Kids on bikes assault, steal on Providence streets

As many as 100 kids on bicycles — many of them JUMP rental bikes — wreaked havoc on Providence streets Thursday afternoon, blocking traffic, stealing snacks from a Dollar Tree and randomly assaulting people, police said.

On Friday night, officers were contending with more two-wheeled hooliganism at India Point Park.

The incidents come as police have noted an increase in the use of JUMP bikes in violent crimes.

JUMP, owned by the app-based car-hailing service Uber, charges riders to use the electric-assisted bicycles. But people have somehow compromised the bikes — by simply breaking off a lock, one teenager has reported — to disable the payment system and the pedal-assist functions. That turns them into free regular bikes, which are now turning up in the river, along city streets and, frequently enough, in Providence police reports.

"It really has to be a shared response with the company," said Col. Hugh T. Clements Jr., chief of the Providence police. "They can’t just sit back — and I don’t think they will. There has to be a response from the company, because a lot of these are JUMP bikes."

Clements said that so far, he's been bothered by the company's failure to provide "even a minimal level of protection as to who’s driving the bikes."

"That’s their responsibility," Clements said. "If they’re putting the bikes out in the community, they should have a more definitive way of ensuring who is operating the bike."

Law enforcement is stretched thin, but the police won't wait for a scheduled meeting with the company to aggressively enforce the law, Clements said.

"We have a lot of challenges in this city, but this is another one," Clements said, adding that the company would not survive in the city as the program is currently being operated.

A spokesman for JUMP said in an email Friday: “These reports are concerning and something we take very seriously. We are supporting the active law enforcement investigations.”

The issue came to a head in Thursday's so-called "Rideout," which was organized on social media and began in Kennedy Plaza before spreading out to different parts of the city, police said.

One victim, a 36-year-old man, told police he was standing in a parking lot on South Water Street when a large group of juveniles on their bikes started riding up the street. He told them not to block the street, police said in a report; the juveniles responded by circling back to him and punching him in the face, police said. A nearby patrolman and other bystanders intervened, but the assailants fled on their bikes.

The victim had a cut on his lip and was bleeding from his nose and ear, police said. He was taken to Rhode Island Hospital.

A 28-year-old woman told police she was leaving the parking lot at her work on South Water Street when about 100 kids on bikes came up the middle of the street. Some of them hit her parked car’s side mirrors and opened and closed her car doors; she got out, and one of them slammed the driver’s side door into her, hitting her in the head, police said. She suffered a bruise on one ear and a cut on the other.

Over the course of the afternoon, some of the juveniles were taken into custody as they rode downtown near Providence Place and the train station and other areas.

Commander Thomas Verdi said police are reviewing evidence, including video, to make further arrests of anyone involved in the assaults.

“It’s outrageous and egregious,” Commander Verdi said. “It’s not going to be tolerated."

At about 3:30 p.m., two hours after the first reports of the group, police got a report about more than 50 people on bikes causing a disturbance near the Killingly Street Dollar Tree.

A store manager said 15 people came in the store, 10 of whom stole numerous snacks, about $85 worth, and fled on their bikes. The store manager and other people held back the front door to keep other people from opening it.

A patrolman on his way to the Dollar Tree spotted several people on bikes dipping in and out of traffic on Hartford Avenue toward Glenbridge Avenue. The patrolman activated his overhead lights and sirens, scattering some of the suspects; one juvenile was taken into custody.

Not all of the suspects in Thursday's mayhem were on JUMP bikes, but several recent police reports from over the summer mention JUMP-riding suspects in robberies, assaults or mass shoplifting incidents.

On July 11, for instance, police reported a shoplifting at the 7-Eleven on Smith Street, when a group of 10 people who’d been on JUMP bikes walked in, threw products around and stole numerous items.

On July 13, police investigating a breaking-and-entering into a vacant home reported that several suspects had used JUMP bikes, one of whom had what appeared to be a gun. Police later arrested two people — their names are redacted from a police report, indicating that they are juveniles — one of whom had a replica Glock firearm.

On July 25, a man said he was robbed by someone on a JUMP bike while he was walking near Fountain Street.

On July 30, two males were on the steps of a man’s neighbor’s house. When the man asked them what they were doing, he said, one of them pointed a gun at him before they fled on JUMP bikes.

On Aug. 9, a man said he was hit in the head with a gun by a man on a JUMP bike on Waldo Street.