New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘Somebody’s got to do it’
Masked Maniax work to curb bad drivers around the city
NEW HAVEN — The Masked Maniax serve justice, not the law.
The quartet cycle around New Haven wearing all black masks and are on the lookout for reckless drivers, bad cops and civilian safety.
They’re enforcing justice on the bad drivers around the city, pulling them over for parking illegally, speeding, or endangering cyclists and pedestrians, members said. Their work outside the law is a cause in which the group’s founder is personally invested.
Sabir Abdussabur, the son of a former police officer, pedaled into action in 2014 after he was hit by an SUV while he was on his bike and was dragged along the street. Abdussabur said knowing how to react in that situation left him with a broken leg, but the incident could have killed somebody else.
He started solo, pulling over speeding cars, people who doubleparked in the street creating hazards for other drivers, or people driving recklessly, endangering pedestrians and cyclists.
He didn’t get a friendly reception at first. Initially, people tried to hit him with their cars and generally were angry when he pulled up to them. Eventually, though, police took notice of what he was doing, so when he pulled somebody over, a cop usually wasn’t far behind, he said.
“I would pull up on people telling them to move or it could be a cop coming by next; lo and behold, a few seconds later a cop pulls up telling them to move,” he said.
After a couple of years of riding, others donned the masks to join Abdussabur in his ride.
A group member who asked not to be named said what Abdussabur was doing intrigued him, so he put on his own mask to ride around like Abdussabur. Soon enough, Abdussabur chased him down and asked him to join the cause and “it’s a great volunteer job.”
“You can be in it only for the right reasons. Everyone has their own reason for doing this but you can’t be in it for self. You have to be in it for the community.” Sabir Abdussabur, the son of a former police officer and founder of the Masked Maniax
The newest member, Philip Damico, didn’t know how to ride a bike when he decided he wanted to get involved, but like others, the idea intrigued him.
“This is the thing that we do to give back,” Damico said.
“Everybody does it for a different reason but we’re all united under the cause of ‘somebody’s got to do it,’ ” Abdussabur said.
Four dedicated members, including the founder, make up the Masked Maniax now. They all hold fulltime day jobs, but once they’re off work, they’ll usually be riding around.
“You can be in it only for the right reasons,” Abdussabur said. “Everyone has their own reason for doing this but you can’t be in it for self. You have to be in it for the community.”
He said the group is significant because everywhere in the city there are people who recognize what they do.
The Masked Maniax aren’t the first civilians to take justice into their own hands.
Several groups working outside law enforcement have popped up in cities over the years in response to crimes.
Notable are the Guardian Angels, a civilian crimewatch group established by Curtis Sliwa in 1970s New York to patrol the subways, which at the time were rampant with crime. They rode the subways between the toughest stops, without weapons, to put a stop to muggings of people riding the trains.
The Guardian Angels spread to a number of cities, including Boston, Hartford and in New Haven for a number of years.
Elsewhere, the Rain City Superheroes based out of Seattle were led from 201114 by Ben Fodor, known by his superhero persona Phoenix Jones. Though discouraged by police, the “crime prevention brigade” dressed in fullcostume to intervene in assaults. The members were known to have military or martial arts experience and carried Tasers, nightsticks and pepper spray, but no firearms or illegal weapons, according to a Hearst Media publication.
Asked to comment on the Masked Maniax in New Haven, police spokesman Capt. Anthony Duff said only, “We are not aware of any complaints.”
The Maniax focus on traffic patrol, but aren’t armed and don’t get involved in taking on violent crime.
“If we do encounter other criminal stuff we have a protocol of, ‘if you can handle it, handle it. If you can’t, know where the cops are,’” Abdussabur said. “But we traditionally don’t even really communicate with cops.”
The Maniax are clear they aren’t an arm of the Police Department and don’t want to be.
“We don’t deal with the department as a whole, but we respect certain officers we know have good character and morals and are for the community and are for what we do,” Abdussabur said. “There’s a lot of cops that are not for what we do.”
He said in the first two years by himself, police pulled him over on average 30 times a year for any number of reasons — someone calling about a suspicious person, reporting he had a gun or a bomb — but over the last five years it’s gotten easier.
“It’s way easier now that we’re recognized more,” Abdussabur said. “In New Haven, none of us have been pulled over by cops while we’re in uniform in the last two years.”
They don’t have authority to give out tickets, but the Maniax said they’re more interested in getting people to understand how they’re in the wrong so they don’t hurt somebody in the future.
The Maniax will pull up to a driver after they’ve nearly hit somebody in the moment they’re processing what just happened, Abdussabur said.
“You just pull up on them and say, ‘Hey, you saw what just happened, you need to do better, here’s how,’” he said.
Once Abdussabur pulled up to a woman who was parked by a fire hydrant to tell her she was parked illegally and at risk of getting hit should a truck drive around the corner. Getting her to move was as simple as asking her. Other times, the Maniax are telling people to turn their lights on at night.
In combination with patrolling for traffic violators, the Maniax are on the lookout for cops potentially abusing their power and have patrolled rallies held against police violence.
Passersby frequently recognize the Masked Maniax and in the span of an hour while downtown on a recent Friday night, four people excitedly stopped to say hello.
Members said the recognition helps.
Once a driver and a drunk pedestrian were going to get into a fight because the drunk person spit on the driver’s car, Abdussabur said. He pulled up to defuse the fight, telling them both go home, and once the drunk pedestrian recognized the Masked Maniax, he quietly left, he said.
Early on, he’d tell people they have to move but they saw him as having no authority. But now it’s a different story.
“We can pull up on a car and they know what that means — you’re in a bad spot, you need to move,” Abdussabur said. “Same thing with officers. They know what it means — you messed up. We’re not out here because you didn’t mess up.”
One member said on a good day they won’t have to intervene with drivers at all, so the Maniax are just out there having a good time riding around.
On what motivates them to do it, one member said it’s their respect to the city.
“I like to believe we fill the need for a different kind of community watch or block watch,” Abdussabur said. “It also fills the need of providing an example of how diverse and accepting New Haven is. I like to think New Haven has accepted us and it speaks to the tolerance of the city to how we function.”