Least Surprising Thing Ever: Manhattan Speedster Afroduck Arrested

from the told-you dept

Well, that didn't take long. Remember that jackwagon that sped around Manhattan in a mega-illegal time-window of just over twenty-four minutes? Remember how he was all: pssh, you can't identify me! Remember how Ray Kelly decided to declare his own personal war on a man named Afroduck, proving that reality is way more insane than anything you can think of from Adult Swim?

Yeah, he got busted, and it only took a day or so.

ABC 7 News was on hand to see Afroduck get taken into custody early this morning at the 25th Precinct in East Harlem. They report that [Christopher Adam] Tang is 30 years old. He gives no comment to the reporters, and he smiles.
The report goes on to say that no details were given on how they found Tang or tied him to the dash cam video he uploaded, but when Ray Kelly boasted that they have license plate cameras for that kind of thing, he wasn't lying. Commenters in the original piece noted that the fact Tang wasn't pulled over as he went about his speed run seemed like a complete lack of police presence, but there's no shortage of license plate and traffic cams.

It will be interesting to see how an arrest based so heavily on evidence from this kind of technology, assuming we don't learn of some other method for the identification of Tang, is used in court. Until then, stop making speed runs in the country's largest city.

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Filed Under: afroduck, nypd, ray kelly, speeding, youtube


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  • icon
    Alias (profile), 6 Sep 2013 @ 3:57pm

    It will be interesting to see if they convict based upon the fact that you can't tell who the actual driver is during the run.

    Sure you are responsible for parking tickets on your car, but drivers are responsible for their own behavior while in said car, or so I was led to believe. So, if they can't prove who was driving, how do they convict this guy?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      pixelpusher220 (profile), 6 Sep 2013 @ 4:14pm

      Re:

      They don't generally, they just issue you a fine that your car was being operated in a reckless manner. No points since that's an individual's license and hard to prove.

      Now, if the speed cameras show his car going through a particular section of street at X mph and his video shows him at that place and time, now they have a way to put HIM at the place and time of the violation.

      Still I don't like them keeping video and data like this (as has been discussed numerous times here) to be able to go back in time and see if you committed a crime that they didn't catch you doing at the time.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 6 Sep 2013 @ 4:58pm

        Re: Re:

        What if he claims a friend was driving at the time, and that he wasn't actually the one that broke the record after all?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 6 Sep 2013 @ 6:09pm

          Re: Re: Re:

          Yeah, the best thing about "Reasonable Doubt" is that the key operative is "reasonable".

          Saying "I did it" under a persona that can be directly linked to yourself, and then saying "It was actually an anonymous friend whom I shall never name, but I just pretended it was me" is not reasonable doubt.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous, 6 Sep 2013 @ 3:59pm

    Finding Tang is easy...at least, the orange flavor. Now if only I could find this Poon Tang I keep hearing people talk about...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Sep 2013 @ 4:06pm

    Wait... what?

    Did someone say 30-year-old Tang?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Sep 2013 @ 4:52pm

    I'll just get this one out of the way...

    Tang was only able to complete his speedrun because he was light-skinned. A dark-skinned man driving around the island of Manhattan would be stopped and searched an average of fifteen times, regardless of the actual speed he was driving.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous, 7 Sep 2013 @ 3:53pm

      Re: I'll just get this one out of the way...

      An average of fifteen times? They must be pretty inefficient if they couldn't find the dope, Uzi, shank, and someone else's car stereo the first time.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jhn, 6 Sep 2013 @ 5:19pm

    Factual issues aren't actually that tough

    Cops just had to say they think it was probably him driving. Then it's up to the judge or jury to make the call as to who they believe n

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 6 Sep 2013 @ 6:45pm

      Re: Factual issues aren't actually that tough

      That only applies to civil cases. Criminal charges have a "slightly" higher onus on the evidence.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Sep 2013 @ 7:51pm

    Stupid criminal brags to friend. Police offer small reward. "Friend" makes some money. I wouldn't be surprised the least if this was all human stupidity without any tech involved.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Sep 2013 @ 11:31pm

    I hope he ends up let off not because of innocence but because it would be hillarious to hear Ray Kelly's sputter in rage about his Nemesis Afroduck or Tang, really both work for silliness.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Sep 2013 @ 1:39am

    Good deal.

    I only say that because it's all fun and games until someone ends up dead.

    I drove a semi for a few years and witnessed countless collisions. I saw everything from people not paying attention, tailgating, showing off, driving while tired, driving intoxicated, speeding, being impatient, and pretty much every bad habit you can think of.

    I saw an eight year old girl ran over from a guy sending a text while speeding in stormy weather and it ended up leaving a 4 inch hole in her head, a leg torn completely off, and mangled beyond recognition. It was the worst thing I've ever seen in my life and it still haunts me today.

    The rules of the road exist for very good reasons and someone breaking them also ended up almost killing me while I was 5. I was tossed through the windshield almost 120 feet when hit by a speeder doing 80 mph in a 25 mph zone. I should have probably died but by some freak of nature I walked away with minor injuries.

    Well okay not freak according to my grandma, she said it was because I was so goddamn hardheaded.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    btr1701 (profile), 7 Sep 2013 @ 2:04pm

    Idiot

    All he had to do was take his tags off during the speed run and his crime would be complete!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Joe2, 9 Sep 2013 @ 8:17pm

      Re: Idiot

      Or stole/faked plates. Hmm, ALPR's work both ways. A less lawful individual could find a bunch of cars that look similar and use a LCD panel and LASER printed bar codes... Not that any speed racers out there would break the law. No siree!

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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