Black mob violence and black on white crime has not destroyed the entire American Tobacco Trail for bikers and hikers.
Only the small chunk that goes through Durham, North Carolina.
The high crime part. The gang-infested part. The poor part. The urban part. The sketchy part. The part that local media calls every name imaginable except one: The black part.
Otherwise, most of the 22.5 miles of this trail is a safe, sometimes bucolic experience for runners, bikers, strollers and even equestrians. As long as they stay away from the trail near Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.
Since 2011, dozens of people have been beaten, robbed, pushed off bikes and threatened in that part of the trail. All of the suspects in this violence and mayhem are black.733Though most of the time the local media is loathe to say so. In the most recent assault, WRAL TV described one of the assailants as having a “dark complexion.”
This assault happened in 2013: An unknown number of black people sent a 53-year old man to the hospital after robbing him and beating him with a big stick. Other than saying the crime took place on the part of the trail about a mile north of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, police are not giving out much more information.734
But there is not much to say that police haven’t said more than 40 times since 2011:
In July 2013, a roller blader and a jogger were robbed by a man holding a gun. There are lots more both here and on other hiking and biking trails around the country. Let’s take a look.