steven is a veteran member of the 12 O’clock Boys. You will learn the right way to do all the wrong things in Baltimore City. Growing up in the city, you will see it all. ![]() Shots of various street corners and Steven in his truck. ![]() Frankly, I don’t care if one of them dies. It is illegal to ride dirt bikes on Baltimore streets. No one wants to say it because no one wants to take action because we have young black kids.they’re misbehaving. I mean these kids are just little bastards, these aren’t like nice kids, and listen the problem is, and I’m going to throw this out there, because they’re African American. If anyone out there has seen this, please call. I wanna know what we’re going to do about these little scumbags, on these dirt bikes, in our downtown. MONTAGE - Archival footage of 12 O’Clock Boys / chase scene between dirt bikes and police But to them, riding their bikes provides a sense of escape.įormer Police Commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department Transcript Riding With the 12 O’Clock Boys A group of dirt bike riders in Baltimore have been called reckless. ![]()
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